Sunburst Yellow and Orange Plasma Globe

12 inch plasma globe with bright yellow and tangerine orange colors. The glass globe was designed by Bill Parker, but the globe has been refilled with an experimental 5-component mixture containing mostly neon and nitrogen. The gas mix is running on Bill Parker Light Sculpture electronics to reveal a more detailed image than another video featuring this same globe.

Music: Afer Ventus by Enya

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Yellow
• and
• Orange
• Plasma
• Ball

[StandingWulf]

I'm not sure about all the details, or how much of a UV hazard would be created in a heavy-wall Pyrex plasma globe charged with Hg vapor, but gas discharge lamps filled with mercury vapor are used in tanning beds and for germicidal purposes and emit enough UV to make using eye protection advisable if a person plans to be working near them for any length of time. If I do any work with significant Hg vapor in mixtures I will be checking UV levels near the globes.

[airportlakesestates]

Not only that But correct me if im wrong, Mercury Vapor mix emits Shortwave UV-C.

[StandingWulf]

Water vapor does NOT look good in a plasma globe. It's a faint greyish white. Mercury vapor is a blue-green haze. It is also toxic. Aluminum vapor pressure is too low at room temp for a plasma globe. I have never tried it. You can get a pink plasma tornado effect with air at around 50-100 Torr.

[StandingWulf]

It depends on the particular metal. I have only tested gases and gases mixed with iodine vapor. I have no data on any metal vapor plasmas in a plasma globe.

[StandingWulf]

Pure nitrogen is a purplish-pink color, similar to but weaker than air, which is about 80% N2, 18% O2 and 1% Argon. Water vapor in a plasma globe will lead to weaker colors and less-active and fewer tendrils. Somehow it diminishes or interferes with the light emission of the active plasma gases. All noble gases, air, nitrogen, CO2 and trace amounts of iodine vapor are not toxic. Mercury vapor in high concentrations is toxic.

[StandingWulf]

CO2 laser gas discharge tubes (from an online image search) appear to be purplish blue-white, but the purple coloring may be due to nitrogen in the gas mix.

[StandingWulf]

I've never tested it in a plasma globe. CO2 spectrum tubes are pale blue-white when energized with low-frequency current at 60 Hz.

[StandingWulf]

I've never tested a plasma globe containing only mercury vapor because of concerns about toxicity. Mercury vapor lamp plasmas are bluish-green, once the mercury has been warmed up above about 40 Celsius. Getting pure mercury vapor to ionize adequately by itself on a cold day without a heating element takes time. Mercury in a plasma globe tends to condense on the glass as the vapor cools which does not look very appealing.

[StandingWulf]

It's probably a green emission line that appears to be enhanced in krypton-xenon mixtures, often seen in "Lightning Fury" plasma dome lamps by Larry Albright.

[StandingWulf]

Iodine vapor at equilibrium in a glass bottle of iodine crystals at room temp looks purple. In the concentration used here (10-15 ppm) the iodine vapor is not visible. Iodine in a plasma globe mixed with other gases tends to add yellow-orange hues, but it will alter the color of plasma arcs depending on the other gases in use.