Unusual HV Effect I Noticed

by Andre

Something weird I noticed . If you wire up a Ford XR3I ignition coil to a simple pulse generator using 555 timer and 2N3055 transistor, you get an interesting effect.

If you put the neon directly across the primary of the coil, and adjust the 555 output to between 500 and 3000 Hz, at certain frequencies the neon glows brilliant white like a xenon flash tube. I got it to do this several times but have no idea how a neon can glow white like that. It stays cool BTW.

It also glows white if you connect it across the base of the 2N3055, if you have forgotten to use snubber circuit. (yes and this wipes out the transistor in short order, guess how i found this out!