Once again I ask this group to help identify an interesting component. In this case it's a thick walled glass tube with a pair of electrodes on either end. It's length is about 9+3/8 inch (24 cm) and has a 0.310 inch (8 mm) diameter. Pictures are at:
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I've shown it to a few electrical engineers and the general consensus is that it's some form of high current surge suppresser. I'm almost convinced but I can't imagine why it would be serialized. If it is a gas discharge tube why is it polarized?
If you have a good idea of what this tube is please post it here. TIA
PURE guesswork on my part - I'm ready to be wrong on all counts. Or pleasantly surprised to be proven correct...
Looks to me like it might have something to do with high frequency/voltage work - perhaps having some connection to things like tesla coils and "violet wands".
What gives you the idea that it's polarized? Or am I missing some tidbit of information that I ought to be stumbling over?
Serialized is easy: inventory control. The box picture shows me at least two, possibly three, layers of tags on it, and it looks as though the same hand wrote the serial/voltage numbers on both, at least on the parts that show through. Could easily be Joe D. Clerk tagging inventory on a couple of occasions.
Presumably, the voltage entry would be the tested-to voltage? At 149.1 volts, does it arc to soak up overvoltages? Seems a bit long to arc that low, though. Which leads me to think it might be some sort of strobe-like unit - the reflector/backplate would be the "trigger" line, and it needs to get to 148.9 to trigger the discharge? Or perhaps "volts
148.9" is understood by the staff who stocked this item as "148.9KV", and it's actually a (nominal) 150KV surge suppressor? 150KV arcing a gap that size makes a lot more sense than 150 volts.
Maybe something for pumping a laser? No telling what's inside it to make what kind of color that could be used to pump, ferinstance, a crystal laser of some sort. Careful which way you point it if/when you power it up! And a lead-lined jock might not be a bad idea if you plan to breed in the future. :) No telling what this thing might put out!
Looking back at the box... Am I crazy, or does it not look like it fits this item??? or is this an end-shot? Toss a penny or a ruler or something into the shot for some scale. Ditto the tube shots - #1 is good, but needs something for scale. #2 is OK, but desperately needs something for scale. And #3... Uh... I don't know what to make of it. It doesn't look like the "fittings" seen in either #1 or #2. Where'd the little conical "nipple" on the end of the electrode go? Is that even the same tube???
Yoiks! Cancel that... I just this instant see what's going on... You flipped the tube end-for-end between #2 and #3. No wonder I didn't notice it to be polarized. Ouch, dude, that one made my brain hurt. Don't establish an orientation then switch up on the poor innocent viewer that way!
Now that I've done some photoshop-like tinkering, and have the three shots laid out oriented to each other (I put the result up at if anybody's interested), I see that it's definitely polarized. Interesting... DC, then. And rated for
148.9 volts...
It's gotta be a lamp of some kind. Depending on what, if any, gas is inside, and at what pressure, output could be anything from "raw arc-flash" to "99 and 44/100ths percent pure UV" that'll cook your eyes to about the same texture and functionality as hard-boiled eggs, to "lookit the pretty sunset colors". I imagine it's probably pretty bright
- Of course, for discharge lamps, that tends to be true no matter what color the output is. Goggle up before trying to power it up, I'd say...
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Looks like a gas-discharge tube, possibly a flash tube, although the voltage would suggest it's for continuous discharge - maybe as a light source for lab equipment. Seems a pretty low voltage for what looks like a fairly long tube though. Try zapping it with a piezo lighter or output of a CCFL inverter to see if you get any discharge.
The form-factor of the tube is very similar to small discharge tube lamps for lab use. But... such a lab source would certainly be marked by which gas is inside and the users would not care what the voltage was to the nearest tenth of a volt.
HV lab supplies long have used gas discharge regulator tubes (OA2 and higher-spec variants) as references. IIRC ambient light matters at the fraction of a volt level...
The electrodes are two different shapes. I'd say that this looks like an arc lamp of some kind. Maybe it's for calibrating spectroscopes, which would explain the accurate voltage. It's saying run this tube at this voltage, and the output spectrum wil be blah blah blah.
I was going to guess Xenon flash tube, but the voltage seems too low. I would expect a few KV in that case. Very possibly a laser pump source. You might check alt.lasers Whatever it is, it will most likely take lots of KV to start.
That's an interesting detail - I thought the red on the end of that 'trode was reflection from the red cloth you used as a backdrop. I can't help but wonder what, if anything, that's about...
Question: Is there an opening in the end of that red-tipped 'trode? Even just a tiny pinhole you can see daylight through? On second thought, never mind. Irrelevant question, and even if not irrelevant, the answer is in the pohotos, even if only indirectly. I was on the mental track that this thing MIGHT be a self-contained gas laser, but if that's the case, it's a serious oddball, since I see no sign of mirroring on the "nipple" or "bullet" electrode end. There'd need to be at least a half-mirror there if the thing was intended to be a standalone laser, so that's out.
Which puts me right back to the idea that it's the "pumping" tube from an externally pumped laser - It flashes, the light from the flash excites the contents of the pumped tube, lather, rinse, repeat at high frequency, and suddenly, there's enough energy in the pumped tube for the beam to break out through the half-mirror/aperture and show you the results of your efforts...
The "What the heck"? part is the wavelength involved - IF it is indeed a flash lamp, like it seems to be.
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Don Bruder - dakidd@sonic.net - New Email policy in effect as of Feb. 21, 2004.
Short form: I'm trashing EVERY E-mail that doesn't contain a password in the
subject unless it comes from a "whitelisted" (pre-approved by me) address.
See for full details.
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