This file is one of the Wolfstone archives of the Halloween mailing lists. You can find out more, and reach the entire collection here: http://www.pobox.com/~wolfstone/_r/HalloweenArchive.html This is a copy of Don Bertino's archive from http://www.calweb.com/~bertino/halloween.html on the subject of "lighting". Minor changes have been made, mostly removal of E-mail headers and signatures, but the germane content is unchanged. - - Date: Fri, 2 Jun 1995 14:45:31 -0700 From: milwiron at ix.netcom.com (D.D. ) Subject: Organ answers Howdy Don, The raven came with a moving beak, wings and glowing eyes (I changed the l.e.d.'s from green to red)... and of coarse the talking. The Radio Shack sensor/alarm uses a 9 volt battery. To activate the sound sensor circuit on the raven I was going to build a mosfet switch to put in place of the speaker on the RS unit. I found that the speaker wires hooked up to the mic. wires on the bird did the trick, if I remember right the polarity was reversed. Not as stimulating as building with mosfets but it works well for some reason (usually this type of cheating won't). I actually bought a couple of the RS units and built a driver board to run a motor, my goal was to have a figure with stereo vision turn and watch people as they moved around...never finished it, maybe this year. The motor and gear box in the skeleton's skull is the unit that was used in those toy sound activated dancing flowers. The action of the jaw going up and down hits a pin and rotates the skull back and forth. The evil laugh comes from an old Halloween deco. After Halloween each year I buy as much junk as I can afford to use later. I built an elaborate sound sensor for my lightning/strobes, but if I can strip something I will. The safest way I've seen Jacob's ladder displayed is in a big acrylic tube. A humid day can still cause some shocking leakage if someone gets too curious. Yeah, I know, add some grounding wires to cut down on capacitance build-up. That's no fun. - - Date: Wed, 31 May 1995 16:50:29 -0700 From: milwiron at ix.netcom.com (D.D. ) Subject: More color organ stuff Hi Don, The strobes I use are fairly cheap ie. 29.99 when on sale at a novelty store chain near Chicago (Spencer's). The thunder sound on the CD is very random so I just let it run constantly, I don't use the tracks that have wind or rain sounds, they sound kind of goofy if it's not raining. The CD is called Sounds Of Horror, found at a local store. I use a motion sensor from Radio Shack motion detector alarm #49-425 to activate a talking black raven sitting on a skull near the front door. The talking raven was a Halloween decoration sold all over that I remounted on the skull and made to look MUCH meaner (hooked beak, big brows, glowing red eyes etc.) it's made by the co. that makes talking toy parrots. It says "beware, beware, the end is near". The skull holds D-cells which last about a week. Can't understand a damn thing it says if the batteries get weak. It also warns me that someone is in the display area. I also have a skeleton dressed as a pirate with a sword in his rib cage that has a moving head and jaw, that laughs as people approach. I sculpted a parrot skeleton out of Sculpty clay to sit on his shoulder. The parrot is jointed but not animated yet. This years addition I hope is going to be a partially dressed and smoke stained skeleton sitting, laughing and shaking in an electric chair with smoke and sparks. I'm not sure about the sparks, I can do a Jacob's ladder with a neon sign transformer, but sparks? Also-I always put one eyeball in an animated skull, it just seems to give it more life. - - Date: Fri, 2 Jun 1995 13:41:55 -0700 (PDT) From: Don Bertino Subject: Re: More color organ stuff On Wed, 31 May 1995, D.D. wrote: Hi Denny! Excellent post! > I use a motion sensor from Radio Shack motion detector alarm #49-425 > to activate a talking black raven sitting on a skull near the front > door. The talking raven was a Halloween decoration sold all over that I > remounted on the skull and made to look MUCH meaner (hooked beak, big > brows, glowing red eyes etc.) it's made by the co. that makes talking > toy parrots. It says "beware, beware, the end is near". The skull holds > D-cells which last about a week. Can't understand a damn thing it says > if the batteries get weak. It also warns me that someone is in the > display area. I have not seen the RS motion detector, what does it run on? Is there a button on the bird that you disable and hook into the motion detector? I missed the bird this past year. Hopefully they will bring it out again this year :-) I