Moray and Correa tube experiments

[pomodoro]

Guys this thread is about replicating Thomas Moray's oscillating tubes as well as other related technology which includes cold cathode discharge tubes such as those of the Correas. I have gathered much of the equipment to give this a good shot, but will need help for sure.
The thread will be about experiments and results but so much theory. Plasma physics is extremely difficult and way over my head. Initial experiments will focus on existing tubes such as neon globes, deuterium lamps, fluro lamps and hollow cathode devices.  The behavior of these devices when pulsed in the abnormal glow region will be studied , in particular we will be looking at oscillations and negative resistance. When these have been understood completely, and if none of these tubes show signs of OU we will move on to making tubes similar to Moray and Correa.  There is plenty to work on here so begin slowly and from real basics.

Step one . Equipment
I've finished building a 0- 3000V DC MOT based power supply.
Currently I am building a stacked MOSFET switch to pulse the tubes.
I already have a pulse/frequency generator to drive the MOSFET stack.
A basic digital scope, large resistors and the usual stuff most of us have.
I have plenty of those tubes mentioned above, Rotary vac pump, turbo pump,argon,hydrogen and helium.

Experiment 1.  To study the current voltage curve of a neon bulb before it reaches arcing regime.  This seemed easy enough but in my first sessions I managed to fry the pulse generator and blow resistors and fuses. The neon globe showed no arcing even with 500mA. Experiment will continue when the stack is finished.

Theory:   Discharge tubes do not behave as linear resistors.
The current vs voltage curve will look similar to the picture attached pic1. (To be attached later). The small neon globe will not handle the large current required to reach the abnormal glow region and we can only study its behavior by pulsing  the tube with high current. To be continued..

[TinselKoala]

You had best be careful with that  MOT power supply!

You might find my "anatmosphere" videos of interest.

Here are a few:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLCOBzuxIWQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niFRhRgY_9M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CFqG1s1abQ

[pomodoro]

You had best be careful with that  MOT power supply!

You might find my "anatmosphere" videos of interest.

Here are a few:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLCOBzuxIWQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niFRhRgY_9M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CFqG1s1abQ

Very interesting, thank you.  Great shots of the dome! 
What gas is in the dome? 
I couldn't quite tell but is there any current limiting for the dome or is the supply self limiting?
You definitely have enough current to reach the abnormal glow region on both electrodes as cathodes there even without a turbo pump.
Yes I need to be extra careful with the mot  supply but I found it the simplest and most cost effective way to get smooth high continuous currents. I've kept the magnetic shunts in place for now and being variac controlled I try to keep the output as low as needed.

[Kator01]

Pomodoro,

do you know that Dr. Harold Aspden had a report on his website 1996 about the Correa-Device ?

http://web.archive.org/web/20110307044706/http://www.aspden.org/reports/Es8/Rep8.htm

Kator01

[TinselKoala]

@Pomodoro:

Just air in the chamber, and the supply in those videos is current-limited at 6 amps input to the driver. The power arcs that form before the vacuum is low enough for glow discharge are very hot and I do not want to take the chance of cracking my glass hemisphere, which is half of a bathysphere designed and tested to great depths of water pressure.