The Turn Of The Century Electrotherapy Museum http://www.electrotherapymuseum.com Phantom Streamer Experiments 20. Oct 2008 Appearance of coil in normal light Appearance of coil in darkness with Phantom Streamers present Long exposure (1 second) shows evidence of streamers, but too blurry to see distinct forms Here again streams were darting up covering the bottom of my hand... OOPS. Once in a while a spark passes, and as you can see from the contact point on my hand it wasn't pleasant! Only the roots of the brush discharges are seen here. The phantom streamers form on the ball independent of these. Strange test: I was approaching a piece of PVC to try and shield the light, and to my surprise the phantoms were discharging through the PVC wall, the length of the tube...??? It would seem the path of MOST resistance! Normally sparks would prefer the surface of the insulator to travel on. This is quite strange, as the PVC was a left over piece from a perfectly normal coil form...and normally a fine insulator! Below: Movie stills of arcing through PVC. Note: This phenomenon is common to see with wood - the sparks travel along the interior voids and grain, glowing a strange red color where the spark passes. I never saw this with plastic before though...
If it can document the presence of these streamers,
I guess I can include a movie too. |