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Interesting experiment with flat CRT

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LAN_403

Conundrum

Mon Apr 01 2013, 12:53AM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4061

EDIT:- In case you hadn't worked this out, April Fools!!!

Hi all.

During one of my experiments with a somewhat ancient flat CRT that got bounced via the post, I noticed something interesting.
As it didn't seem to display anything but wasn't up to air some additional tests were done on it.

Under certain conditions with wax insulation on the EHT lead, 70KV applied to the main anode and 16Vac (excessive) heater voltage, the scan seemed to show up outside the tube.
Essentially the focussed electron beam made the glass glow blue, but also ionised the top surface sufficiently that
a sheet of paper placed on the CRT face actually moved with the beam.
It looked almost like something was pushing the paper upwards from underneath.

Tried to hold the paper down with a sheet of glass, and turned it on again.
This time not only did the paper seemingly vaporise where the scan beam touched it but so did the glass directly above it.
No burning paper smell, just a neat razor edged square cut right through the glass where the beam had scanned!

It appeared that whatever was going on not only cut right through the glass but left no residue and even when the power was turned off none of the material reappeared.

I even tried imaging the cut glass sheet with my flatbed scanner, no sign of any attenuation in the missing piece but some
strange fractal like interference patterns on the edges.

This is where things get interesting.

Theorising that this was not unlike the infamous "vanishing components" effect allegedly seen in early particle accelerator experiments, where parts would go transparent then reappear when the power was turned off, I attempted to increase the scan field so that a larger volume above the tube could be scanned.
This required modification of the power supply so a range of 70 to 85KV could be scanned sequentially and then the power supply would switch off automatically.

I had to add additional wax insulation to the tube to stop it arcing over, but all seemed well.
This time the "test object" was a surplus Canon digital camera which had seen better days but thanks to its metal casing
should withstand ridiculous voltages without being damaged.

Set it up so that it would do a countdown of 15 seconds then take a picture and turned on the power supply.
Camera winked out and lo and behold, ten seconds later a faint "Beep!" was heard...

No sign of the camera, tube looked OK. So where did it go?

Went outside to check something, and was walking down near the end of our drive and noticed something shiny on the ground.
Hmm.. Canon camera and a piece of square glass with a sheet of paper underneath it ... !!

Took the camera indoors, battery was flat but the memory card looked OK.
Plugged it in and ... it recognised it and some pictures were there.

Picture 1 showed the usual close up of the tube and surrounding area.
Picture 2 showed the cut glass and paper.
Picture 3 was all strange and distorted almost like you would see from inverting the colours and brightness, but it was barely recognisable as where the camera was pointing had it been outside when taking the picture.

Put new batteries and a different memory card in the camera but it wasn't having any of it.
Card didn't seem to recognise or format, but upon putting the old card back in the camera worked fine.
The really strange thing was that all three pictures displayed fine on the internal display.

So what does one do with such an anomalous device?
Not much practical use, the camera doesen't seem to work properly even on the USB but it did yield interesting information.

I tried repositioning the tube and running the experiment again, this time with a 27 MHz crystal module based radio transmitter.
Transmitter reappeared approximately in a straight line with the long axis of the tube, and it did show up
on my radio at nearly the same frequency plus maybe 2 MHz.

Ideas?

-A

Andy

Mon Apr 01 2013, 01:06AM

Registered Member #4266 Joined: Fri Dec 16 2011, 03:15AM
Location:
Posts: 874

What would happen if you aline the screen towards vertical, does the same effects happen. There was a experiment were they had a large fly wheel new a particle accelerator that could warp the beem.... don't know will leave it to some more knowledge people

Sulaiman

Mon Apr 01 2013, 10:01AM

Registered Member #162 Joined: Mon Feb 13 2006, 10:25AM
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 3140

did you measure the distance traveled ?
In similar experiments I have found that it is a multiple of (c/F) = 11.11m at 27MHz
direction of movement is normally tangential to the galactic axis,
the direction dependant on the radial direction of the beam
(i.e. clockwise for an outward facing beam, anti-timewise for an inward beam)

P.S. do not align the beam with the galactic axis or we may never see you again !

Ash Small

Mon Apr 01 2013, 11:14AM

Registered Member #3414 Joined: Sun Nov 14 2010, 05:05PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4245

Strange things have happened to that CRT, it turned up at an old address of mine, then found it's way back to you again, Andre.

Do you think you could repeat the experiment tomorrow, and report if the same results are observed, as this would establish whether Sulaiman's 'anti-timewise galictic axis' theory is correct, or not? This does sound like a rather strange phenomenon.

Houdini0118

Mon Apr 01 2013, 04:05PM

Registered Member #8558 Joined: Thu Dec 06 2012, 11:38PM
Location: usa
Posts: 57

This is a joke right?

Conundrum

Mon Apr 01 2013, 04:45PM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4061

Um,yeah

It took you guys a while to work it out but this was indeed an April Fool..

EDIT: Posted on Mon Apr 01 2013, 01:53AM
-A

Houdini0118

Mon Apr 01 2013, 05:12PM

Registered Member #8558 Joined: Thu Dec 06 2012, 11:38PM
Location: usa
Posts: 57

Sun Mar 31 2013, 08:53PM i think you missed it by a day?

Ash Small

Mon Apr 01 2013, 06:09PM

Registered Member #3414 Joined: Sun Nov 14 2010, 05:05PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4245

Houdini0118 wrote ...

Sun Mar 31 2013, 08:53PM i think you missed it by a day?

You're five hours behind us on your side of the pond, Houdini, something to do with the 'anti-timewise galactic axis', I think

Houdini0118

Mon Apr 01 2013, 07:00PM

Registered Member #8558 Joined: Thu Dec 06 2012, 11:38PM
Location: usa
Posts: 57

You mean every one doesn't use American time? *Sarcasm*

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