Hi ION,
i was looking at the patent and understand from your and Grahams comments that your are primarily looking at the Fig. 5 configuration, Right?
It says:
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‘FIG. 5 shows a sealed glass tube 9,5 cm. diameter and 60 cm. long, containing mercury vapour at about 10-3 mm. Hg pressure and provided at each end with
heavy section sealed-in electrodes one of which is an electron emitting cathode.
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This 9,5 cm diameter is rather thick is it not as normal Fluorescent lamps are thinner (the , in this 9,5 means the European indication for a decimal point i think).
Also the pressure (10-3 mm Hg = 0.001mm Hg) ) seems higher as in a normal Fluorescent lamp as according to the below wiki they are at 0.8 Pa (which is 0.006mm Hg
according to the webside below the wiki).
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http://Https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluorescent_lampA Fluorescent lamp tube is filled with a gas containing low pressure mercury vapor and argon, xenon, neon, or krypton.
The pressure inside the lamp is around 0.3% of atmospheric pressure.[23]
[23] Kulshreshtha, Alok K. (2009). Basic Electrical Engineering: Principles and Applications.
India: Tata McGraw-Hill Education. p. 801. ISBN 0-07-014100-2.
The partial pressure of the mercury vapor alone is about 0.8 Pa (8 millionths of atmospheric pressure), in a T12 40-watt lamp. See Kane and Sell, 2001, page 185
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http://Http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/pressure-units-converter-d_569.html10-3mm Hg = 0.13Pa
0.8Pa = 0.006mm Hg
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Anyway, if the pressure and diameter are no real show stoppers, i am interested to give it a try.
I understand your advice is to use a (transparent?) stiff former so we can change the Fluorescent lamps for anything else (copper or iron wire "collector" or partially conductive materials).
Transparent because we would like to see the lamp light up, right?
Regards Itsu