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Forums
4hv.org :: Forums :: Tesla Coils
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Radioactive Tesla coil breakoff point.

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Thomas W
Mon Oct 13 2014, 09:37AM Print
Thomas W Registered Member #3324 Joined: Sun Oct 17 2010, 06:57PM
Location:
Posts: 1276
 		Hello all,

Recently I have been speculating upon a certain idea. After watching a YouTube video of someone placing a radioactive element near a spark gap and getting it to fire due to the ionizing radiation. I was curious. How would this work when it came to a tesla coil breakout point. Could there be any interesting effects?
More interesting, if you put an actual pointy breakout pin on one side of a tesla coil, and a small radioactive isotope on the other, which will it choose to arc from?

I don't actually have a tesla coil (yet) or said radioactive isotope, but I'm sure a few of you out there have both! Would anyone be interested in giving it a try?

Regards,
Thomas
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dexter
Mon Oct 13 2014, 10:52AM
dexter Registered Member #42796 Joined: Mon Jan 13 2014, 06:34PM
Location:
Posts: 195
 		it all depends on how much and what type of radiation that isotope emits because so far a pointy breakout is well capable of ionizing the air.
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Sulaiman
Mon Oct 13 2014, 12:02PM
Sulaiman Registered Member #162 Joined: Mon Feb 13 2006, 10:25AM
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 3140
 		Unless you want radioactive dust floating around, I would NOT try it !
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Steve Conner
Mon Oct 13 2014, 12:48PM
Steve Conner Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706
 		You could try a thoriated tungsten TIG welding electrode, but I doubt the improvement would be worth the risk of radioactive dust.
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Sigurthr
Mon Oct 13 2014, 04:45PM
Sigurthr Registered Member #4463 Joined: Wed Apr 18 2012, 08:08AM
Location: MI's Upper Peninsula
Posts: 597
 		Ditto on Sulaiman's point.

Also, I have tried thoriated tig electrodes as breakout points, and they work fine, but perform no better than non-radioactive breakouts. The reason being is that the thoriation helps with thermionic emission and arc stabilization at DC, not at arc initiation. I chose the WTh electrodes because they're cheap and my steel electrodes were oxidizing and rusting once they got hot from multi-kW runs.

The level of radiation you need to achieve air ionization is dangerous. That's what the original measurement of radiation, Roentgens, was - measurement of degree of ionization of air. Also, you have to choose the isotope for its decay method, as each decay method has a different ionization coefficient and a different mean-free-path in air. Again, it's quite a futile endeavor due to safety hazards and negligible benefits.
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dexter
Mon Oct 13 2014, 04:54PM
dexter Registered Member #42796 Joined: Mon Jan 13 2014, 06:34PM
Location:
Posts: 195
 		What about something similar to a active lightning rod?
Not that would worth the hassle but it would be much safe than radioactive ionization...
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Thomas W
Mon Oct 13 2014, 07:29PM
Thomas W Registered Member #3324 Joined: Sun Oct 17 2010, 06:57PM
Location:
Posts: 1276
 		Ah okey then, well i guess it was an interesting thought anyway....
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Conundrum
Thu Dec 18 2014, 08:10PM
Conundrum Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4059
 		UV laser?
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Shrad
Fri Dec 19 2014, 07:58AM
Shrad Registered Member #3215 Joined: Sun Sept 19 2010, 08:42PM
Location:
Posts: 780
 		or even UV led, it held at topload potential
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klugesmith
Sat Dec 20 2014, 01:50AM
klugesmith Registered Member #2099 Joined: Wed Apr 29 2009, 12:22AM
Location: Los Altos, California
Posts: 1714
 		Here's a radiation-triggered spark display like the one mentioned in OP.
Link2

Here's a similar setup with no response to a thoriated TIG electrode, after good action with a known alpha source.
Link2
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