Original Author journeymanforum

Since one of the major pervasive wand myths is that you shouldn't use violet wands on broken skin (unhealed or temporary piercings) or internally, you'll probably be asked many questions or even get a bit of argument when you describe internal techniques or demonstrate playing with needles and piercings.

Internal play of course, carries more risk than playing externally.
Playing with broken skin, of course, carries more risk than playing with unbroken skin.

However, the differences between risk factors are not that great. Internal play and playing with broken skin are NOT inherently unsafe, any more than playing with a wand at all, is unsafe. {To be absolutely safe, don't play with electricity at all.}

But violet wand current is the safest electrical play current to play with, due to its extremely low amperage (less than 1 milliamp.) Other internal play electrical devices such as Folsom and PES have far higher output currents, and yet, even with their currents and amperage higher than a violet wand, they are safe to play with internally. Thus violet wands with their much lower currents, are even safer to play with internally than the higher current devices such as Rhimba, Folsom, PES, or Eros-tek.

The actual electrical current of violet wands is not an issue for internal play, since it is far lower than internal-designed toys such as e-stim described above. E-stim currents provided by those devices must be high enough to cause involuntary contractions to muscles in order to induce orgasm.

Additional risks in these advanced techniques are not because of violet wand output current. Where the additional risks come in are found in the advanced techniques documents: for internal play, breaking glass and unintentional burning are the additional risks. For playing with needles and piercings, unintentional burning is more of a risk than when playing with unbroken skin.

Since breaking glass is one of the additional risks in playing with wands internally, it is helpful to explain the difference in glass electrodes made specifically for internal play. While Eclectic Electric representatives have been known to drop their Dom electrodes on concrete floors to demonstrate their strength, you probably don't want to risk your own toys that way. Instead, you can describe two things that contribute to the strength of the glass used in modern internal violet wand electrodes.

Annealed glass versus tempered glass.

Annealed glass is what we know as regular glass, which when manufactured is allowed to cool slowly in an annealing chamber. All old violet ray electrodes are made of annealed glass. Annealed glass is fine for regular violet wand play, but should be considered too fragile for internal play.

Conversely, Fully Heat Tempered glass is up to four times as strong as annealed glass and resists breaking. Glass that is cooled regularly is under tension, thus its ability to fracture easily. The basic principle employed in the tempering process is to create an initial condition of surface and edge compression to overcome this natural tension in glass. This condition is achieved by first heating the glass, then cooling the surfaces rapidly. This leaves the center glass thickness relatively hot compared to the surfaces. As the center thickness then cools, it forces the surfaces and edges into compression. Wind pressure, missile impact, thermal stresses or other applied loads must first overcome this compression before there is any possibility of fracture. Each modern internal violet wand electrode has this tightly compacted molecular compression which protects the glass electrode from breaking.

The second factor contributing to safer internal play is the grade and type of glass used. Glass can be formed of different base materials; silica, borosilicate, quartz, soda lime, lead (lead crystal) etc. Depending upon the material used the glass made from the materials has different properties. Some glass base materials will allow for more expansion, some allow for more strength. Under normal circumstances, a glass made from quartz would allow infrared and ultraviolet to pass through, and one common application for quartz glass is in laser manufacturing. However, a modern internal violet wand electrode should use a quartz combination, so that a) the quartz contributes to the electrode strength b) the quartz allows the net charge to pass through but c) any ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths do NOT pass through. A blended glass such as this will reduce the risk of unintentional burns.

These two factors: fully tempered glass for strength, and a scientific blended glass to reduce the possibility of unintentional burns, has allowed for the advanced technique of internal violet wand play at almost no additional risk over regular play.

Just a note, there is usually another misperception about internal violet wand play. The common misperception is that it can not be felt when a violet wand electrode is used internally. People usually base this misperception on the knowing that when they are in firm contact with a body contact probe or electrode, they can not feel the charge.

Two things make it possible to experience a violet wand internal electrode.

1) Internal orifices are not in firm contact, they have folds and structural variations (think of holding a violet wand body contact pad LOOSELY in your hand....) thus arcing can be felt.

