Through the use of a handmade Tesla Carbon Button Lamp, the effect of plasma rotation as noted by Tesla in his 1892 book and lecture, “Experiments With Alternate Currents of High Potential and High Frequency,” was successfully replicated. This is likely one of the only video footage examples in the 21st Century which demonstrates the Brush Effect. It must be noted that previous examples presented by myself as well as other colleagues may show curious plasma formations taking on irregular and possible motion. That is, the manifestation of phenomena which may be wrongly classified as the Brush Effect, is in fact simply a formation. Whereas the Rotating Brush Effect is due to the rotational fields of the applied high frequency currents to the lamp, giving forth a rotation of encapsulated matter not physically bounded by the exposed inner terminal.
The following images showcase this replicated Carbon Button Lamp, in which a slight modification has been made to their construction. That is, the evacuation stem is situated at the base of the lamp, as opposed to the top as originally done with all high vacuum lamps in the 19th and early 20th Century. This stem configuration is not suitable for high frequency – high potential work, as high potential gradients can develop atop their points, puncturing and ruining the lamp’s vacuum.
As described in the video, the lamp cannot be directly operated with the RF supply after being removed and sealed from the vacuum pump. This is due to the fact that surface molecules which naturally exist on the interior of the lamp’s glass envelope and metal electrodes, must freely circulate to produce ionized matter and establish dynamic phosphorescence. Hence, the lamp is directly terminated to a high potential disruptive discharge source, (i.e. a diathermy apparatus), to liberate these molecules through the action of steep transient impulses. Once this is done, a misty-white colour is gradually produced, which is further advanced by means of a high potential radio frequency source. This eventually leads to incandescence of the carbon button, plasma formations, and ultimately the Rotating Brush Effect. Below are a collection of the lamp in various stages, as represented by the video above.