have been toying with the idea of using one of those programable parrots and painting it black.... Does this black raven move or have glowing eyes or anything? > I also have a skeleton dressed as a pirate with a sword in his rib > cage that has a moving head and jaw, that laughs as people approach. I > sculpted a parrot skeleton out of Sculpty clay to sit on his shoulder. > The parrot is jointed but not animated yet. What type of motor are you using for the head and jaw action? Are they two separate movements? i.e. head:left-right jaw:up-down? > This years addition I hope is going to be a partially dressed and > smoke stained skeleton sitting, laughing and shaking in an electric > chair with smoke and sparks. I'm not sure about the sparks, I can do a > Jacob's ladder with a neon sign transformer, but sparks? Also-I always > put one eyeball in an animated skull, it just seems to give it more > life. I like this idea! I can see smoke but sparks might be tough (as well as dangerous) A Jacob's Ladder is easy enough to build. I have one that my dad built 30 years ago. The problem I have is people getting to close to it. Ever since those "Plasma bowls" have come out (I am sure you have seen them, the ones with a inode in the center, you then touch the glass and a arc goes from the inode to your hand with a slight tingling) People (at least young teenagers, have *no* fear) I have had to put it up (10 feet) high on a shelve and still have caught kids trying to jump up to it. Jacob's ladders use 5000 volts (1-2 amps) and could really hurt someone. Of course, some rude teenagers, you would like invite to touch! ;-D (Just kidding) I have picked up used neon sign transformers at Neon sign shops for $5. They seem to change these things with everytime they install new tubes (bulbs) - - Date: Tue, 30 May 1995 13:48:17 -0700 From: milwiron at ix.netcom.com (D.D. ) Subject: RE: Projectors and color organs Don Bertino mentioned color organs in his RE: post about shadow projectors. I use a color organ/sound switch to turn strobe lights on and off in conjunction with a sound effects compact disc playing thunder. The CD's one minute track is set to repeat over and over, the speed on the strobe is adjusted to give a fast flash. The strobe light going off at the same time as the thunder stops passer-bys in their tracks every time. The speakers are wrapped in garbage bags and hidden in bushes, the strobes are wrapped in clear plastic for weather protection and mounted in trees in front of and pointing at my house. It has to be pretty dark outside, but it can be seen and heard from a decent distance. It makes a good drawing card. - - Date: Wed, 31 May 1995 15:24:16 -0700 (PDT) From: Don Bertino Subject: RE: Projectors and color organs On Tue, 30 May 1995, D.D. wrote: Hi! > I use a color organ/sound switch to turn strobe lights on and off in > conjunction with a sound effects compact disc playing thunder. The CD's > one minute track is set to repeat over and over, the speed on the > strobe is adjusted to give a fast flash. The strobe light going off at > the same time as the thunder stops passer-bys in their tracks every > time. The speakers are wrapped in garbage bags and hidden in bushes, > the strobes are wrapped in clear plastic for weather protection and > mounted in trees in front of and pointing at my house. It has to be > pretty dark outside, but it can be seen and heard from a > decent distance. It makes a good drawing card. Great idea! This is something I am going to try this year! Did you ever think of hooking a motion detector in parellel (sp?) with this setup. So that when someones walks up a certain distances, it goes off as well as ever 1 minute or so... The cheapest strobe lights I have seem are in kit from (around $19.95) with no reflector and no box. I like this idea! - - Date: Wed, 14 Jun 1995 20:59:28 -0700 (PDT) From: Don Bertino Subject: Re: This year... On Wed, 14 Jun 1995, Matt Gomes wrote: Hi Matt! > It's never to early to start planning for halloween! You got that right!!!! (Who wasn't trying to think about getting bigger and better next year while ripping down last years :-) > I'm planning a "trek/space" type halloween this year. I was wondering if > any of you had some ideas of what I could accomplish. I have seen space done a couple of ways: Putting black plastic up on all walls and ceiling. Painting stars with glow in the dark paint and/or floresent paints. I have bad luck painting on the shiny side of the black plastic but good luck on the dull side. Using clear xmas lights (chasers are even better) to make star fields. Renting a