Re: Home-made light bulbs
Hah, that's so cool. I did a project very similar to this in my 9th grade physical science class. I was (am) a mega-science-geek, so back then I found that class absolutely riveting. The teacher realized this and gave me a little leeway during our once-quarterly science projects, as far as bringing things into the classroom that can cause explosions and fires.
My project was an arc discharge lamp. I tried a homemade filament bulb but couldn't get it to work (just a red glow, like a toaster). In hindsight I probably could have turned in the nonworking project and gotten an A, since hell yes I was learning something.
The arc lamp was made from two carbon rods I dug out of Radio Shack "red" carbon cells (which I don't believe they sell any more), the containment was a Vlasic pickle jar flooded with, C25 welding gas I think, and the power suply was a 555 timer oscillator. The step-up transformer was an audio output transformer, but I ended up having to modify it. This thing actually did make a little arc spark and could sustain it.
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