History of Plasma Globe
The plasma ball was invented by Nikola Tesla after experimenting with high-frequency currents in an evacuated glass tube to study high voltage phenomena (modern vesrsions are known to first be designed by Bill Parker), he called his invention an inert gas discharge tube. Tesla recieved a patent for his incandescent electric light in 1894. Nikola Tesla was given a patent for one of the first high-intensity discharge lamps. He gained patent protection for a particular form of lamp in which a ligh-giving small body or button of refractory material is supported by a conductor entering a very high exhausted globe or receiver. James Falk created The Groundstar style of plasma globes.
Tesla did not have the technology needed to formulate gas mixtures used in today’s plasma globes. Lamps today use combinations of xenon, krypton and neon. These gas mixtures(and different glass shapes)create the vivid colors, range of motions and complex patters seen in the plasma globes of today.
In 1974 the plasma globe became an art object when William Parker redesigned the older "argon Candle" science exhibit to produce a long plasma streamer. He named the device "AM Lightning". Later his devices were spherical and contained various gas mictures producting all types of nonlinear plasma phenomena.