More Fun (and Danger) With Plasma Globes 

I built a vacuum tube tesla coil in my teens, I'm in my 70's now. I got the plasma display effect in a large clear glass incandescent bulb in proximity to the coil. I gripped the top of the bulb in my hand, enjoying the intensifying swirls as I got closer to the top of the coil. It was really boiling when "POP", there was a single yellow streak from the filament to the top of the bulb, then the bulb didn't have a plasma display any more. There was a hole thru the glass into the palm of my hand. It stung a bit where there was a hole in my palm that didn't bleed and didn't close for a while.

now i want to do a cover of she blinded me with science but with one-hit samples of fran saying “science!”

I have one similar to the smaller of the two. Never had a shock, or smelled ozone from it. You can get flickers from a CFL by petting the cat on a really dry, cold winter day. I call it the Cat-O-Static generator. Kind of related...high voltage transmission lines run through a cousin's farm. You can walk out on a dark night under it with a fluorescent tube and it will light up. It's dim with " waves" travelling through it. Brightest around where you hold it. Looks like some sort of lightsaber.

I own an original radio shack plasma ball from the 1980’s. I worked there at the time so I could plug in 10 of them and pick the brightest one. Such a cool toy!

One of my guilty pleasures as a kid was releasing the magic smoke from old junk by removing the circuitry from one of these, and dragging the output wire across stuff to make it pop. Probably wasn't the best idea!

"Science, frickin' science man. I love it"

I used to live on the peak of a fairly high hill. During a lightning storm once my flourescent desk lamp turned on by itself. That was freaky.

AAaaah-hahaha! The inner-Fran slipped out in fuill view @ 11:12 ...infectious!

Have you considered exploring the old Lumisource plasma lamps? It seems like they had a lot of interesting colors and plasma types. Always wanted to see one on a more realistic setting like your lab. Keep up the awesome work!

I just love your videos, Fran! You come up with such great ideas/topics to show us and I’m thankful for your time and energy to create these videos! 🤗

Fran: "I have... very dangerously.... grounded a screwdriver." Me: *casually slides "pointy ground stick" into a drawer*

Your retro sci-fi movie set is really coming together! 🙂

One interesting thing that you can try is turn the globe, I think 180 ° will do. This causes the inside gases to spin for a few seconds. You’ll see the tendrils spin as well.

As a kid I remember doing the air-gap capacitor trick by setting a penny on top of a plasma bulb and using the arcs to etch teeny tiny little marks on the face of the penny with the end of a paperclip. Of course, I was holding the paperclip with my bare hand, so the electrical path went straight through me, so it's good that the bulb in that configuration pulls so little current.

When I was a teenager in the mid 90s I got a plasma ball from radio shack. A while after I had it running I thought I was losing track of time until I realized that when it was running it was speeding up the time on my alarm clock. If I put the plasma ball really close to the alarm clock it would run extremely fast. I was utterly amused.

hook your electric guitar to the input of the audio circuit on the large one... then hook your guitar amp input cord to a piece of foil and place it near the plasma ball.... really awesome heavy metal guitar sound..... you may have seen the xenon guitar peddle that uses the same effect.... depending on the oscillator frequency you can produce some interesting effects....

Its not just the small globes but larger ones too. Its the cheap/dodgy ones that use cheaper gasses that just so happen to put off UV when ionized. A smaller one from a same reputable brand will most likely not have the cheaper UV emitting gas. You can see the ones that put out UV are a different tone of blue and more blueish.

"When you touch the plasma ball and bring an arc up to your finger it does produce ozone" *BigClive has entered the chat*

You are really having so much fun with this! All the Best!

Many, many years ago(25 odd) I was gifted a very pretty green and blue plasma ball. A while later the gifter asked for it back, I rarely used it so gave it back. I really regret doing that. Never seen another one like it since.

At the point you said "do not try this at home" I was wondering if I could find the one in my lock up faster than ordering another one from Amazon ! Go Zero G FRAN ! PS We have 250kv power lines running across the farm, you can stand under them with an energy saver bulb or tube lamp and they light up.

