Comments by "Keri Szafir" (@KeritechElectronics) on "The decorative lamp that's built wrong on purpose" video.

  1. 2:37 it's @Technology Connections doing @ElectroBOOM with great style! And you REALLY got to make a video about Nixies. I love that stuff :) Looks like the flicker effect is somewhat similar to what you have on a Jacobs ladder: the gas discharge (in case of JL it's high voltage in the air, here it's relatively low voltage in neon) starts in the point where the electrodes are closest to each other as the voltage reaches certain threshold voltage, then the arc (in fact, it's conductive plasma) travels outwards and then extinguishes. Since these electrodes are unstable and able to move, the electrostatic and maybe even a teeny tiny magnetic field (after all, it's wherever the current flows) may be at work here, causing attraction between electrodes countered by their elasticity, which will lead to mechanical vibration, change of distence between electrodes, discharge wandering across them, which is in result visible as flickering. [raises her crowbar, +20 damage against headcrabs] In the name of SCIENCE!
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