Not sure what this tube is....

[RicharD]

..... but I think it's supposed to be some sort of strobe.  Iso found this while junk digging today.  It's very pretty.


Now when you put 5000 VAC across it, it becomes beautiful.



(scroll down)

[Ritchie200]

strobe for radio tower?

[RicharD]

The dude told me what it schwas, but I forgot.  He also told me to put 5KV on it.  I don't just hoop my neon transformer to tubes all willy nilly.

[Dynaflow]

 If you hold it above your head it'll look like you have a REALLY REALLY good idea... 

Regards,

Dyna

[RicharD]

http://www.bulbcollector.com/article005.html

It's a flash tube.  I guess there's a way to make it........ well....... flash.  All I fingered out was how to get it to glow purdy.

[PRR]

> I guess there's a way to make it........ well....... flash.

The classic Edgerton flash-tubes are 3 electrodes. One each end of the gas-tube. The third is usually OUTside the tube, touching the glass.

Put hundreds of Volts onto a hundreds-uFd cap. Apply to gas-tube (polarity may matter). Nothing happens. Apply fast-rise 5,000V pulse to the third electrode. The gas ionizes and the cap discharges through the gas "instantly".

If you apply too much energy, either pulse or average, the tube bursts.

I -guess- it may be safe to take a disposable flash camera apart, find the one-inch flash tube, replace with this beast. Even allowing for improved materials, it seems unlikely to be more energy than the old bottle can handle. (Or it is possible that the small cost-optimized trigger coil can't excite your big tube.)

It likely can take MUCH more energy. It may have been airport warning light or other over-4-foot application. But how much more? And do you have an airport?

It may be for photography. But what color? Edgerton worked to increase UV output because his old fast BW film sucked it up, and shooting droplets is not color-critical. When pan and then color films arrived and flash was used on everyday subjects, energy profile and filtering had to be balanced.

http://members.misty.com/don/donflash.html
http://members.misty.com/don/samflash.html

[billcreller]

 Looks like a strobe tube for an instrument landing system (ILS) approach. They flash in a sequence in the direction of the approach.