I've always loved plasma globes. One that's a little different that I've always wanted was called "Lightning Storm" by Radio Shack.

Uh oh, you mentioned the "O" word! Not to mention those danger rays. Now BigClive's going to have to get one for his "experiments"!

"I have very dangerously grounded this screwdriver.... *EVIL LAUGH*"

i just love your curiosity combined with your skills!!!!! as a improvising jazz musician and math nerd, we do have lots of surprising connections! respect!!!!!!!!!!!!! love from amsterdam! x

The voltage (at least on the big one) can fluctuate enough in the audio trigger that the arcs will dim and brighten depending on the intensity of the input sound. It actually looks pretty cool with music . I slide my phone just under the base and adjust the volume to get the best looking arc activity.

Back in the 70's through 90's when I served in the Army we used to use a small straight fluorescent tube to find leaks in microwave communication wave guides (rectangle tubes) used to go between the transmitter/receivers and the antenna horns. Glowing tube meant seal was leaking. Neat stuff!

Most fun things are dangerous... I agree. I still remember how I got zapped with 400V DC when experimenting with a magic eye tuning indicator and PY88 booster diode I used as a rectifier. Accidentally touched the PY88's cathode with my forehead while touching something at the ground potential with my hand. Ouch, was I scared!

That is a damn healthy spark Fran. I bet that would get some ones attention. If I do it I will get zapped, I'll do it any way. ZAPP!

hey Fran, your last video convinced me to go buy the exact same plasma globe :D should be coming in tomorrow, can't wait to show my little nieces, they're gonna love it!

So that smell was ozone! I had this many years ago and remember a distinct smell everytime I turned it on! Funny to realise what a smell is probably a decade after smelling it 😅

I have one of these too. It has the same flyback circuit and 12v wall-wart supply as your big one but is 1/2 the size. It ran @24/7 for about 20yrs at the back of my basement bar.

I had one of these as a kid. I hated the ozone smell. But I used to put bits of metal on top of the globe and arch electricity to my fingers through the air

I bought a large one in 1991, still running 30 years later... Mind, it should still run, it cost me an absolute fortune but I just had to have something this cool...

🤣🤣🤣 Some days ago, I found a plasma ball in my basement. I did not remember, that I had one. I knew the trick with the fluorescent lamp. Then I tried an LED, not really expecting, it would work. It does though. It is required to spread the legs of the LED and the blue LED was the brightest. Red and green worked, too. Some types out of my LED drawer don’t work (probably the less bright, old ones).

Where i use to work we used a small box with a very well insulated probe which had a copper tip it produced 50,000 volts at the tip but with milliamps,it was used to ionise gas filled vaccum tubes and i can say that probe if you got near it gave you a razer sharp jolt on your finger or hand,not sure if it was known as a Hf tester but had a rotary control to turn the juice up.

7:25 I can confirm, you *can* get an unpleasant shock from the base of a CFL light bulb doing this. Mine looks identical to the larger one you have.

When I was a little kid I remember playing with one of these in a museum. I was starring into it for a while, and then I touched my forehead to the glass. I felt a zap right on my third eye, and I’ve been wondering about it until now! T ranks Fran!

Hey friend, back in the 70s RadioShack used to sell all kinds of gizmos like the plasma ball. There was something they had called a light ball that somehow these little disks would rotate inside that ball when you put light on it, there were some other crazy little things they made that maybe you could find and do videos on was pretty interesting

Ok Fran, turn this bigger plasma ball into a plasma speaker, go!

I had NO idea that these could transfer current outside of the glass ball. Aren't these often sold as toys!?

I have been electrocuted from my guitar amp when I touched one of the big capacitors. There was a huge blue flash and I burned my thumb nail which hurt a lot. I thought it would be safe because the amp had been unplugged for over a week but these caps can hold killer loads for yrs. It's a miracle I am still here because if it had crossed my chest I would be fully dead forever. Still own the amp (Carvin Bel Air) as It sounds the most beautiful all tube design.