rotating star ball with a few bright lights on it. Black lights and strobe lights are always nice! - - Date: Thu, 15 Jun 95 09:08:38 EDT From: revcoal at pcnet.com (Donna J. Logan) Subject: Re: This year... Okay, lurking mode off..... >> I'm planning a "trek/space" type halloween this year. I was wondering if >> any of you had some ideas of what I could accomplish. > >I have seen space done a couple of ways: > >Putting black plastic up on all walls and ceiling. Painting stars with >glow in the dark paint and/or floresent paints. I have bad luck painting on >the shiny side of the black plastic but good luck on the dull side. I've also seen commercial glow-in-the-dark constellations/planets, etc. They're designed primarily to place on the ceiling of children's bedrooms....I've seen them for sale not only in toy stores, but also in gift stores, and also in my local healthfood store. - - Date: Thu, 15 Jun 1995 15:36:55 -0700 (PDT) From: Don Bertino Subject: Simulating Firefly's Hello everyone! Living out here in California, I have always heard about, but not seen, Fire Flys. The urban legends of capturing enough fire flies and putting them in a bottle and using them as a lantern abound. In Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean, the start of it is in a swamp. To the left and right are simulated fire flies. They wink in and out of existance. In reading the "E" Ticket (A magazine about pre-1969 Disney attractions) talk about it. They said they take "grain-of-wheat" light bulbs on thin wires and hang them from the ceiling. They cover half the bulb up with black tape and put a fan blowing upward. So as the bulb swings back and forth, as the unmasked side is in view, its on. As it swings around, its off. Such a easy solution.. - - From: david at pharm.medsch.ucla.edu Subject: RE: Simulating Firefly's Hi Don, >In reading the "E" Ticket (A magazine about pre-1969 Disney attractions) >talk about it. They said they take "grain-of-wheat" light bulbs on thin >wires and hang them from the ceiling. They cover half the bulb up with >black tape and put a fan blowing upward. So as the bulb swings back and >forth, as the unmasked side is in view, its on. As it swings around, its >off. >Such a easy solution.. Last year at the Los Angeles County Fair in the indoor botanical section they had this black box that controlled simulated fireflies. I believe it had the same bulbs you mention only the movement seemed to be mechanically controlled. The effect was the same as the fireflies at Disneyland. I'll see if I can get more info when the fair opens this summer. They also had these misters that really made a lot of fog. I can see it now, Pirates of the Caribbean in your own backyard. - - From: milwiron at ix.netcom.com Date: Thu, Jun 15 17:20:33 1995 Subject: Re: Simulating Firefly's Don Said: They said they take "grain-of-wheat" light bulbs on thin >wires and hang them from the ceiling. They cover half the bulb up with >black tape and put a fan blowing upward. So as the bulb swings back and >forth, as the unmasked side is in view, its on. As it swings around, its >off. > >Such a easy solution.. Coming up with a million complicated solutions is always easy. The simple and functional...pure genius. - - From: lewisw at oasys.dt.navy.mil (Bill Lewis) Subject: Re: Simulating Firefly's Date: Tue, 6 Jun 1995 13:15:31 -0700 (PDT) >: Don Said: >: They said they take "grain-of-wheat" light bulbs on thin >: >wires and hang them from the ceiling. They cover half the bulb up > >Hey, all, > > Now the question is.... where do you get "grain-of-wheat" light bulbs? > >-M Hobby shops (real ones) used to have them. They used to be sold on that big rack with all of the little packages of miscelaneous harware for airplanes trains and cars. They are popular with train people for light up the displays etc... - - Date: Sun, 18 Jun 1995 12:08:33 -0700 From: Scott Axworthy Subject: Re: Fireflies I just got caught up on the recent firefly discussion and thought I let you know how I did mine. Having been raised on Disney attractions of course I had to have some fireflys. When I first started working on fireflies I tried quite a few things to get them to act like fireflies. I tried the hanging style with fans but never achieved very good firefly action. I also wanted a system that was very easy to set up and use because I was going to ship them to my sister to use at a New Orleans style dinner event. My final design turned out great and my fireflies have been serving me well for about 9 years. They are also trivial to set up. I ended up inverting the whole concept. Instead of