2) The tissues involved are much more sensitive than skin of the hand.

For this last reason this note is posted also. If someone tries out a violet wand electrode on their hand, they may be unhappy with its output. Internal violet wand electrodes are not designed to be used on the hand, but on much more sensitive tissues.

Tags: Wand | Secrets | Glass

Hits: 96 | Read more...

Original Author journeymanforum

Ozone (continued)

The fact is, ozone is not dangerous merely when it is present. Ozone used properly is part of industrial and home usage. But at high concentrations, ozone can have ill effects, and can be dangerous at extremely high concentrations. Ozone levels are determined by concentrations of parts per million over time. Ozone will build up to higher levels in a closed room, the longer it is allowed to. It is when someone breathes high concentrations of ozone over time, that ozone exposure has ill effects.

See this chart.





This chart shows levels of ozone danger and recommendations.

Ozone can be smelled at its smallest concentrations. Just .003 parts per million can be detected by the average human nose! So the fact that one can smell ozone is not a distinguishing factor in detecting its levels. OSHA standards indicate that a person can safely breath .1 ppm (parts per million) of ozone for 8 hours a day, 6 days a week without ill effect. This is the maximum amount of ozone concentration that should be accumulated by a home ionic or ionizing air cleaner regularly in a closed room as a SUSTAINED concentration. Most home air cleaners are governed by FDA regs and produce up to .050 ppm sustained levels in a closed 10x10 room.

Ozone in smaller concentrations is acceptable for home and industrial air cleaners, and is safe to use in ozone oxygenating therapies such as those popular with runners or other high-aerobic sports. But when does ozone become dangerous?

Ozone is produced by a violet wand in the same manner that lightning from a thunderstorm produced ozone; from the superheated ionization of the air when lightning (or a spark) strikes. However, once produced on the ground, ozone dissipates extremely rapidly, returning to a stable form of oxygen. It can not sustain its 03 form in our breathable air. So, while a violet wand is capable of producing a high amount of ozone, that ozone is turning to oxygen almost as quickly as it is produced.

Because ozone produced from a violet wand doesn't remain as ozone, regular violet wand users are not going to be affected by any continuous levels shown on this chart. The ozone will spike for a few minutes as they play, especially if they are playing in a small, closed room. A violet wand will provide a concentration of around .1 ppm and sometimes up to .2 ppm in a closed 10x10 room.

Los Angeles smog alerts occur at 1 to 2 ppm. If you live in Los Angeles, the natural air there will often be of a higher ozone concentration than produced by a violet wand running for 20 minutes in a 10x10 room with normal air flow. 2 hours exposure to 1 to 2 ppm of ozone will produce dry nose and throat and headaches, but they will dissipate without ill effect.

Nasal irritation and throat irritation begins to occur in humans at about .30 ppm concentration. The recommended time limit for such .30 ppm exposure is 15 minutes. There will RARELY be an instance during normal wand use that such a concentration would occur, without additional circumstances taking place, such as other air pollutants present, very small enclosed spaces, etc. Thus, ozone produced by violet wands is not a concern during their normal use. But, such a concentration could possibly occur in a smaller enclosed space without moving air, in which two or more wands are being used continuously, or where there is above normal wand use and a larger number of people in a small space and oxygen levels are reduced further by exhaled carbon dioxide. The contributing carbon dioxide is an air pollutant that would assist in elevating the ozone concentration.

This type of concentration level would only become a concern for persons who use wands well and above normal usage levels. It is not a concern for normal usage of wands. But For Journeymen and other expert users who frequently use wands and who may use them in small spaces, and who may be using one or more wands, there could be a potential for higher concentrations of ozone to occur above a wand's .1 ppm in a 10x10 room. Thus, if you are doing a demo in a smaller space, or you know that your wand usage will be higher than normal users, or you are having more than one wand running, or a large number of attendees in a small space, other contributing factor that might contribute to a higher concentration of ozone...then you may wish to ask attendees in the room to alert you if they suddenly experience any nasal or throat irritation (dry, scratchy and uncomfortable feeling) that comes on suddenly during the demonstration.

