Talk:Plasma lamp

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[edit] Fail temporarily while

"Known to fail while in close proximity to these lamps" could mean that it fails permanently during the course of being beside the plasma lamp, and this could be an argument against "fail temporarily while" being improper writing, as it clarifies this point. Slike2 23:26, 5 Mar 2005 (UTC)thast hot


I don't see that it could mean that. 'I'll stay here while you go to the bank', 'The cat purred while it was stroked', etc. — I can't think of a natural example in which the event that occurred while something else happened was permanent. To express the meaning you suggest, one would have to say something like: 'known to fail when brought into close proximity to these lamps.' Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 23:40, 5 Mar 2005 (UTC)

You're missing the fine technical point of the words "to fail". Generally, when one is speaking of equipment, especially electronic equipment failing, that refers to a catastrophic failure that incapacitates the equipment. While someone could doubtless manage this with a plasma lamp, this is decidedly not what we're talking about here. We're talking about soft errors, where the trackpad (etc.) simply doesn't function correctly while in the presence of the disruptive RF field. That is why "not work while" is absolutely correct language and not awkward.
Atlant 01:34, 6 Mar 2005 (UTC)
"The car broke down while it was being driven" is a counterexample - while is not the word that matters here, rather the word "fail" and the sense of permanence implied by it. As Atlant said, fail could imply either a complete failure ("we suffered a disk failure"), or a temporary failure ("the disk failed to work"). "Stopped working properly while", or "failed to work properly while" are, I think, the correct wordings. Slike2 03:55, 6 Mar 2005 (UTC)
  • Atlant I accept your expertise on the technical use of fail (modified by Slike2's comments), but that doesn't make 'to not work while' any less awkward.
  • Slike2 Your example depends upon the use of the present continuous in the 'while' clause, though.
  • In any case, I wasn't intending to change it again; I just wanted to explain my unhappiness. Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 11:17, 6 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Perfect. Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 14:12, 6 Mar 2005 (UTC)
We just had an edit collision. I was about to write:
I've tried an entirely-new spin on the sentence; see how it reads now and please let me know what you think. (Sometimes, one just has to chuck away the whole thing and start again. :-) )
I'm hopeful that Mel Etitis's "perfect" is in response to my new language.
Atlant 14:17, 6 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Yes, it was. Very nicely done. Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 14:26, 6 Mar 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Eye of the storm

The article "Eye of the storm" is pointing to this article, but "Eye of the storm" is not mentioned in it. Perhaps someone can add a line or two about this? --Bensin 14:13, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

A quick google does not reveal much. In any case, eye of the storm should probably point to an article on the meterological phenomenon. Suggest this be fixed.

The plasma globe that I bought a few years ago is named "Eye of the Storm". 207.189.230.42 09:37, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

This was the trade name used by Rabbit Co to market the plasma lamps made by Larry Albright. See this interview with Larry from the The Light Artist Anthology [http://www.armchair.com/warp/albrite.html ]--N52MIT (talk) 03:01, 12 December 2007 (UTC)

alternative forms Since the 80s various shapes and variations have appeared, including flat disks, tubes and other forms (I have a pink heart-shaped one). Some of these contain small, clear beads that alter the lighting pattern. Should have more on these. Suggesting that we also get rid of the duplicated plasma ball images, keep the one showing the effect of a hand touching the sphere (with small description) and have 1-2 pics depicting significant variation(s) on the ball design.--ChrisJMoor 01:18, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Bill Parker

Bill Parker did not single handedly "invent" the plasma lamp. While at MIT's CAVS he saw several other artists who worked with Neon (e.g. Alejandro Sina [1]) who had created essentially the same thing ("touch bulbs") albeit with simpler gas mixes or with bulbs of a single gas. There were other West Coast artists also making similar designs at the same time (eg Larry Albright [2] - his was used in the movie The man with Two Brains). It doesn't seem accurate to attribute the invention of this to one person -it reads like a marketing piece on Bill Parker.

--N52MIT (talk) 02:52, 12 December 2007 (UTC)


I've removed the wiki link to Bill Parker since clearly the guy can't create Captain Marvel in 1940 and then be an undergraduate in the 1970s. There are obviously several Bill Parkers.

