
Guy builds particle accelerator in kitchen - jgamman
http://pstevensonkeating.co.uk/portfolio/handcrafted-particle-accelerator
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ChuckMcM
You know LCDs have taken over when people don't know the difference between a
particle accelerator and a CRT :-).

Basically the guy uses a 45Kv voltage source to 'accelerate' electrons past a
grid which then hit a phosphor and emit light (poorly). If he had used mercury
vapor he could have created ultraviolet light and then used a phosphor to
convert that to visible light and thus make his very own fluorescent bulb.

Now this stuff used to come out every month in Scientific American's Amateur
Science column, these days they are afraid to publish such information for
fear of being sued. Sad really.

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kabdib
I spent many happy hours reading _The Amateur Scientist_ in my Dad's pile of
SciAms. I was never brave enough (or had enough pocket money) to build much,
especially the high voltage gizmos that required, as a rule, a "Model T spark
transformer." That was just terrifying.

I built a Hilsch vortex tube out of plexiglass, some washers and some extra
pipe. Mostly it just whistled obnoxiously; I needed a better source of
compressed air than my bicycle pump and a small reservoir could provide.

I also built a spectrometer, with a transmission grating I got from my science
teacher. That was nifty.

I miss this stuff. We are a poorer nation for losing it. "Make" magazine might
fill in for the gizmo aspect of things, but not so much the science.

Pardon me, I have to chase the kids off my lawn. :-)

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jlgreco
A neat trick these days is to make spectrometer with a diffraction grating
made by removing the backing foil of a CD-R so only the transparent plastic
remains (I did it a few years ago so it may have been one of the other CD
types. Basically if it looks rainbowy afterwords you should be good to go ;)).

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raverbashing
Well, you can use the CD with the aluminium as a reflection grating

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jlgreco
Good point. I used it as a diffraction grating in mine since that allowed me
to construct the rest of it like I remembered them from highschool. So long as
you can spit the light though there are a lot of options.

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geuis
I would like to appreciate this more, but the two videos are very lacking. The
first one is nothing but loud, overly obnoxious weird music. The second, which
seems to detail the crafting and construction of the device, has no sound. A
simple voiceover talking about exactly what is being done would have made this
much better, and at least slightly interesting.

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Florin_Andrei
It's cute, but a lot more is doable at that level. Make a Van de Graaff
generator, big enough to spew at least half a million volts, or perhaps a
tandem generator for a full megavolt goodness. Now connect that puppy to a
vacuum chamber. That's a lot more serious stuff than a measly 45 kV thing.

Also, people have built cyclotrons at home. Just sayin'.

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Retric
Meh, if you want to be _really_ pedantic a candle in a strong magnetic field
is also a particle accelerator. You can even build a Farnsworth–Hirsch fusor
for around 2k or less. But IMO a real particle accelerator need some sensors
to find-out what happens after the collision.

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flarets
no. he's made a fluorescent tube.

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CamperBob2
No, he's made an X-ray machine, and apparently set it up in a department
store.

This is why we can't have cool magazines anymore.

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ChuckMcM
You know I hadn't thought of that but at 45kV he probably is generating some
soft x-rays. Sort of depends on what his anode is made of. I can never
remember how to spell Bremsstrahlung sigh.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bremsstrahlung>

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sageikosa
I was hoping for something a little more "Ghostbustery".