hanging them, I put them at the end of flexible "poles". These poles are about 4 feet long and made up of three pieces of piano wire. The bottom piece is somewhat thick and not very flexible, the next is thinner and more flexible, and the top is very thin and flexible. Very small amounts of motion in the bottom of the pole produce large motions in the top of the pole. The firefly is a small yellow LED and it produces a fantastic firefliy look. The piano wire is one conductor for the LED and a very thin wire (wirewrap wire) spirals around the pole to supply the other conductor. To get the fireflies moving, I used a old mirror ball motor that I had lying around. It is geared down very slow and I turned it upside down so that the spindle is aimed up. I attached a cog to the spindle that started as a round piece of plexiglass. I gave the outer edge a random set of valleys and peaks. I then attached three of my firefly poles around the outer edge of the cog. The result is, as the cog turns it pushes the poles around in a somewhat random fashion. The fireflies at the top fly around within about a 4 1/2 diameter area. As the poles bounce against each other the fireflies interact with each other for a moment and fly off again. The effect is somewhat mesmerizing watching them fly around and interact. Set up is a breeze, whip them out of the storage box and set them down, plug in the motor, plug in the battery for the flies and it takes off. - - Subject: Re: Simulating Firefly's Date: Fri, 16 Jun 1995 17:31:10 -0400 (EDT) From: "Nathan Kahn" > > : Don Said: > : They said they take "grain-of-wheat" light bulbs on thin > : >wires and hang them from the ceiling. They cover half the bulb up > > Hey, all, > > Now the question is.... where do you get "grain-of-wheat" light bulbs? > You get them from electronic supply / Radio Shak kind of places. Or you get them from stage lighting places, and theatrical special effects places. But I would look in your yellow pages under "electronics distributors" - - Date: Fri, 16 Jun 1995 19:52:08 -0700 From: milwiron at ix.netcom.com (D.D. ) Subject: Re: Simulating Firefly's You wrote: >> : Don Said: >> : They said they take "grain-of-wheat" light bulbs on thin >> : >wires and hang them from the ceiling. They cover half the bulb up >> Hey, all, >> Now the question is.... where do you get "grain-of-wheat" light bulbs? >You get them from electronic supply / Radio Shak kind of places. Or you get Howdy Y'all Most of us Northerners (Yankees) think grits are made out of grain of wheat bulbs found in the hot cereal section at the grocery store. Actually...grain of wheat bulbs can eat a bit of current. I wonder if yellow L.E.D.s might give off a better color and use a bunch less current. Two D cells in series (3 Volts) can run a quite a few L.E.D.s hooked up to the batteries in parallel for a long time. - - From: dbell at cup.portal.com Subject: Re: Strobes/kits Date: Wed, 31 May 95 16:30:09 PDT Don Bertino wrote: >The cheapest strobe lights I have seem are in kit from (around $19.95) >with no reflector and no box. I like this idea! Don, and others, I have seen these strobe kits at $9.95 from Electronic Rainbow ((317) 291-7262, Indianapolis, IN), and in their kit displays in local distributors and surplus stores. Also, other interesting and possibly useful goodies like FM wireless mics, receivers, amplifiers, etc... If you decide to try one of their kits, they also sell their Kit Book, which contains all the PC layouts, parts lists, schematics, etc, for all the kits, for $9.95 with the purchase of any kit. This will give you some ideas for other applications, - - From: dbell at cup.portal.com Subject: Re: Shadow projecting light boxes. Date: Tue, 30 May 95 10:06:58 PDT Don Bertino asked: >Last year I saw these items for sale in some magizine. They were a box >5"x5" with a strong bulb in it and it came with different figures you >could snap in front of the light which would project a shadow in the >shape of Santa or Witch or any other of 15 different things. I haven't seen these commercially, but I've done similar stuff, using "peanut" halogen lamps for a point source. If the throw is reasonably long, the effect is quite good! The real trick is to minimize the size of the lamp/filament. For close range projection (because the intensity is a lot lower) try the tiny grain-of-wheat Krypton lamps used in the pocket Mag-lites. You could easily power a bunch of these in parallel off a small wall transformer, for multiple projectors. Now, how about an easy way of making the projection masks? I'm going to try laser printing onto transparency