“’Tufts’ appear at high current densities”: In the linked video Jump to the three minutes of coverage at approx. 15:24 – 18:26 where this plasma electrodynamic feature is showcased. Note that it is described as having only two “serious papers published on it; one in 1930 and one in 1940. It was first observed around 1909-1910. – but nobody’s done any work on it since.”
Unofficial Transcript:
“Anode tufts” (“tufts” in general) as relates plasma electrodynamics might seem to be an unusual term. It is actually quite old and *appears* to have stemmed from the early days of Electrical Engineering experiments. Here is the earliest use of this phrase that I could find:“The tuft is actually flowing on hydrogen that’s been absorbed into the iron of the anode; and then as it [the absorbed hydrogen] heats up comes back out again - so that the tuft is not actually connected to the anode. There’s this layer of hydrogen underneath. But then, the tuft forms and there is a strong positive ion current going up [“up” meaning away from the anode] …and because the current is going that way electric fields form and magnetic fields that go around it so that with all of those fields the tufts tend to be equally spaced.” So, if one moves, because it runs into a hot spot on the anode then all the others move. And that’s why they rotate…
They form because, we can see it as we change the pressure of the hydrogen, at some point the current gets to be too large for the anode to deal with as just a sphere – so it forms these things. It basically gives a greater surface area and a more efficient means of absorbing the electron current that’s coming into it.
There are a lot of interesting things that can be looked at here considering [that] it’s been pushing 80 years since anyone looked into it.“ Dr Lowel Morgan: The Physics of Plasmas | EU2015
Note the interesting use of a Stroboscope on the plasma activities along a wire back then. Also, a fairly recent doc exist on the subject behind pay wall: Anode tufting, arc faulting and plasma nonuniformity in ion sources: 2007 - R. Jones“A.C. and D.C. Corona – When alternating voltage higher than the critical voltage is applied between two parallel polished wires, the glow is quite even as shown in Fig.23. After operation for a short time reddish beads or tufts form along the wire, while around the surface of the wire there is a bluish-white glow. If the conductors are examined through a stroboscope, so that one wire is always seen when at the positive half of the wave it is noticed that the reddish tufts or beads are formed when the conductor is negative and the smoother bluish-white glow when the conductor is positive. (See Fig 24)” – Dielectric Phenomena in High Voltage Engineering F. W. Peek pg. 38-39 of the 1920 Edition
As a side note have a look at Wal Thornhill’s use of the concept as a possible explanation for one of the Sun’s features:
And:Why is the Sun covered in bright ‘granules?’
In his seminal papers of the 1970’s on the Electric Sun, Ralph Juergens noted the possible identity of solar granules with something that the pioneering plasma physicist, Irving Langmuir, termed ‘anode tufts.’ Anode tufts are small, bright, secondary plasmas that form above an anode that is otherwise too small to handle the current flow into it. In his experiments, Langmuir reported the tufts as small bright spheres moving above the anode surface. It seems possible that in the stratified atmosphere of the Sun those bright discharges rather take the distinct form of the charge sheath vortex.
The granules are bright because the gases inside the charge sheath vortex have been heated by compression and radiation from the walls of the vortex. Those hot gases fountain out of the tops of the vortexes to form the granules. Also, lightning in some form will deliver power to the top of the granule, creating unresolved bright spots. Above the granules the ions recombine with electrons to form neutral gas, which absorbs light. The gas would be constrained to flow down between the granules, its motion modified by collisions with ions moving under electromagnetic influences.
This may create the dark ‘canals’, which have the branched pattern of electric discharges. There would be a powerful influence from the strong electric fields of the plasma sheaths (double-layers) of the anode tufts. Varying levels of lightning activity above each granule could explain the observed variation in brightness of solar granules. It is noteworthy that large faint granules have never been seen. They would not be expected on this model. – Holoscience: Sunspot Mysteries
In addition, this approach appears to have come from Ralph Jergens. The following linked document uses the term “tufts” quite regularly, sometimes with attributions to Irving Langmuir’s pioneering work. Only the main proposed idea is being quoted:It is clear from the behavior of its relatively cool photosphere that the Sun is an anode, or positively charged electrode, in a galactic discharge. The red chromosphere is the counterpart to the glow above the anode surface in a discharge tube. When the current density is too high for the anode surface to accommodate, a bright secondary plasma forms within the primary plasma. It is termed “anode tufting.” On the Sun, the tufts are packed together tightly so that their tops give the appearance of “granulation.” – Holoscience: Twinkle, twinkle electric star
The main idea obviously being the “tight packing” of these “tufts” as an explanation for Solar Granules whereas the standard model considers the granulation dynamic in terms of convection currents (thermal columns, Bénard cells).If granules are anode tufts that are amenable to tight packing, could we not expect them to merge and form a continuous envelope in which ionization could proceed smoothly… - The Photosphere: Is It the Top or the Bottom of the Phenomenon We Call the Sun? - Ralph E. Juergens 1979
Oddly, in the TB video, it seems that the anode tufts want to avoid one another because of the electric and/or magnetic fields surrounding them. As explained, that is why they begin spinning. Eventually they spin fast enough that they merge and form a full on completely spherical double-layer sheath condition – an entire sheath. It would be interesting if the sweet spot (critical value) could be found where the tufts are regularly forming and merging so that continuous “tight packing” could be observed and filmed with high speed photography.
Do excuse the solar granulation diversion. The main point of this post is to show that approximately 80 years of neglect has caused the term “tufts” to seem uniquely associated to the EU when – in fact – it is a very old term as shown via the reference to Dielectric Phenomena in High Voltage Engineering F. W. Peek pg. 38-39 of the 1920 Edition.
That is all.