Howdy all.While wading through the incredibly long 'Grey tube replication' thread on the 'other' forum I found a bit of gold that may have been overlooked in its million or so posts.This an interesting experiment gone wrong which may in fact provide what we are looking for.It is Mark Mackay,a.k.a. Spokane1,a highly respected member of the community,recalling events from the early 80s.Note this is an extraordinarily dangerous project that I wouldn`t touch with a 100' pole but I know some you may already have the apparatus and skill to make this happen.You also have to be a little crazy. Do so at your own risk!
"I was building a Tesla Coil in 1980 for a carnival Fun House following
the 1964Popular Electronics plans. It had a secondary 4" diameter x 48"
long. I was using a sheet of 1/4" plate glass from a pin ball machine
and aluminum foil as a capacitor. The NST was 15KV at 60mA. The primary
was about 28 turns of neon conductor around a 5 gal plastic bucket. The
spark gap was made from 4" galvanized box nailes (thin). I didn't have
any Terry filter, EMS, or other filtering. The base of the secondary
was connected to the case of the NST (Big Mistake). The spark gap
electrodes (the nails) were set parallel to each other about 1/2"
apart. The discharges were loud, intermittent and staccato like.
It operated for about 10 minutes before the NST blew. During that time
every metal object in the shop was emitting blue arcs to what ever
surface it could find. Tools on the shelf and on the counter were
arcing to each other. Even a nail that was in the plywood wall was
sending out spider web thin arcs that didn't connect to another object.
In the dark there were at least 100 blue arcs taking place all at the
same time at various places in the shop. Fortunately there were no
electronics at this same location.
At the time I figure this is what Tesla Coils do and decided against
making repairs since I was planning to use computer chip sound sources
in the Fun House as well. The Tesla Coil I thought would destroy these devices.
It was about 10 years later that I learned that this is not a common feature of Tesla Coil operation.
I still don't know what was going on there. I have been reluctant to
follow up due to the high price of NST's and the dangers of repeating the faulty connection to the case of the NST which is the center tap for the NST secondary.I have thought that the zinc electrodes had something to do with the anomalous action."
http://www.energeticforum.com/renewable-energy/3235-gray-tube-replication-92.html#post222549Here is the 1964 popular mechanics issue he mentions.The only uncommon feature I can spot offhand is the glass plate capacitor.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/194978291/A-Tesla-Coil-Big-TC-Popular-Electronics-July-1964Those of you familiar with "Secrets of Cold War Technology –. Project HAARP and Beyond" by Gerry Vassilatos will recognize the effect described.If you haven`t,here is a taste: