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Flaming arc The picture above shows an electrical arc burning between a pair of carbon rods that I pulled from zinc batteries. Ignition was done by contact and I used a 400 W HPS reactor ballast to regulate the arc current. The whole system was fed from the 230 V 50 Hz mains. The arc is clearly more luminous than the electrodes, so this classifies as a flaming arc lamp, with the air plasma made luminous mainly by zinc, manganese, and carbon particles coming from the electrodes. The arc gap is about 3 cm, which enabled an impressive emission of light while ensuring a relatively stable arc operation. Keywords: Miscellaneous

Flaming arc


The picture above shows an electrical arc burning between a pair of carbon rods that I pulled from zinc batteries. Ignition was done by contact and I used a 400 W HPS reactor ballast to regulate the arc current. The whole system was fed from the 230 V 50 Hz mains. The arc is clearly more luminous than the electrodes, so this classifies as a flaming arc lamp, with the air plasma made luminous mainly by zinc, manganese, and carbon particles coming from the electrodes. The arc gap is about 3 cm, which enabled an impressive emission of light while ensuring a relatively stable arc operation.
Westinghouse_H33-1-GL21Y_2m.jpg DSCF0262m.jpg Flaming_arc.jpg DSCF0202.JPG DSCF0281m.jpg
Lamp
Lamp Type:Flaming arc
File information
Filename:Flaming_arc.jpg
Album name:Max / Misc lamps and lighting
Keywords:Miscellaneous
Filesize:1798 KiB
Date added:02 Mar 2026
Dimensions:1040 x 1500 pixels
Displayed:41 times
Software:Adobe Photoshop 25.7 (Windows)
URL:https://trad-lighting.net/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=1117
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Comment 1 to 4 of 4
Page: 1

Tuopeek   [Mon 02 Mar 2026 at 22:46]
Good capture, I'm sure it's bright. I tried this on a 250w mercury ballast and found it wasn't all that stable. Obviously the 400w HPS ballast performs hotter and better. Notice there is some liquid blobs forming on the carbon wondered if this was the manganese but I see they add waxes to the sintered carbon rods to reduce trapped oxygen. Think I have memories of similar emanating from pencil graphite heating experiments as a kid. Smile
Max   [Tue 03 Mar 2026 at 06:49]
I doubt this liquid is a wax material, it would catch fire in ambient air at the electrode's operating temperature. This must be some "impurities" like electrolyte remnants from the cathode's former environment.
Tuopeek   [Tue 03 Mar 2026 at 12:06]
Interesting, good point about the temperature. Maybe need some spectral analysis Smile
Max   [Tue 03 Mar 2026 at 18:59]
Definitely! I'm really curious about that arc's spectral emission. Unfortunately I did not have any spectrometer back then, and now I no longer have that setup and I'm more into low-pressure discharges these days. Measurements will have to wait I'm afraid.

Comment 1 to 4 of 4
Page: 1