Talk:Cold cathode

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Arc or glow discharge?

Is a neon lamp really an example of arc discharge? I thought it was glow discharge. A neon sign, on the other hand...

Atlant 18:02, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

In German wie distinguish between (Neon-)Glimm-lampe (= neon-(glow-)lamp, a small bulb about 2 mm distance between electrodes, starts to glow at 70 volts as in the screwdriver style voltage tester) and the Neon-Röhre (=neon tube, 2 cm inner diameter and 5 to 300 cm length with 4500 volts to ignite teh arc, and to be coloured by different gas fillings, fluorescent pigments, glass colours) 91.141.97.179 (talk) 08:17, 25 July 2009 (UTC) johannes muhr, graz (A)[reply]

Patents?

An anonymous editor has added examples of CC patents. Is there any evidence that these particlular ones are practical or have been the basis of any commercial development? Simply browsing patent files is not likely to be very fruitful in this regard. --Blainster 12:16, 14 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Well, I'm tempted to give any patent by Philo Farnsworth the "Okay" based just upon his name and fame, and looking at the first patent, it seems reasonably relevant. I'm not sure it goes to "the heart of the matter", but it's not bad or spam or anything like that.

Atlant 15:56, 17 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Common usage?

Right now, if one searches for "cold cathode" in Google, one gets a whole bunch of ads for the PC case mods using "cold cathodes", and mostly after those, comes more generic items. I'd love to see a "Common Usage" section, with at least one question answered: what sort of power supplies are really required? The case mods are all being sold with inverters, which convert from PC power supply input (12VDC, approx. 4W per tube) to (I think, based on some blogosphere statements only) ~300 VAC at some unknown Hz and low current. If this is true, I think it should theoretically be possible to build an AC-to-AC power supply cheaper than those inverters, losing less power to heat in power conversion, and very useful to implement those wonderfully inexpensive cathodes for room and desk lighting and more. Anyone have a clue where to look for the skinny?

Wikipedia isn't the place for manuals or how-to documents, sorry. See Wikipedia:What_Wikipedia_is_not#Wikipedia_is_not_a_manual.2C_guidebook.2C_textbook.2C_or_scientific_journal for some suggestions (and maybe someone can beautify this link, as I don't have the patience to figure out whether it can be, bleah). 72.48.98.26 (talk) 09:36, 17 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Regarding your question "what sort of power supplies are required" I added an external link to Everbrite. This is one of several companies who make neon lamp supplies. Hope this helps. WWriter (talk) 19:49, 28 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Definition of "Cathode Ray"

In section 2 the following definition is given:

"Cathode rays - The positive ions created when some electrons are removed from the molecules of a gas at low pressure."

I thought that "cathode ray" was the name originally given to what we now consider to be a stream of electrons being attracted from the cathode towards a more positive anode.

CacheHue 04:22, 9 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'm on your side of the definition, but we should remove that archaic reference entirely.

Atlant 12:10, 9 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Weird...

Whats with the weird comment at the end of the article?

Quote:

Remember kids to put on a condom before putting in your cathodes. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.202.21.141 (talk) 03:33, 12 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Electron emission

That chapter is misleading. To my knowledge, field emission is irrelevant for usual glow discharges (it is secondary emission mainly due to ion impact, with some contribution of photoeffect) and field emission cathodes are not subsumed under cold cathodes. – Rainald62 (talk) 11:42, 26 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]