film this year; hopefully, there won't be much haze in the clear portions to reduce the contrast. A cutout mask would be better, but a LOT more work! - - Date: Tue, 30 May 1995 12:07:50 -0700 (PDT) From: Don Bertino Subject: Re: Shadow projecting light boxes. On Tue, 30 May 1995 dbell at cup.portal.com wrote: > Don Bertino asked: > > >Last year I saw these items for sale in some magizine. They were a box > >5"x5" with a strong bulb in it and it came with different figures you > >could snap in front of the light which would project a shadow in the > >shape of Santa or Witch or any other of 15 different things. > > I haven't seen these commercially, but I've done similar stuff, > using "peanut" halogen lamps for a point source. If the throw > is reasonably long, the effect is quite good! The real trick > is to minimize the size of the lamp/filament. Great! Can you tell me more info, like... "peanut" halogen lamps are used where? I assume that they are 12 volt? What is the spacing between the bulb and the "mask" and the object you are lighting up? > For close range > projection (because the intensity is a lot lower) try the tiny > grain-of-wheat Krypton lamps used in the pocket Mag-lites. You > could easily power a bunch of these in parallel off a small > wall transformer, for multiple projectors. Good idea! I'll have to play with this. :-) > Now, how about an easy way of making the projection masks? I'm > going to try laser printing onto transparency film this year; > hopefully, there won't be much haze in the clear portions to > reduce the contrast. A cutout mask would be better, but a LOT > more work! It seems like this would work great! If the hazing go to bad, you could use a exacto knife to cut the clear areas out and mount it on to a sheet of glass or plastic. I assume that heat is not a problem? I could see putting multiable ones together and setting up a cheap outdoor slide presentation. Or adding color and hooking it up to a color organ (a $12 kit that hooks up to your speakers that converts highs, mediums and lows into voltage) Hmmmm... - - Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 15:40:24 -0700 (PDT) From: Don Bertino Subject: Painting light bulbs Hi Everyone! Yes, it's coming upon us way, way too quick. So many great ideas to try, so little time.... :( I was wondering if anyone had any experiance in light bulb painting or dipping? What type of paints have you used and such? Does anyone have a source for the tinting put on black light bulbs? I have fallen in love with..... a set of 25 C-9 Xmas bulbs that are black lights. Yes, if I die tomorrow, someone please put a box of them with me before I go... :) But I refuse to pay $25 for it. Well, we'll see if they are there after Halloween. ;) BTW, way back when, we had a discussion about shadow boxes. These are boxes with 3 or 4 D-cell batteries and a kriton bulb in it with a negative over the front. This projects a 6-9 foot shadow on a surface, of witches or ghosts (they have other negatives for other holidays) $8.95 at Walmart This year, they had the negative on a circular dome. Where the light was in the center and the top had fan blades built into it. Only one-third was showing at a time. So the heat from the light slowly rotated it, and the scene changed. Pretty cool. $19.95 - - Subject: Re: Painting light bulbs Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 21:19:54 -0400 (EDT) From: "Nathan Kahn" > > I was wondering if anyone had any experiance in light bulb painting or > dipping? What type of paints have you used and such? > I have used successfully a product by Rosco (the famous color gel manufacturer) called Colorine. It can be found, or more likely special ordered, from any theatrical dealer. (I don't know of any theatrical suppliers that don't handle Rosco products.) If the bulb is low wattage enough, you may be able to use any transparent lacquer paint. But it might burn the paint off if the bulbs get too hot. > Does anyone have a source for the tinting put on black light bulbs? I > have fallen in love with..... a set of 25 C-9 Xmas bulbs that are black > lights. Yes, if I die tomorrow, someone please put a box of them with > me before I go... :) But I refuse to pay $25 for it. Well, we'll see > if they are there after Halloween. ;) Really?!?!?! Never heard of such a thing. Blacklight bulbs aren't tinted, they're made from a special glass, so I guess you're out $25! (The glass is horrendously expensive. I don't think those Xmas lights are overpriced.) - - Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 11:24:04 -0700 (PDT) From: Don Bertino