I have measured the UV from a high voltage arch. The arc using wires puts out far less UV than from using carbon rods for an example. The arch is perfectly safe as long as someone does not touch it, or put anything flammable in to it.
A number of years ago, I build a 4 foot high Tesla coil in the basement. I used a 20 kV neon sign transformer as the power source.
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JANA _____
Wow, I hope nobody new building one read that! How about the UV frying your eyes? Starting fires, blowing fuses, killing the dog, and ruining your ears (if you have big caps on it)? There are a million ways high voltage can destroy your family - although the most common way is for you to spend all your time on it until the wifey divorces you. If it's fun, it might kill you. This is the rule of life.
For my masters thesis I worked with an induction heated argon plasma-
4Kw at first, and then a new transmitter that was 15Kw. That thing REALLY put out the UV- we had to wear double welding glasses, and got sunburns on exposed flesh real quickly.
I used to play with a lot of TC's and Sparks etc. I had several very expensive spectrophotometers at my disposal and tried to see how much UV is output . . .
I concluded that the electrodes make a big difference. Use a "pure" electrode - that doesn't get involved (as a vapor) with the arc and you might be at risk.
As the vapor of the metal in the electrodes becomes part of the arc . . . it protects you from the UV. Use tungsten or platinum (good quenching in a TC spark exciter) and the UV from the spark gap is much greater than copper or zinc. From our experiments.
Seems to me: If one is "seeing" a clean blue flame /plasma/spark, you may be looking at a harmful amount of UV, from the results of our experiments with spectrophotometers . . . Never judge a light by what you can see . . . pale blue, may be bad for vision (in a year or two - not immediately)
And every one of the plastic "safety glasses" I had to play with stopped UV transmission; so plastic safety glasses might be a good idea.
Likewise ozone is another substance that you shouldn't take for granted. You may get a faint whiff from an electric drill or big DC motor and you may (will) smell the same stuff from a Tesla coil.
Problem is, the human nose can detect it in very small quantities but in much higher concentrations the detected odor doesn't increase proportionately. - not from any experiments I did - just from reading the literature after getting a whiff of pure hydrogen sulphide.
Hydrogen sulphide causes "respiratory distress" or just a sudden case of pneumonia. One lesson learned - don't trust your senses to tell you that you're risking your health.
Learned to fly? First thing you should have learned is to trust the compass and artificial horizon. Senses are only as good - for what nature intended.
Millions of years of evolution give you the means to survive the natural planet - change the rules with technology, and you must adapt or perish.
Take nothing for granted. I don't care who said it or "proved" it. Check it for your self.
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