wrote in message
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On Monday, October 19, 2015 at 2:45:30 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Monday, October 19, 2015 at 12:53:45 PM UTC-4, Tom Miller wrote:
wrote in message
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On Monday, October 19, 2015 at 9:52:07 AM UTC-4,
wrote:
Hi all, I found this thing.. see pictures

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/sxd1cq8qb...LzNAK-Vaa?dl=0
In the back of a drawer at my house. The previous owner was a pack
rat,
who also worked for the phone company.
It looks like some high voltage flashlight.
What sort of voltage do I apply to the leads?

Thanks,
George H.

As per Boris - yes, it could be a timing light - but definitely a
stop-action device of some sort. I expect that there were other parts
associated with it - strobe-type timing lights have an induction
trigger
device, usually, as one example. + & -attached to the battery, and the
inductor clamped to #1 cylinder spark-plug wire.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

But there is no trigger electrode. It might be Neon. Can you hit it
with
some high voltage, maybe from a lawn mower spark plug? See what the
discharge spectrum looks like.

Hmm OK, I could try that.

I'm a little leery of mixing electronics with my lawn mower.
Way back when, a motor wouldn't start, and I convinced myself
it was a spark problem. I couldn't see a spark
after all. I wanted to see how much voltage I was getting so
I hooked up my DMM (though a series resistor), Pulled the
cord to turn over the engine, and promptly blew up my DMM. :^(

George H.

Tom, Sorry I chickened out and didn't put it across any
of my working motors. (The last thing I want is to
blow out the spark drive... I'm not really sure, what I'm saying.
Is it ok to put a dead short across my briggs and stratton?

George H.


Doesn't the spark plug do just that when it fires?

What damages magneto ignition systems is open circuit, wire off plug events.
Then the coil arcs internally.

Don't you have any kind of transformer that could make a HV spark with say a
9 volt battery? A filament transformer maybe?