Subject: Re: Painting light bulbs On Thu, 12 Oct 1995, Nathan Kahn wrote: Hi Nathan! > > I was wondering if anyone had any experiance in light bulb painting or > I have used successfully a product by Rosco (the famous color gel > manufacturer) called Colorine. It can be found, or more likely special > ordered, from any theatrical dealer. (I don't know of any theatrical > suppliers that don't handle Rosco products.) > > If the bulb is low wattage enough, you may be able to use any transparent > lacquer paint. But it might burn the paint off if the bulbs get too hot. Thanks for the info. > > Does anyone have a source for the tinting put on black light bulbs? I > > have fallen in love with..... a set of 25 C-9 Xmas bulbs that are black > > lights. Yes, if I die tomorrow, someone please put a box of them with > > me before I go... :) But I refuse to pay $25 for it. Well, we'll see > > if they are there after Halloween. ;) > > Really?!?!?! Never heard of such a thing. Blacklight bulbs aren't tinted, > they're made from a special glass, so I guess you're out $25! (The glass is > horrendously expensive. I don't think those Xmas lights are overpriced.) I'm sorry I didn't make myself clear. I talking about the cheap $1.99 60 watt light bulbs that are sold all over the place. I don't think they are *true* black lights, just the right color, but I don't know. These are the ones I am asking about. - - From: "BHendrsn at kirk.microsys.net" Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 12:18:47 +0000 Subject: Re: Painting light bulbs > > Really?!?!?! Never heard of such a thing. Blacklight bulbs aren't tinted, > > they're made from a special glass, so I guess you're out $25! (The glass is > > horrendously expensive. I don't think those Xmas lights are overpriced.) > > I'm sorry I didn't make myself clear. I talking about the cheap $1.99 > 60 watt light bulbs that are sold all over the place. I don't think > they are *true* black lights, just the right color, but I don't know. > > These are the ones I am asking about. I just went and grabbed some of my blacklights and there is a difference between the cheap ones and the "real" ones. Some of the ones I bought years ago are made of the special glass but the more recent ones (the ones that cost $1.59) look like they have been dipped in something since they have an almost paint-texture to them. I can even see on one of the bulbs where the latex paint is starting to burn off (probably have to get rid of this bulb this year). Unfortunately, it doesn't say anywhere on the packaging what the dip might be. - - Date: Sat, 14 Oct 95 19:05 PDT From: rbradvica at covina.lightside.com (R. Bradvica) Subject: Re: Painting light bulbs >Does anyone have a source for the tinting put on black light bulbs? I >have fallen in love with..... a set of 25 C-9 Xmas bulbs that are black >lights. Yes, if I die tomorrow, someone please put a box of them with >me before I go... :) But I refuse to pay $25 for it. Well, we'll see >if they are there after Halloween. ;) > Good news and bad news, first the good news. The black light christmas bulb set is on sale at Spencer Gifts for $14.99(at least it was today, saturday oct 14) Now the bad news... they aren't true black lights. more of a purple, but still a nice effect. - - Date: Mon, 5 Jun 1995 13:19:10 -0700 From: Scott Axworthy Subject: Party Invitation As promised, here is the text of my last invitation. It is much better in person, as it was printed on a yellowed parchment with burnt and singed edges. In the bottom right corner was an old fashioned, blood-red wax stamp with a gargoyle insignia. ------------------------------------------------------ Its very memory gives a shape to fear. -Dante The Inferno, Canto I, (c.1307-1321) Dark night, waning moon A night that breeds dread Leaves falling, naked trees casting long shadows Traces of fog, traces of breath Dead end street, an open gate Jack o'lanterns summoning A deviation down a long stark drive A house stained with peril Malignant shadows vigilant Apparitions dancing on night air A premonition; take heed Fear bathed in maddening curiosity The lion announces arrival; reverberating The door sighs Chaos of mortals Becostumed enchantment Compelling, entrancing Dazed by music, dance, spirits Will, shaken of substance Dread, foreboding, no return Too late A return to a forgotten time Arrival, incorporeal destination The unseen, the unexpected One way, no return Thoughts made indelible Never the same It has a name Halloween at the Axworthys Saturday, the 29th night of October, 7:30 P.M. Costumes Preferred - - Date: Wed, 23 Aug 1995 