Discharge tube for a Van de Graaff accelerator:
When placed between the poles of the tandem Van de Graaff generator, and evacuated, some interesting chemical reactions of atomic species should be possible. The energies of accelerated protons ought to reach half a million electron volts, just barely enough to get to the nucleus.
Therefore the spectrum available to this instrument will be less then nuclear reactions but greater than benchtop chemical reactions. One reaction in particular, will be an early experiment: hydrogenation of solid metals.
The discharge tube was assembled over the weekend from 6.84 cm long acrylic tubes and six plasma lenses with corona rings by V. Girardi, EIT. End caps that will connect the tube to the charged spheres and a vaccuum system have yet to be built. The vandegraaff generators are from 1960, and below is a picture of the top brush of the negative sphere:
