Greetings, You have a T-508A spark gap, made by Pulse Sciences/L-3 Communications. It is capable of passing up to 150 kA and standing off 200 kV when charged with sulfur hexafluoride at a few atmosphers. Max pulse duty is about 2 coulombs per shot. The center planar electrode is the trigger. These gaps are used in the Sandia Marx banks that drive the Saturn and Z plasma accelerators, among other things. Few of these gaps exist in private hands or outside the US National Labs, but there are a couple of places to see them. Back in the mid 1990's, the University of Nevada acquired some from Los Alamos National Lab as components of the 2 terawatt Zebra Z-pinch. There might also be a few in the surplus store called the Los Alamos Black Hole. Rare ducks, these...

"I saw it on eBay and just had to have it" - I have that problem, as well. :-)

This is obviously the time constant hourglass from the central core of the Chronosphere weapon in Command and Conquer, Yuri will be looking for that, watch out!

Interesting comments and speculations... This device is a high-current field-distortion spark gap. It was originally used to trigger high-voltage, high-energy capacitor discharges in a pulsed power laboratory or government research facility. It was likely part of an impulse generator (Marx generator or similar) for lightning simulation or other pulsed power application. The flat center plate is the triggering electrode. It normally is biased to 1/2 the voltage between the large rounded end electrodes. Suddenly applying a high-voltage pulse to the center electrode "distorts" the E-field in the gap, triggering a high current spark/arc to flow between the rounded (main) electrodes. A three-terminal spark gap such as this is a controllable high-voltage switch. Gas inside the device is typically pressurized dry nitrogen, sulfur hexafluoride, or possibly even pure hydrogen to increase the voltage levels and switch recovery time. Looking at the diameter and spacing of the main electrodes, this switch was likely designed to handle 100,000 volts (or more) at tens of thousands of amperes.

The device was probably used in the investigation of plasma effects. The middle plate will become negatively electrified which will force plasma discharges from the hot electrode. The negative electrode is becoming positive in the intervals that the middle plate is negative, which causes abrupt electrical impedance in the circuit. At a certain voltage, vacuum, and frequency, the entire thing should become highly luminescent. I would personally use this in the investigation of Tesla's radiant energy because when you tap in to it, thats when the whole thing should glow white while remaining cold to the touch. That is just a hypothesis though. Cool toy!

What you have is called a field distortion triggered spark gap. It is intended to act as a high voltage switch, usually for capacitive energy storage. The load can be anything from a laser to an inductor. The middle plate is the trigger electrode which is pulsed to high voltage with a pulse generator to initiate breakdown of the switch. It is meant to be pressurized with dry air, nitrogen or sometimes SF6. The operating voltage can be adjusted somewhat by varying the gas pressure. They are intended for very short ( usually < 1 ms ) , single pulse, operation.

Lovely bit of gear. Do take care when testing this or other pumped down devices connected to your vacuum pump or gas source. There are situations where an electrical discharge can travel down the tubing to your hand holding the vacuum gauge or adjusting the Shrader valve even if the hoses are plastic. A few kV should be safe but pumped Crooke and X-ray tubes as well as HeNe and CO2 laser tubes pose real dangers if all the plumbing is not at a firm ground potential.

PS: typically removed from service when trigger plane electrode (in the middle with hole) became too eroded - but they were/are rebuildable, so why this one was sold, I dunno. the Aurora facility had an entire shop (1 room) dedicated just to rebuilding these switches...

Spark gap switches were used to set of atomic bombs. Very high power current was connected to one end of an electrode electrode. There was a gap separating it from the other electrode. The electrode ends are smooth and rounded so that a current would not jump across the gap.There was a fine wire crossing inside the tube perpendicular to the main electrodes and connected to a lower-power power source.The air was removed creating a vacuum. When a current was provided power across this wire, it vaporized extremely quickly and became a plasma. The plasma then immediately acted to carry the current across the electrodes. The many wires leading to explosive initiating charges of the lensed charge surrounding the plutonium sphere in the center of the bomb (required to explode all at the exact set time) required high amperage and voltage. There was a risk that, if a regular switch was used, the high power could arc and the power would not be received at the highest value needed, but would rise from a low initial level then ramp up over time (thousandth of seconds instead of nanoseconds) causing non uniform ignition of the shaped charges that were needed to compress the plutonium sphere and initiate extreme compression causing the plutonium pit to be crushed in from all directions at the same moment thereby increasing its density and so creating the condition necessary for nuclear fission to begin. The switch provided the maximal power level desired immediately the second the wire inside the vacuum vaporized and became a plasma.

spark gap can be used to jam radio frequencies

its interesting to see how the plasma is all around the rounded spark contact. has a nice shape !

FBI will knock on your door one day wanting there plasma gun part back lol!! looks quite easy to make but.

It was probably used for power grid protection. A properly placed spark gap can create a controlled discharge of large amounts of static charge.

obviously a rare component from the Philadelphia Invisibility Cloaking Experiment

When it's calm and ultraviolet is the way. Like vacuum tubes in amps they glow that violet

Due to the recent fusion breakthroughs and z pinch news last year... This thing has become even more interesting

torturing the innocent

One of the missing components, to Tesla's "death ray"

Awesome. You can be lucky to have it.Its oldskool and robust 💪

Very nice arcs, could have also been used as a lightning arrestor on a Military High Power transmitter.

“I saw it on eBay and just had to have it” Man gonna end up buying a Neuclear bomb from eBay one day 💀

Looks lyke you found the source of night lights.... tank you for shared with us.

Here is an interesting thought, the rounded electrodes remind me of RF resonators that are used in high power RF filters. Does this thing resonate at a certain frequency when it is running. You could use a radio to tune the UHF band to see if it transmits?

Reminds me of the Magnetic Field bowl emitters

If you added voltage to the center plate would it work like a transistor?

Maybe it was used as a component for an A.A.V.

Since they put gas into this thing-or made it into a vacuum, it is mostly likely that this is a high-current plasma switch from what I can tell. The most common way to get a discharge to happen between two points is to bias it slightly--this creates a reaction--kinda like Xenon flash tube. I think this was probably used to pulse large amounts of energy into something. It is not an xray source by design. I very much doubt they were using it to make sparks, special tests or as a 2pf HF cap with a center ring too! Most likely from design as an application is that it was in a strange place as a switch/overload protect (adjustable arc-gap switch/protection) for some high current projects. There may be another use for it I have not thought of, but that's my best guess. It would be great for use in my high current discharge setup! If you put your 3000 volts strictly between the two points with a load as DC--then try to carefully remove or change the vacuum until you don't see any glow anymore inside. At just the right voltage depending on how much air/gas is in the jar--and what kind--a spark will show across both the lobed contacts (and other stuff). Thus this can be adjusted to almost any high voltage as a switch/surge/discharge system. I doubt it was used to produce "cold" plasma or light because of how it was constructed. Not good for the energies needed in constant operation. The center part when charged with a slight voltage or bias will then cause a huge discharge from the presents of a relatively small current--allowing a reaction of high energy to happen between the two contacts mainly. That's my best guess on what it is. Nice find! PS- checkout my home brew projects on "mostlymacros" if you want, I really want followers/comments and such. I'm not new to electronics at all, I don't spend a lot of time on line. (KF7DFP)

wow! that a real cool spark gap! I would say its from a vintage sparkgap transmiter or some kind of surge supression as you said.

U should look up the Martin fleischmann memorial project! That’s a cold fusion reactor. Those sparks are ball lightening or EVO’s (exotic vacuum object)

I dont know what im looking at but it looks amazing

dude John that is wicked cool ! some crazy effects going on inside and i have not a clue as to what that was used for but very good find ! speak soon mate =D

there were patents on capacitive vacuum tubes. this looks like a similar one. they were like cold cathode style(without a heater element) maybe you could use this like that.

You can Make a pretty cool looking top load on a Tesla coil with that. if you can get it to where it holds its vacuum

It seems to me that the higher vacuum in the casing the less voltage is needed to create a spark. And the opposite. A normal atmosphere in the container requires higher voltage to form a spark. Maybe the device could be used for this measure. the Vacuum or level of exhaustion versus the Voltage to see when an arc is formed between the terminals ? seemingly the more molecules in the container , the more choked is the spark. By forcing air into it and compressing a whole lot of molecules into the container will presumably increase the spark gap resistance. It certainly depend on what molecules are present. CO2, or Nitrogene or Oxygene or "air" .

How about a fast shutoff spark gap ( electrostatic triode :?) Have you tried a bifilar spiral wound flat coil with this yet?

It might've been used for to contain plasma in the center. KZfaq a video call "Bizarre Discovery at CERN" to see it's similar usages to your object. Also where did you buy this? I might need something like this.

Try it with pressure instead of vacuum. Put the HV on a variac and increase the voltage slowly till it jumps the gap.

I need one of those for my tesla coil! 😂😂

2 more of those then you will be on your way to a Bonafide drive mechanism for a flying saucer.

dont know, maybe a early setup for tl light or neon light tubes.