No problem - added disamb page to cover both (Bill Parker) Ck lostsword 16:15, 20 January 2006 (UTC)
Don't be ridiculous. "If an internal link brought you here...." Everything's taken care of now. --M1ss1ontomars2k4 | T | C | @ 02:55, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Bill Parker (bi)

This is still an uncorrected issue. The part about Bill Parker reads like a ludicrous marketing campaign with unencyclopedic language like "Parker's innovations are a true example of the work of an artistic and scientific genius." Also, it still claims that he single handedly invented the thing. The source of most of the hyperbolic language is this edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Plasma_lamp&diff=167390567&oldid=166185181

I suppose Bill_Parker_(MIT) should also be edited to also correct the "inventor" part...

70.81.15.136 (talk) 09:37, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Plasma disk

There are also plasma disks (Google images) - do they work by the same mechanism as plasma lamps? They have small semi-opaque balls behind the glass shield though. --Abdull 14:00, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

Those are similar to "crackle tubes," large neon art tubes full of glass pellets which cause the plasma streamers to jitter around. The 'Luminglas' disks were invented by Wayne Strattman of Strattman Design--Wjbeaty 22:32, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Plasma lamp's color

Anyone can explain why do beams change their colour near the glass spheres? --83.13.93.51 00:51, 30 December 2006 (UTC)


I'm just making a guess...but it seems that it is the same color light, just different intesnities (sorry about spelling lol). that seems like the only explanations. at the ends of the "light" its a darker purple. in the middle its blue. Seems simlar.LuckyNumberSeven 01:20, 10 February 2007 (UTC)


Do you mean the tiny beads in side Luminglas disks and within crackle-tubes? Those beads are coated with various types of neon-signmakers' phosphor compounds. They appear white to the eye, but fluoroesce with bright colors under UV and electron bombardment in the plasma.
Or, are you talking about the plasma streamers with their differing colors at the streamer tips where they touch the inside of the glass globe? Those colors are controlled by the mixture of frequency emission lines of the gas atoms, and the mixture of frequencies depends on the average energy of electron bombardment. If a relatively slow electron is absorbed by, say, a Neon atom, it can pump one of the atom's electron orbitals only to a slightly higher energy level. That atom will give off only one pure color of light when the orbital falls back down. But if the same atom is struck by a much faster electron, the electron can pump up the orbitals to any number of different high energy states. So, in the main body of a neon plasma streamer where e-fields are highest and electrons are moving fast, the emitted light might be a mixture of orange, blue, and violet lines, and it will appear violet-white. But out at the tip where the e-field and the energy is lowest, only the weakest energy levels are pumped, and the light appears as a neon-orange color. (Tiny neon pilot lights behave similarly: at low voltage they're pure orange, but at high voltage they look blue-white.)--Wjbeaty 22:42, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Lamp's longevity

I brought one 2 days ago, just because they "were there". Wondering how long they last. I can think of 2 likely failure modes - the electronics go, or the cements holding the globe etc could age, become permeable, and let the internal pressure rise beyond what the HV source can strike through. Anyone have experience of this? I would suspect that there's a significant early failure rate, and a long tail where there are rare failures. But you can't do statistics on a sample of 1. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by A Karley (talk • contribs).

Your logic sounds good to me. But is there really cement forming the seal on the gas chamber?
Atlant 01:25, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Emergence emergency

What is meant by "emergent patterns in ionized gas"??? And what about "appearance SIMILAR to multiple constant beams of coloured lightning"???

AFAIK, the ionized channels stay there, in a constant way, the same way as they do in lightnings... There is no "emergent pattern", it's just a "gas filament"!!(???)

I'm also not totally convinced that a "flow of current" to objects outside of the orb happens with more relevance than a possible emission of radio waves... Do we have references for this, OR a physico-mathematical proof? -- NIC1138 20:29, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Video

I added video with plasma lamp on Commons, please see it, if it is useful for this article. --Ragimiri 17:29, 19 April 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Maximum power theorem

An interesting demonstration of this (and a minor safety problem) can occur if you hover a fingertip just above the surface of the glass. (about 0.5mm). It's possible to place it so that the current is not significantly diminished, but the voltage across the gap is substantial. This will form a tiny, but persistent arc, and will form a small burn on the fingertip. I don't recommend that you do experiment - it hurts. --RichardNeill 02:19, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Potential dangers if glass breaks?