08:25:51 -0700 (PDT) From: Don Bertino Subject: Neon Effects ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: TheLazer at aol.com Date: Tue, 22 Aug 1995 21:02:33 -0400 Subject: Neon Effects Can anyone tell me what the price per foot of a neon tube called "Crackle Neon" could be, or what company makes it. I know it is used in Disney and it can reall be used to make some cool High-Tech looking scary stuff. But, the local Neon shops are no help at all.! - - Date: Wed, 23 Aug 1995 13:11:14 -0700 From: milwiron at ix.netcom.com (D.D. ) Subject: Re: Neon Effects You wrote: >Can anyone tell me what the price per foot of a neon tube called "Crackle >Neon" could be, or what company makes it. I know it is used in Disney and it >can reall be used to make some cool High-Tech looking scary stuff. But, the >local Neon shops are no help at all.! >Jay Hi Jay, If it's what I'm thinking of, they put either small chips or small balls of glass in the neon tube before it's sealed and pumped with gas. I can't help on price, but regular neon can run 25 to $100.00 a foot (therabouts) depending on the quantity and complexity of bending. Straight border work can get down to around $8.00 a foot...also depending on qty. Denny P.S. My new hard drive is installed... 1.2 jiggle bites. Remember to back-up those files folks. - - Date: Thu, 14 Sep 1995 06:16:51 -0700 From: milwiron at ix.netcom.com (D.D. ) Subject: RE: Neon Special effects Jay had written the list asking about a special neon tubing effect seen at Disney. I didn't include much detail in my first reply but a couple of people asked for more info., I'll try to keep this short. This neon tube (If we're talking the same stuff) is also called sparkle or crackle neon. It's made by using 20 to 30 mm clear neon tube and filling it with bits of 5mm tubing, 3 to 6mm long. Cutting enough small bits takes forever. The tube is pumped and bombarded normally and filled with neon or neon/argon at normal gas pressure for the 20 to 30mm tube used. Pumping and bombarding is the process used to evacuate and clean the neon tube of impurities and also to prepare the electrodes for use. The gas pressure used is a vacuum compared to atmospheric pressure but compared to the evacuation levels used in cleaning (best below 5 microns), it's a relatively large amount of neon or argon/neon gas. This neon produces it's effect because the electric arc in the tube follows the path of least resistance around the bits of glass. As the heat of the arc increases resistance the arc jumps to a new path, giving the effect of bright, miniature lightning bolts. I'll leave out how the electrons and gas molecules make light for the sake of brevity. - - Date: Tue, 26 Sep 1995 12:22:19 -0700 From: milwiron at ix.netcom.com (D.D. ) Subject: Color organs for lightning Hey All, This year I decided to retire my home built sound switch that I've used to control the strobe light/lightning effect, it worked but needed 6 batteries for the electronics... a drag in cold weather. (a transformer and bridge rectifier wasn't an option, long story) I ordered one of the light organ boards from Electronic Goldmine that I mentioned last week. For $4.95 this thing is a bargain! It's a big board that's easy to work with and the controls are very sensitive, which is good. It comes with some handwritten instructions and diagrams. You need to build it into a box from Radio Shack and add a fuse for safety. If your thinking lightning and can't find a color organ I would suggest checking out this board if you can do some simple wiring yourself or find a friend to help. Electronic Goldmine, (602) 451-7454, $10.00 minimum. Nice people to talk to and the service was fast. Denny - - Subject: Blacklight bulbs Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 21:24:22 -0400 (EDT) From: "Nathan Kahn" For those of you who are interested . . . what are blacklight bulbs? >From the beginning, White light is a mixture of all different frequencies of visible light. Different colors are different frequencies. A green sweater is green because it reflects the green frequencies of light back at your eyeball. When you buy a red light bulb at a party store, or a piece of red gel paper at a theatrical supplier, the common misconception is that the red paper or red glass is turning the white light red. What is actually happening is that the gel paper (correct term "color filter") is filtering out all of the frequencies of light except for the red ones. So the red gel doesn't *change* the white light to red. It *prevents* anything except red light from passing through it. At one end of the