Some individuals are more sensitive to ozone concentrations than others. If you do have someone who alerts you to sudden nasal or throat irritation while wands are running, they can act as an early alert signal to allow you to modify the air flow in the room. You may wish to have the affected person leave the room to get some un-ionized air for a few minutes. You may also choose to open a door, place a fan in the room, turn on an air conditioner, or rearrange people in the room to get additional air flow. Even a small step taken such as rearranging people so that airflow around the wand can circulate more freely, can drop an ozone concentration quickly.

If you are a long-term and heavy wand user and plan on spending many hours over your lifetime running violet wands and breathing ionized air in their vicinity, you can use your own early alert system without purchasing an ozone exposure meter. Ozone exposure meters take an accumulation measure, that is they will measure prolonged exposure over time and alert when the prolonged exposure could have ill-effects. They do not measure mere concentrations, as concentrations by themselves are not dangerous, but the concentrations over time can have ill effects. Plants are more susceptible to ozone exposure than humans, and a plant or two in your area where you continously run your wands can provide a detection system. Plants will start showing effects of prolonged ozone exposure at .3 ppm (the same level that humans begin to complain of dry throat and respiratory passages.) A plant that is experiencing ill effects of ozone will show dark spots on its leaves at the stomata (the pores where the plant aspirates through its leaves), so it can't be confused with wilting or browning or yellowing plants from over or underwatering or fertilization. If your houseplant begins to show such dappled dark spots, then you would be advised to get additional air circulation into the room where you are using wands.

Again, these are under extreme conditions, and are not concerns for normal wand usage under normal circumstances. This information is supplied so that heavy and long term users can be aware of unsual circumstances that can contribute to higher ozone concentrations and what steps they can take to minimize potential risks presented by those circumstances.

Tags: Wand | Secrets

Hits: 88 | Read more...

Tags: Wand | Secrets

Hits: 83 | Read more...