Maybe a gas discharge surge arrestor for antennas etc... you could also try connecting DC high voltage into it, but have your radiation meter close LOL (it could more likely be a high power 2x cold cathode x-ray tube)

Hi Katholikos Cycleology! Fantastic, You can be Edison from buying from eBay! Hope You invent Something Immortal! Good morning from Maryland!

Looks like Fusor - simple nuclear reactor for students (Deiterium - Tritium)

Radar pulse switch to high power magnetron and/or physics experiments.

Looks like it is made to cause the spark to rotate. Cool stuff!

The hole maybe limits the power going through? The vacuume maybe it can be used as some kind of nuclear reactor or some shit

Aircraft use spark-gap devices to quickly drain off ESD and lightening strike induced charge from the electrical system before it has a chance to burn out anything.

Yes, after doing a little more memory search, I realize that is just current in a vacuum tube. That's just great. It's definitely stuck in my mind. There are otherwise dangers. Vacuum tubes do not count. That's just a toy.

what happens if you put connect an earth ground to the middle plate ?

That's a free energy device designed by Tesla. DO NOT TOSS IT OUT EVER. IT produces zero point energy, your just missing the other (easily made) device to plug it into your home. The hertz amplifier or changer. Adjusts here's (cycles per second) up or down from 60 to 24.50 per second. 😎

Put some arGon in there or maybe freeze the center plate for some cool effects and when it's unstable it looks like it's helix or toroidal spin

Have you considered to use some sort of X-Ray Detector during the test?

thats epic mate! very beautiful it makes a very nice arc in it.

This is just a simple triggerd spark gap. As to what it was used for, im not sure, but it would probably pulse a lot of power, passably for a EMP generator, or a powerful Transmitter (the very old spark gap types)

If you had any gas, like neon, then you could possibly have a gas discharge lamp that is quite big. That would be interesting to see.

Photoinduction would love to see / have one of these. Anyone know where he's gone ?

looks like a triggered spark gap. the center ring will be connected to a divider (between the endcaps) and a series cap to couple in a trigger transformer connected to one of the endcaps. adjusting the pressure to stand off the selected working voltage.it will be able to switch some serious capacitor into some poor old electronics or massive flash tube (:

Is that a miniature of center of a death star?

Maybe those strange white discharges you said were "stranger than what you can see on camera" were aether discharges, like the ones Tesla supposedly was creating.

could you do a run with some capacitence across it? would be interesting to se what it does!

maybe it was for a EMP

Maybe it's intended to produce ozone or ions

try emitting that energy into liquid mercury imersed in oil u might transmutate it into G ;) but i guess u need to find out the heat level of every other impulse maybe this device is generating cold plasma aswell (radiant matter).. I noticed the nature of plasma changes by getting the device more n more vacuumed! u really got ur hands on some unique maybe cult electrical component! I envy you!

very cool piece of kit :)

Its definitely something they don't want the public to know

Where it is written that was used by the military, it can be for research with high voltage.

For PEF ( pulsed electric field ) right?

I had one just like this years ago and maybe it’s the same one I sold on

It is very similar to David La Point's "Primer Field" experiment. It was probably used to investigate the plasma phenomena but this was as far as they could take it.

The glass assists vacuum or pressure, depending on usage.

I'd guess it was a gas discharge lightning arrestor from a high power transmitting station?

you have yourself a really cool light bulb

I see the change in colour of the spark/volt. I dont know much but I do know that if the colour change the frequency also change....?

That right there is a zero point energy generator

🙄 That right there is God trap for evil men and freedom from oppression. ❤

If you still don't know what it is, you could try asking in reddit, there might be able to find someone that knows

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After using it have you noticed any cars or vans with weird antennas?

Maybe used in some large radar system, or transmitter.

A good charge for the railgun

I think its used for a military emp antena maybe ?

Turn it on... go outside & watch the skies... try to avoid getting nervous... enjoy the show...

Its a hollow spark gap with a magnet house inside the radioactive metal alloy

I think that is Tesla Radiant energy I think maybe be ether

It's a star simulator from the Electric Universe set of ideas.

Is it possible that this is an arc lamp?

Sputtering 40' aviator sunglasses

Weren’t these things supposed to be used in DC circuits?

Could it be used as part of a soldering station? There is a lot of soldering in the military.

Try running it on 1.21 gigawatts...

That thing is too cool...

Tony Stark in a normal day

It sortof looks like the mcp from the first tron movie

its for radio transmitter

Pure Resonance!

It used to travel trough space and time..

Maybe from a radar system? No idea.

You either don't have enough voltage (at least 60,999 V) and/or the right frequency (15-19 KHz?)

Some of the sounds coming off of that made my ears buzz. There's definitely some dangerous frequencies going on with that spark gap.

how would you build that?