lighting spectrum you have infra red, at the other end ultra violet. The ultra violet rays farthest from the regular visible spectrum of light are dangerous - they're the ones used for sun tanning, germicidal bulbs in hospitals, etc. The frequencies of ultra-violet that are closest to regular violet light frequencies are the safe ones. These are the ones that are used in blacklights. Like gel paper, blacklight glass prevents everything *except* ultra-violet light from passing through it. That's a lot of light that the blacklight filter is absorbing -- that's why you can't get blacklight gel paper. It would melt very quickly. That's why those novelty screw-in blacklight bulbs get so hot. The glass is absorbing so much non-UV light. And a regular incandescent light bulb doesn't give off that much UV in the first place. So when you use the UV filter glass to prevent anything that isn't UV from coming through, hardly anything comes through. Fluorescent (stick) light bulbs naturally emit a lot more UV light. So when they are filtered to prevent anything from UV from coming out, you have a nice source of blacklight. (F40/BLB "black light blue" is the standard 4' blacklight bulb. F40/BL's are a lot cheaper. These are not filtered, so they give off regular light in addition to blacklight. They are a lot cheaper.) Mercury Vapor bulbs are a good source of blacklight (UV) also. There are pigments that become excited and fluoresce under ultra-violet light. Many white fibers act this way naturally. Remember when Clorox used to advertise "with blueing"? Well that blueing is actually ultra-violet dye. When you wash your whites in Clorox, they absorb UV dye, and then when you go out in the sun your clothes fluoresce. (Yes sunshine is a good source of UV too.) And Clorox still has "blueing" in it, its just not in their ad campaign any more. - - Date: Mon, 16 Oct 1995 12:18:56 -0700 From: milwiron at ix.netcom.com (D.D. ) Subject: Re: Blacklight bulbs Nathan Wrote: (Much deleted for brevity) >Like gel paper, blacklight glass prevents everything *except* >ultra-violet light from passing through it. That's a lot of light >that the blacklight filter is absorbing -- that's why you can't get >blacklight gel paper. It would melt very quickly. That's why those >novelty screw-in blacklight bulbs >get so hot. The glass is absorbing so much non-UV light. And a >regular incandescent light bulb doesn't give off that much UV in the >first place. So when you use the UV filter glass to prevent anything >that isn't UV from coming >through, hardly anything comes through. >Fluorescent (stick) light bulbs naturally emit a lot more UV light. >So when they are filtered to prevent anything from UV from coming out, >you have a nice source of blacklight. (F40/BLB "black light blue" is >the standard 4' blacklight bulb. F40/BL's are a lot cheaper. These >are not filtered, so they... Nathan's comments are very true, I only want to add that another reason that fluorescent black light tubes emit much more uv than incandescent bulbs is because the inside of the tube is coated with a combination of fluorescent minerals that fluoresce with a higher uv output than the regular coatings used in fluorescent tubes (daylight, etc). For stimulating conversation at your next cocktail party, those coatings to produce uv are usually calcium cerium phosphate and barium alumina silicate. Hmmm... maybe that's why nobody talks to me at parties. - - From: "Cassidy, Susan" Subject: another use for flashing pumpkin eyes Date: Mon, 09 Oct 95 09:08:00 PDT For all the other electrically-impaired people out there: I wanted to have a light (preferably flashing) inside my little two-story haunted house that I built from a design in a craft magazine (it turned out neat). I thought of a short string of battery-powered xmas lights (too many lights, and I would have to dig through all the xmas boxes to find them), or a small flashlight, then I had an inspiration! I had purchased a set of the flashing pumpkin eyes at the grocery store on Saturday ($1.76 - what a deal). The wires from the battery pack to the individual eyes were just long enough to put the battery pack and one eye inside the bottom floor, and to run the second eye up into the second floor. It was just the right amount of light and they flash - periodically lighting up the little ghosts I placed inside to peer out the windows! They also used a set of these at the Spencer Gifts shop at the mall to place in a plastic skull's eye sockets - it looked cool! Of course, now I will have to buy more flashing pumpkin eyes! (I knew I should have bought more!) - -