Roger, Do you have both of your wires in free air, and the arc forms between them? If so, it sounds very much like an arc spray process. If one of your wires is in the water and the other in free air, the arc forming between it and the water, then the process sounds like plasma deposition or spray arc, the later if occasionally a molten ball falls from the electrode.
Whatever method, you will surely achieve a much more stable arc, with out the smoke etc. (which suggests to me that a great deal of oxidation is occurring) if you shield the arc with an inert gas such as argon or nitrogen. You may also find that a pulsed DC supply would give you superior results. Ivan. ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, 11 September 2000 09:57 Subject: Re: CS>Re: Generating "Sputtered" HVAC CS > In a message dated 9/10/00 12:40:13 PM EST, [email protected] writes: > > << Check the definition of sputtering and of evaporation. What you descripe > is > evaporation, and entirely different animal from sputtering. Evaporation not > only > requires high tempertures, but usually requires a hard vacuum as well. > Sputtering > happens at any temperature, even room temperature. It is when electrons in > an > arc have sufficient energy to knock individual atoms or clumps of atoms off > the > target material when they hit. > > A very good example of sputtering at room temperature is the darkening of the > ends of florsecent lamps at the ends, where the tungston is sputtered off and > then condenses onto the ends of the glass tubes making them black. The > tungston > is far below the melting point of tungston when this happens. > > Marshall > >> > > Marshall: I'm sure you're correct in your definition of sputtering. However, > I still think that what I call "sputtering" may not be evaporation because it > occurs spontaneously and is way out of proportion to the apparent temperature > rise of the molten ball. It appears (producing copious sparks and a smokey > corona) and disappears while the ball is still molten and seems to originate > from inside the ball exactly where the white hot cross section of the beam > touches it. Has anyone else observed this phenomenon? Roger > > > -- > The silver-list is a moderated forum for discussion of colloidal silver. > > To join or quit silver-list or silver-digest send an e-mail message to: > [email protected] -or- [email protected] > with the word subscribe or unsubscribe in the SUBJECT line. > > To post, address your message to: [email protected] > Silver-list archive: http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/index.html > List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]> >
