Ever Seen a Beam Tree ?

[wwswimming]

http://www.slac.stanford.edu/h...ry/images/beamtree.jpg

when i worked at SLAC i saw a few of these.

basically they use one of their accelerators to charge a
piece of clear plastic up to about 2.5 million volts voltage,
then ground it at the region that becomes the base of the
tree.

as the current rushes out, it vaporizes or something to
the plastic.

it takes a lot of energy to make one of these.

i wonder how many kilowatt-hours.

http://www.pbase.com/earlhamner/image/3603826

i think that photog actually labels that one "my SLAC retirement beam tree".

 

[Gunslinger08]

Pretty cool. Anywhere you can buy one?

 

[wwswimming]

eBay except i just looked and there weren't none. they would be pricey.
$5K to $10K for a decent size genuine SLAC beam tree.

one idea is to email Earl Hamner, the second link there. i think he's a
retired SLAC guy and he probably knows other people with beam trees.

http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/tip/special/bodman.htm

they gave one to some government guy. the one in that pic doesn't
look so nice. Bodman got stiffed.

 

[Ns1]

that's pretty gangster

 

[Rubycon]

Sheesh you can do that (although it does not last more than a few seconds) with an LCD display and one of those electric ignition parts (piezoelectric impact generator) from an electric spark gun. A stun gun will work too but be careful as it's easy to shock yourself doing this.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

i find it difficult to believe this beam tree would provide more enjoyment than $5000 of good weed. for a flat platic piece of art, i'd commission an etch-a-sketch The Scream or something.