P1060171.JPG=Sauce jar as recloseable vacuum chamber
P1060156.JPG=Same thing, higher pressure (more diffuse glow and crawling up the tubing again)
P1060130.JPG=(Almost-)First trial showing the neon-like effect from the Home Despot vinyl tubing. The barb also glowed brightly, so I stuck the remaining barb piece into the jar.
P1060135.JPG=It also seems to narrow the stream inside the tubing.
P1060131.JPG=Same thing with differetn frequency and pressure, note this causes the neon tube effect to disappear. It's hard to take a picture that accurately represents its actual brightness (on your monitor!), but this looks about right on mine.
P1060164.JPG=Some small Neon bulbs; these used to be used a lot in old electrical test equipment.
P1060170.JPG=Closeup of hose barb fitting
P1060174.JPG=Closeup of the fridge compressor and oil recovery / flowmeter (piece of pipet taped to the side)
P1060133.JPG=More experimenting; raising the pressure a bit causes the downward streamers from the lid to be a little more focused.
P1060167.JPG=The high voltage supply, capable of delivering about 5-10kV (guesstimating). The active ingredient is a flyback transformer pulled from an old TV set (white donut at far left), operated in a self-resonant (Hartley) configuration.
P1060173.JPG=The complete vacuum setup including fridge compressor, 3/8" vinyl tubing spool, and spaghetti sauce jar with a hose barb JB-Welded in.
P1060153.JPG=Plasma jar running with a big pile of neon bulbs inside. The jar is 3/4 full with them, but pretty much only the ones near the outside are lit.
