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This episode is sponsored by The Pittsburgh Foundation and The Heinz Endowment in reception of the Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh Grant, and residency is hosted by the Pittsburgh Glass Center.
During the early 2 months of the Covid-19 pandemic with the stay-at-home order here in Pittsburgh, I took advantage of that time to research. Among many things, I wanted to answer several questions I had for the noble gases: when were they discovered, who discovered them, and the naming convention behind the gases. (the last one being my slight obsession with word and meanings/definitions of). I ended up on the Chemistry World website where I found this article. Now it took a little more time than previous permission but Taming Lightning has been granted permission to read the following article from the Chemistry World Magazine by the Royal Society of Chemistry.
You can can view the contents of a magazine for free with limited readings, but with Free registration, you’ll be able to read more articles per month before seeing the dreaded paywall. Which if your like me, not a heavily invested, it’s a perfect fit.
They also include podcasts: such as Chemistry in its Element, a weekly tour of the periodic table. (I’ve made a playlist on spottily called Elements of Plasma), and Chemistry World Book club, where you can explore popular science books and interviews with their authors, which you can find on any of your podcatchers, just like the one you’re listening to now. For Full or unlimited access to their website there several options available: yearly access is $40, monthly is 4 dollars, and 30 day pass is 5.
Show Notes
Thank You for listening to the Taming Lightning Podcast. I hope you enjoyed the reading of A Noble Quest: History of Noble Gases. I wanted to share this because we mirror elements of this in our own pursuits be it neon or plasma. We will find there are many fields to learn and understand, we will be challenged or helped by our contemporaries, and it all starts with what we have around us, well in the case of noble gases is air, and I encourage you to do the same with what resources are available to you. Thus I enjoy searching for interesting articles and papers that you can listen to as you carry on with your day. If you find something interesting that you would like to have narrated, please send me an email or Facebook message at Taming Lightning.
I’d like to thank Gill Cockhead, the contracts & copyright Executive at the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the Chemistry World Magazine for the permission to narrate Mike Sutton article, A Noble Quest: History of Noble Gases. I’ve purchased a 30-day pass and hope to find other related articles to narrate. Also I’d like to thank Pittsburgh Glass Center for supporting me as a place of research and inspiration, The Heinz Endowments and the Pittsburgh Foundation for their support through the 2019 Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh Grant, which allowed me to buffer my loss of income during the early 2 months of the Covid-19 pandemic, and Plasma Art Alliance where I have access to the well of knowledge and connects me to some amazing and supportive people. Feel free to share, comment, and subscribe. As always Be Safe, Be Healthy, and Be Strong, and I’ll See you next time -Percy Echols II | Taming Lightning
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Hello Lightning Tamers!
Found this at the suggestion of youtube and though many of you who are interested in plasma would find it useful and insightful. While I acknowledge that I haven't been able to provide any significant introduction into the process of Plasma per interest of art as shown by my guests, this video does offer a well rounded explanation for equipment used to create vacuum, material properties, and well the functional use for plasmas as part of future energy source. I hope this helps give you a better insight into what it takes to makes something like this happen, and encourage you to research and read some of the sources I've listed in the RESOURCES tab to the right. I've also provide an updated below regarding my progress on the PGC Light Lab.
Essentially in this step I used an ultrasonic cleaner with Cleaning Detergent called Citranox, which was suggested by Tim Drier, then used scotch pad scrub, rinsed with water, and then final rinse with De-ionized water. Bruce Suba had noted that he uses another process for cleaning, so stay tuned for a post from him.
Thank you, Percy Echols II | Taming Lightning
With his engineer background was all he had before becoming enamored by nixie tubes. not unlike myself, he pursued as much info as he could be it text or what little existed on the internet before needing the help of those willing to share their knowledge. He search, gathered, and learned about the equipment needed, taught himself how to work glass and used lathe, and to process, clean, and use vacuum system. He's very open with sharing his process, his success, his failures, Questions, and solutions. After the podcast, please checkout his youtube channel for his latest projects and designs.
Show Notes
Thank you for listening to the Taming Lightning Podcast. I’d like to thank Dalibor Farny for taking the time to record for the podcast, as well for sharing with me knowledge on reading and equipment recommendations. Like most episodes this is an introduction, and hope to have him on again to talk about some of his recent projects. I'd like to thank Pittsburgh Glass Center for supporting me as a place of research and inspiration, also Plasma Art Alliance where I have access to the well of knowledge and connects me to some amazing and supportive people.
Feel free to share, comment, and subscribe. As always Be Safe, Be Healthy, and Be Strong, and I’ll See you next time! -Percy Echols II | Taming Lightning
Hello Lightning Tamers!
Good news was voted in as a new Committee Board Member of the Plasma Art Alliance, and today I'd like to share with you neon and plasma enthusiast a call for artist that I hope you all will share or participate in. We hope that you are staying as well as possible in these unusual times and invite you to participate in the Plasma Art Alliance’s first virtual exhibition presented online, “A Flowering of Hope.” The show’s theme arises from the urgency of the times we find ourselves in—it is more critical than ever to come together in support of a message of hopefulness for positive change in the world. As an international organization of plasma light artists, we propose to use our creative medium of light art to embody this theme. Please submit the following to this Dropbox link: Submission Guidelines
1) Create a plasma wildflower or light sculpture, you may also use previous work you've made for your submission. This does not have to be newly created work.
2) Include your name and the country where you reside. 3) Submit a photo of your artwork .jpg (formatted to 1200 pixels on the longest side.) OR a video (1 minute max.) 4) Include a message of hope in a global sense or a personal one either written or in the form of a video or audio clip (1 minute max.) 5) A link to more of your artwork/website (optional). The assortment of light art wildflowers that we collect will be displayed on our PAA webpage, www.plasmaartalliance.com Deadline for submission of work: July 25th . This is not a juried exhibition; all submissions following these guidelines will be accepted and all skill levels are encouraged to participate. Please join us, to share and examine our place in this historic moment.
"This globe (1000ml) was a complete surprise. After having great success with filling several green globes I decided that I wanted a large pure xenon globe. I run voltage on the plasma tubes when I am filling them but it only gives me an idea how things will look after I seal the globe and mount it. The fact that the globe is connected to a grounded metal vacuum system tends to distort the plasma effects.
After sealed and mounted this globe I was surprised to see a faint green spider that grew "legs" as the voltage went higher. It looks just like the spikes on ferrofluid with a magnetic field applied and I'd bet the physics is analogous. This globe has 50 torr of xenon."
And what a big success this was. I paced myself and did some practice seals to get a handle on how to work at the torch. I was most concerned about modifying the main body of the manifold which allows to me connect to the pump, gauges, and gases. Oh, would I be completely destroyed if that had gone badly.
Essentially I'm looking to achieve is to take our current setup apply the following changes:
Stay tuned for more as I continue working on the Plasma Light Lab!
-Percy Echols II | Taming Lightning
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Image: Return to Hieroglyphics by James Akers
Disclaimer
Welcome to Taming Lightning, I'm Percy Echols II. I'm the creator and host of Taming Lightning, as well as the emerging plasma tech at Pittsburgh Glass Center, where I'm researching and developing a space to explore Plasma and Neon Light as an Artist Medium.
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