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Registered Member #3637
Joined: Fri Jan 21 2011, 11:07PM
Location: Buffalo, NY
Posts: 1068
I took apart an oxidizer thing from a hot tub we're getting rid of, and there was a tube inside of it. The filaments (there were two on each end) are long gone. However, the tube itself still has a vacuum. (the getter is still a blackish color, not white). The case the oxidizer came in also has a "ballast" for the tube, it looks sort of like a transformer, and is rated at 120 VAC 1 amp.
Since the filaments are toast, what can I do with the tube, since it still has a usable vacuum? Some people suggested making X-rays with it. What else is there I can do with the tube?
XD yes be a Nikola Tesla and make X-Rays. Nikola Tesla did a lot of work with that. Maybe inject a halogen gas and a drop of mercury... connect to Vsource? :P
Registered Member #2099
Joined: Wed Apr 29 2009, 12:22AM
Location: Los Altos, California
Posts: 1715
For the picture of your lighted tube, did it start up with its regular ballast, even though its filaments are open?
I bet it's mercury vapor lamp, not unlike an ordinary hot-cathode fluorescent lamp. Here are the differences: 1) no fluorescent phosphor coating inside the tube, because we don't need visible light output. 2) tube is made of fused quartz, for transparency to 254 nm and maybe to 185 nm UV light, both of which don't penetrate far in most materials. 254 nm kills illuminated cells. 185 nm is absorbed by air and generates ozone. The ozone can kill cells not in the line of sight. Dissolved in water, it can also precipitate some hard-water ions. Ozonators are popular accessories for well-water storage tanks in the mountains around where I live.
I don't think the lamp is any good for making x-rays. The mercury makes it a pretty good electrical conductor, so it could not sustain the necessary voltage drop without a destructive amount of current.
If you're scrapping the rest of the system, I'd be interested in the lamp and ballast. Would join some blacklight lamps, an EPROM eraser, and a couple of shortwave Mineralights. And a Pen-ray lamp. But yours might be the only one intended to make ozone. Can you give us the make & model of the lamp, ballast, or the "oxidizer" thing? Thanks!
Registered Member #3637
Joined: Fri Jan 21 2011, 11:07PM
Location: Buffalo, NY
Posts: 1068
Klugesmith wrote ...
For the picture of your lighted tube, did it start up with its regular ballast, even though its filaments are open?
I bet it's mercury vapor lamp, not unlike an ordinary hot-cathode fluorescent lamp. Here are the differences: 1) no fluorescent phosphor coating inside the tube, because we don't need visible light output. 2) tube is made of fused quartz, for transparency to 254 nm and maybe to 185 nm UV light, both of which don't penetrate far in most materials. 254 nm kills illuminated cells. 185 nm is absorbed by air and generates ozone. The ozone can kill cells not in the line of sight. Dissolved in water, it can also precipitate some hard-water ions. Ozonators are popular accessories for well-water storage tanks in the mountains around where I live.
I don't think the lamp is any good for making x-rays. The mercury makes it a pretty good electrical conductor, so it could not sustain the necessary voltage drop without a destructive amount of current.
If you're scrapping the rest of the system, I'd be interested in the lamp and ballast. Would join some blacklight lamps, an EPROM eraser, and a couple of shortwave Mineralights. And a Pen-ray lamp. But yours might be the only one intended to make ozone. Can you give us the make & model of the lamp, ballast, or the "oxidizer" thing? Thanks!
I used an inverter I made out of a ZVS and a self made HV transformer. (transformer puts out less than 1 kV I'm guessing)
And, yes, the bulb puts out quite a bit of ozone. I'll get the model number of the oxidizer thing later today, hopefully. (the bulb itself I know doesn't have any number on it)
Registered Member #1938
Joined: Sun Jan 25 2009, 12:44PM
Location: Romania
Posts: 700
you cannot make any x-rays with that tube, because it is just an UV lamp, probably containing low pressure mercury vapors. for x-rays you would need a "harder" vacuum and no mercury or other "obstacles" inside the tube.
now that the filament is gone, just use it with your inverter, eg. for germicidal purposes.
Registered Member #3637
Joined: Fri Jan 21 2011, 11:07PM
Location: Buffalo, NY
Posts: 1068
Could I get phosphor from some fluorescent lights and see if they glow using the lamp, since that's basically the same principle behind fluorescent tubes? (though, I wonder what the color would look like!)
The light produced by such tubes is damaging to eyes. I figured best to make this explicit. A getter does not make much sense, this might be sputtered metal from tube operation.
Registered Member #2099
Joined: Wed Apr 29 2009, 12:22AM
Location: Los Altos, California
Posts: 1715
Alexander wrote ...
The light produced by such tubes is damaging to eyes. I figured best to make this explicit. A getter does not make much sense, this might be sputtered metal from tube operation.
I agree with both points.
As for eye safety, it doesn't help to avoid looking at the lighted tube. What counts is the distance between tube and your exposed corneas, and duration of exposure. Symptoms of overexposure are irritation of the corneas, developing after a few hours and taking a while to heal.
Any ordinary eyeglasses or safety glasses, especially those with glass lenses, will substantially attenuate the short-wave UV (UVC) wavelengths which carry the great majority of the tube's radiant output.
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What to do with an oxidizer tube? (ionizing UV!)
