Violet Wands?

"The Real Andy" schreef in bericht news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

It's explained here:

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Thanks, Frank.
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And btw, "Violet Wands" would be a good name for a rock band.

Hi all,

I am curious about so called violet wands. Are they all based on Tesla coils or is there another way to make one?

The "non antique" ones I have seen have a very plain looking box and they seem to be solid state although I am not sure.

The owners never let me open them up to have a look.

Maybe someone here can tell me more?

Regards Ben

WTF is a voilet wand?? The suggestion of a tesla coild makes me wonder if it should be called a voilent wand.

Also called Violet Ray.

1920-40s Quack Doctor stuff A big hit back then too. High static field makes tube glow when it touches you, like one of the round globes they have today.

Ahem... yes, yes and more yes BUT what about my original question regarding the solid state construction?

Suppose nobody here knows either :-(

Oh well... :-)

Regards Ben

What they're calling a "Tesla coil" is actually in induction coil. It's just an autotransformer, like a car coil, but the end of the core attracts a moving armature, like a relay, but there's an NC connection in series with the coil. You apply a voltage, current flows, it pulls in, interrupts the current, and the inductive spike makes HV at the probe. I've seen them throw a 1 1/2" arc.

So they're even cruder than "solid state".

Sure, you could do it solid state - just build a step-up converter to 10-15 KV. :-)

Good Luck! Rich

What makes this different than a Tesla Coil? A Tesla coil is an autotransformer driven by an oscillator. In this case the oscillator is the "relay" with negative feedback.

Hmm, that's not going to be very impressive. Perhaps a cm spark? Just drive the coil with a switch on a cam, driven off the crank shaft. ;-)

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  Keith

I read in sci.electronics.design that Keith Williams wrote (in ) about 'Violet Wands?', on Tue, 16 Aug 2005:

The difference between a Tesla coil and an induction coil is that the Tesla produces high voltage at a much higher frequency. An induction coil interrupter normally works at 100 to 200 Hz, but the secondary waveform is spiky and the secondary usually rings at its self-resonant frequency of maybe 10 kHz.

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