On Fri, 30 Jul 2004, Nick Reiter wrote: > In the meantime, I kept the voltage the same and went > to an even smaller diameter (about .001") hair wire > for the cathode - wow. In KOH, the plasma has now > moved from the violet "potassium" color to a bright > blue intense sheath along the wire.
I wonder if the temperature of the electrode is critical with this. As I understand the Mizuno "violent CF" experiment, the platinum foil must first heat up before the interesting stuff begins. Using thin, low-thermal-mass electrodes would let their temperature rise quickly. Perhaps it's just Leidenfrost effect, where the electrode surface remains higher than 100C degrees and produces a very thin layer of steam. An arc would then exist in this layer, and because the high-resistance arc would support a large voltage, it would electrically heat itself much more than if the water directly contacts the electrode. Imagine how hot any switch becomes if you open the circuit partially and a spark appears between the contacts. Close the switch, and the heating effect vanishes. If this is how it works, then if we heat the electrolyte to 100C beforehand, and perhaps manually heat the electrode first with a torch, will this eliminate any "wait time" at the start of the Mizuno experiment. Gene's original letter re. Mizuno experiment http://www.amasci.com/weird/anode.txt PS All of these sorts of "submerged arc" experiments are variants of... the Electric Pickle! (((((((((((((((((( ( ( ( ( (O) ) ) ) ) ))))))))))))))))))) William J. Beaty SCIENCE HOBBYIST website [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://amasci.com EE/programmer/sci-exhibits amateur science, hobby projects, sci fair Seattle, WA 206-789-0775 unusual phenomena, tesla coils, weird sci