Lengthier, but basic information about violet wands
 

Original Author : Violetwanda / Date : 2005-06-11 21:16

Violet wands: (almost) Everything you need to know by Violetwanda 12/2003 A while ago someone had written a basic introduction to violet wands to give electrical play beginners a familiarization-level understanding of violetwands and their uses. But technology advances! What was true yesterday can quickly be out of date today. And new information continually develops. So this article was written to make the most up to date information available. You may have seen our violet wands on HBO's RealSex, seen us in "Stuff" Magazine, or heard about the amazing effect of violet wands from someone else. To put it simply, violet wands are used by many people for sexual, erotic, sado-masochistic, BDSM, or kinky stimulation purposes. They are part of a broad range of electrical 'play' devices. Electricity in play is certainly not for everyone. Many of the same people who will embrace a single tail whip, won't even consider electricity. Largely, that's due to the dangers we know that electricity can present, and to our natural fears of things we don't understand. After all, electricity is edge play, can be heavy play, and there's almost a genetic-memory dread of that crackling, fizzing, sudden lightning bolt of an arcing spark that makes us want to lope back to the safety of our primal caves. There are all types of electrical 'toys'; even vibrators constitute electrical toys! Some types of electrical toys act on your muscles to provide involuntary contractions which can lead to orgasm (stim boxes), or to pain (such as cattle prods.) Violet wands on the other hand, provide a stimulus to the skin and nerves. I think everything from 9 volt batteries to train transformers has been perverted to some extent in the past. It probably didn't take long after the advent of electricity for the more adventurous to start perverting it. Thank goodness we now have safer toys designed specifically for 'play'. We have a number of inventors to thank for electrical toys in general, and the development of the violet wand in particular. Among the most notable inventors contributing to the violet wand was Nikolas Tesla, who developed similar electrical coil configurations. Tesla was the quintessential 'mad scientist', science was rapidly evolving, and a number of simultaneous discoveries led to the development of 'violet rays'. Take Tesla's disruptive discharge transformer coil configuration, and add it to the isolation of noble gases which glowed when excited by electricity, and violet wands were born not long after Edison's incandescent lightbulbs. Early violet wand devices (called violet rays) showed up before 1920 as miracle machines thought to cure every ill and disease with electrical energy. Some of the better early devices have some collectible/antique value. While you can still find some of them at flea markets and yard sales, great care has to be taken with them if you plan to actually use one of these old 'finds' for playing. You wouldn't use a 70 year old lamp without rewiring it, so do take care to have any old violet ray device checked for safety before use and preferably rewired. Never use any old electrical device that shows signs of deterioration or corrosion in its wiring or electrical cords! But even today, there are proponents who use violet ray devices for alternative medical therapies due to their high frequency electrical discharge. In fact, if you visit a full-service aesthetic spa or salon today, and ask for a high frequency facial, you'll receive a very mild treatment for its benefits in stimulating skin. Of course, the violet ray treatment you receive in a spa won't have anywhere near to the output you expect from a 'violet wand' as the technologies have diverged somewhat from their shared beginnings. All three have the same technology, but not the same output, effect or end user. From shared violet ray grandparents, we have today's mild beauty high frequency device, and its powerful kinky cousin...the violet wand. Related technologies today are still used in plasma televisions, neon signs, and even stealth antennas! But of course, our main interest is violet wand technology and how it is used to erotically, or kinkily, stimulate a willing partner. Sometimes erroneously called a neon wand, ultraviolet wand or a violent wand, the violet wand is truly an intense erotic toy used in bdsm electrical play. It is capable of achieving a wide range of sensations from lush fizzing that feels like champagne bubbles bursting on your skin, all the way up to sharp shocks. The different ranges if sensations are dependent upon the combinations of settings, electrodes, techniques and other accessories, and can be almost unlimited in number of possible combinations. Ordinary household electricity is a low frequency alternating current (120 Volts, 60 Hz in the USA) and is hazardous to come into direct contact with. It is important to know this for safety factors, as one leg of a violetwand circuit is connected to household mains current. This is the reason you would not want to use an old device whose wiring is in unknown condition. The Violet Wand "transforms" the high voltage household current by a two-stage process with a magnetic resonator and then a capacitor (known in combination as a Tesla coil) into a very low watt, low amperage, and high frequency charge that has little affect on the human body. The vacuum annealed, heat treated glass electrodes are filled with argon (and sometimes other gas) under low pressure, that creates the purple glow when it is excited by electricity. The glass electrodes also effectively isolate the charge within. What comes off the end of the glass electrodes is Electromagentic Energy which behaves similarly to direct current electricity that jumps to an uncharged source. The net electrical charge you receive from a glass violet wand electrode is similar to static electricity that you receive a shock from when walking across a carpeted floor. The difference is that violet wands produce a continuous stream of electrical discharge rather than a single static spark. [Static electricity as defined as "electromagnetic energy that is low current and high voltage", and thus similar to the electromagnetic discharge of a violet wand.] It has been reported in other commonly quoted web articles that wands produce ultraviolet light which can burn skin. This is -mostly- wrong. We now know that the amount of ultraviolet light is produced only at the point of spark as part of the full spectrum of light produced by the spark, and the UV is almost too small to measure under normal conditions. Thus any unintentional burns recevied are a result of the 50,000 volts...an electrical burn rather than a UV burn. Too many of those articles contain similar outdated information. Other old information that you'll see tells you never to insert glass electrodes into orifices. Certainly, do not insert fragile, 70 year old vintage electrodes made of annealed glass internally! But --today's-- violet wand electrodes are specifically manufactured for kinky play, and made of non-UV producing quartz glass that is very difficult to break and can be safely inserted when following proper safety precautions. Outdated information again. That's the problem with the web; once posted it stays up for years past its useful life. Thankfully, you've come to the right place instead of to those outdated articles...you've come straight to the experts. Inside this website you will find the researchers, the developers, the testers, the users, the masters and yes, even the makers. A community of support which will help you get the most from your violet wand. And you'll even find be able to buy any type of violetwand you can imagine, plus all the most up to date electrodes and accessories. With a violet wand, you will never be bored!

Tags: Wand

Hits: 44 | Read more...