I used to have one of these and the glass orb broke a while ago while it was in a box, crushed under much stuff - you could thank my ditzy mother for that.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it would be useful to know exactly what are the dangers if the glass orb breaks and the device is on.

Glass is conductive and I frequently put my finger to the glass as most people do, but I'm pretty sure the concentration of electricity would be much higher without the glass orb spreading it out.

GaeMFreeK 07:13, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Potential dangers vs. Warning

"Warning" didn't sound very encyclopedic, it sounded like an instruction manual, so I changed it.Rglong 02:12, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bill Parker again

removed a bunch of off topic material:


His early studies used scientific methods to reveal rich images of the diverse properties of various types of light. The integration of his scientific insight and artistic intuition began when he went beyond merely observing the phenomenon of his experiments with light. During this time he studied with renowned photographer Minor White. White taught his students to 'see creatively', maintaining a constant awareness of the visual wealth inherent in the environment. Parker's recognition of the beauty of what he observed fueled a longtime passion for the expressive qualities of light, and he created a series of sketches with laser imagery, ionized gas discharge, and light polarization. These early innovative studies earned him an invitation, at the age of twenty, to become the youngest full fellow at M.I.T's Center for Advanced Visual Studies (C.A.V.S). Later he developed it into the now-ubiquitous product while he was an Artist in Residence at the Exploratorium science museum. Most notably in 1975 after designing and supervising the fabrication of a range of pieces and exhibits for the U.S Pavilion at EXPO '75 in Japan and Southeast Asia. His acquaintance with oriental thinking had a profound impact on his sensibilities. During these travels he encountered the Chinese concept of "wu li" (living energy). This concept is particularly manifest in his current works, where his light forms are imbued with an organic complexity and richness and promotes participatory art that embodies integral aspects of lifelike behavior moving and changing in an organic pattern of living motion. This approach promotes interaction and learning that fascinates millions every year. Parker's innovations are a true example of the work of an artistic and scientific genius. Parker's works have captured the minds of many and his interactive kinetic light art sculptures are still sought after today.

Bill Parker's company Advance Independent Research Laboratories (AIR Labs) was the cornerstone of his business and placed the Light Sculpture in the Sharper Image catalog selling an edition of 1988. Bill's brother Jeff Parker directed the operations and is credited with Bill's financial success in the middle 1980s. The company continued to create unique and limited editions of the Light Sculpture in agreement with the Circle Fine Art Galleries. Tabby (talk) 13:15, 15 February 2008 (UTC) you could have shortened this excess info on william parker but since it came from parker and parkers book lets face it parker and Albright did so much for the advancement of plasma it certainly should be documented as well as possible the history of how they both advanced plasma Tesla certainly invented it but these people had such a significant impact I think all the major artists and scientists should be included. It took alot of work to get that info from parker I wouldn't let it go to waste but hey it's just history right you all forgot william lee in 1935 he was the one who put teslas plasma stuff into action an got the plasma ball back rolling I just suggest getting it right or not doing it at all. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.152.132.70 (talk) 05:27, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Interference

Man, this article really could stand some cleanup:

> If the phone uses tone dialing, then the RFI can add digits to the number being dialed, effectively preventing dialing.

This is complete rubbish. Look at the article on DTMF. If anything, it interferes by adding noise to the line, preventing tone recognition by telecom equipment. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 161.165.196.84 (talk) 03:40, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Plasma Disc

I added this term to the "see also" section. I am going to learn how to create a page soon. The last time I tried out wikipedia, I was accused of vandalism because when I created the page, I left it half finished to come back to, but it was deleted, and I reverted it to start working on it again, and the admin was extremely rude and condescending, and I got frustrated. This article was unrelated to the plasma disc article, I have a username sentriclecub, but I don't want to login from this IP because its a public IP. Can someone with positive feedback initiate the page and throw up a picture, and I will come work on it? http://images.google.de/images?num=100&hl=de&safe=off&c2coff=1&q=plasma%20disk&btnG=Suche&sa=N&tab=wi

Also, write on the talkpage at sentriclecub for me to read and discuss. Thanks ~Sentriclecub~ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.70.209.115 (talk) 09:53, 15 March 2008 (UTC)