In the video, it looks pink enough to have a little helium? In the 1980's, I was talking to a friend on the phone while watching TV. When the show ended, I was too lazy to get up and I shut the set off with my toe. My sock instantly prickled up with a static charge and, like a dumbass, I ran my foot across the screen. I got a whopper of a shock that went out my mouth into the phone handset, killing it instantly. I could see the bright blue arc out of the corner of my eye. Best I can figure, the CRT degaussed out the wrong end?

Hello Curious is indeed fun. If you're going to progress to the next logical step, reanimation, I could be your monster, the best times for me are on mornings after, Saturdays and Sundays could definitely do with a few kV reanimating jolt.

I used to cut paper with mine. Use a unfolded paperclip , put paper on the globe, arc across paper and it arc cuts the paper.

About a 1/4 inch piece of foil on the globe was enough to generate an arc from the corner when I got a fingertip too close. I did get a very small but painful burn on the fingertip.

"Science! Friggin' Science! Love it."

This could be a whole new direction for you, Fran! You could be the Philadelphia ElectroBoom!

When I was a teen I had one in my bed room that I played with all the time. I would put a penny on it and burn things with the arcs. I also would mess up digital clocks. I could smell the ozone and burning flesh when it burned the skin on my thumb leaving a tiny scorch mark.

Back in the day I was using a wired headset to talk on my cell phone and the wire rubbed across the a tube tv, the tv energized the headset and shocked me in my ear

The plasma globe I had could be adjusted to have only one "ray" which would travel slowly around the globe.

You should reach out to Wayne Strattman of Strattman Design I think he was the one who sold the patent to mass market these. He still makes HUGE ones for science museums, and he makes all sorts of fantastic plasma art. He is in Massachusetts, an MIT grad I think.

Science!, i immediately started thinking of thomas dolby

I've found references to much smaller plasma balls - 1.5 or 1.75 inches diameter - but they don't seem to be made anymore. I'd love to be able to get them that size, though. I have a cool project in mind...

the Franklin Institute has some wicked sweet merch! I really want to go there some day, and to the Mutter. I've never even been to Philly, only P burgh a couple few times, had some fun on the Allegheny.

I would predict a cat would initially be fascinated by it but would quickly pretend to be bored.

I bought my niece one of the little USB powered globes. I wanted to keep it. I had to give it to my niece. That made me sad. It made my niece happy. There's a lesson here but I can't be bothered.

Fran, A lot of these lights were used in Science Fiction shows over the years, often on Star Trek which seemed odd because these lights were so well known in real life. But I wondered about the long lights which were vertical and seemed to contain water. Seen in the lab of Data's creator on Trek on one occasion. Could they be a type of Gessler light? Also, do you remember the lights which were sometimes used in 60s clubs which projected colourful oily blobs onto the wall? Also seen on The Tomorrow People.

That is so cool Fran. I want one.

you can use the small one circuit with whatever gas discharge tube by attaching the HV wire to a contact (or all contacts) of the tube... did that with nixies, fluo, gas voltage stabilizers, flicker bulbs, etc... they also react to the touch

Wait... making ozone? That's awesome; I had no idea! I wonder if it is also making NOx 🤔 My idea for saving the ozone layer when I was a kid was to make a big damn kite, strongly teathered, up in high altitude where the winds are insane and more constant. Aboard the kite was to be a turbine to generate a high voltage arc. I wrote the idea off when it occurred to me that NOx would also be produced. Perhaps instead we could also put aboard the world's tiniest oxygen concentrator?

One fun thing I discovered with these is they can trigger touch lamps, the ones where you just touch the metal base to turn them on. unfortunately my touch lamp and my plasma ball broke. The latter was my fault.

Gosh, you are so clever Fran, I wish you had taught me.

Thank you Fran! I always learn something.

8:51 that sound wuaaawuaaawuaaa 🤖🤖🤖

My glasses actually filter UVA, UVB AND UVC!!!! TESTED WITH TV PHOSPOR. Blacklight did its UVA thing and made phosphorus turn blue-green. My UVC battery operated light turned phosphorus pink. My glasses totally could shadow both. No UVB light for me to test. Thanks for the safety tips

Ozone without petrichor just makes me think of slot cars.

I miss my radio shack plasma ball. Illumina Storm, I think they called it...

There can be one danger thing. When you create the arc, the same high voltage is applied to the power supply transformer insulation. Because the mains part is also grounded. So you can destroy transformer in PSU by this discharge.

I love Plasma Globes! Good video Fran!

i have a large globe, its cool, goodwill for $12, its still going strong after 2 years

You are awesome Fran!

I have put one on each side of my gate posts on my drive pretty cool at night need some glass globes to cover them to keep them dry

By the look of the prior vid it would have a 15 to 20 KV coming from the core, and the flyback transformer size seems to indicate thus.

I prefer the large one, it's much more impressive.

SHE BLINDED ME WITH SCIENCE.... SCIENCE!

This is small version of what goes on throught the universe. Electro magnetic vorticies that stretch for millions of light-years rotate together, and when they merge they form galaxies. It seems very fast in the. But as Lerner said in his book "the big bang never happened". ...the universe is nothing more than a " cosmic power grid ". 😊

correct! getting hit by 15k-20k volts is FUN! :) I have been working with TVs since I was in my early teens, been hit by CRT anode voltage many MANY times, :P

This is semi related. I have a SSTC and Ive always wandered if nixie tubes would glow near the coil when it is running? The few nixies Ive had for projects I didnt want to damage in testing. ??? YES I love that ozone smell too. Tesla coils really put that smell out lol

Yeah I've done that before, ya just get a tiny rf burn on your finger. Not nearly as bad as what I got from the output of a combiner. That arc followed my hand as I pulled away. Lol

I accidentally cleaned mine while it was on, because it made cleaning fun, and it sent a nice shock through my body... So of course I put a wet rag on it and dared everyone I knew to touch it, fun times...

Your retinas will be damaged more by infrared than UV or blue light. The Blue light fears manufacturers suggest for devices and screens are quite bogus. Your cornea and lens and protein-filled vitreous humor absorb most ultraviolet light and little will reach your retina. During a solar eclipse when the diamond ring stage occurs, it is the intense infrared light that burns a damaging, eventually permanent, imprint into the neural retina. (Because it is dark, people look and pupil is wide open, and the IR does its damage.) Ken Mitton. Eye Research Institute, Oakland University. :)

Touchscreens don't like being near these either...

Do those produce significant RFI even without the aluminum? Got a spectrum analyzer?

Wet a paper towel (not dripping wet) and place it on the ball. Now get close to the towel with your fingernail and it will arc over. It doesn't hurt... much. It will also burn the paper towel.

Rubbing a cfl along a staticy wool or acrylic blanker will also make them glow.

It's been a while since I've seen a Circline bulb in service

Years ago, I noticed one of these will interfere with a CD player within the same area.

It's not all about the current, it's about the combination of both, voltage and current. You could have a PSU that delivered 300A at 12V, and you could touch it while being grounded with your other hand, and nothing would ever happen - because 12V are too low to conduct through your body.

The current from those globes not only low but it's RF so it flows on the outside of whatever, including your skin.

Wait, It produces ozone! Where's Big Clive when you need him?

i had one of these when i was a kid and now im wondering why i'm still alive... i played with it so many timess with foil, tools, and never thought it was dangerous. guess my house's floor wasnt conductive enough

Isn't UV going to be absorbed by the glass already? Hence why Eprom erasers etc need quartz glass tubes instead of regular window glass due to its UV transmissivity. I would have been surprised to see any significant amount of UV light coming off that ball.

"I didn't die." My conclusion as well. LOL

I enjoyed that. I want to get one now!

You should try that Uncle Fester from the Adams Family light bulb trick

Another great video!! 😀👍👍

say Fran, what do you get with a magnetometer and emf meter? Also do you think the higher uv units are for blacklight purposes?

"...my UV Meter" [not to be confused with the VU meter]

Also you can carpet style shock your friends with these.