Peter,

Yes, it is remarkable the wide variety of machines that are labelled Rife. I think today people call anything that is a frequency generator a Rife machine. But it is difficult to peg down precisely what a "Rife Machine" is. Even those machines that Rife himself was involved with in some fashion differ substantially. People who have researched these in depth like Jeff Garff and Jim Berger, both of whom posted to this thread early on, would probably go so far as to distinguish between particular models of Rife's early machines when discussing technical merits of a "Rife Machine". see http://www.rifevideos.com/what_is_a_...e_machine.html

Since this thread seems to wander and you're building a machine, a side note about plasma tube gases and electrodes might help you when you choose a plasma tube. Rife used helium but I think he said it didn't matter. However, it may matter over the long term, particularly with an internal electrode style tube. Helium is apparently much more resistant to degradation over time. The ionized gas (any noble gas mixture) is incredibly caustic and rips apart anything it touches including internal electrodes and glass walls. The elements that are torn off these surfaces combine with the noble gas(es) and reduce conductivity to the point of failure.

Helium is apparently the most resistant to this phenomenon. This probably matters most with internal electrode tubes. I believe Rife used helium in his tube. Possibly for this reason. With an external electrode tube the fouling problem appears to be much less significant, so it's probably not a big deal there. I believe Garff said somewhere on this forum that he has 3 external electrode tubes having mixed gases he uses a lot and they are at least 2 years old with no darkening.

Even helium filled tubes will darken though with enough use. However, apparently Rife said even when completely dark they continued to work just fine. The loss of visible spectrum frequencies didn't matter in this case, at least according to Rife. This is in contrast to a tube having anything else. A dark tube in that case will indicate increasing resistance which will mean a decrease in output and possibly distortion, and eventual failure of your amplifier if you're not careful.

So, as I build my machine, at the moment I've settled on helium for internal electrode tubes and anything for external electrode tubes. External electrode tubes can support much larger outputs since the electrode is bigger and isn't subjected to the terrible environment. Internal electrodes can convey signals more accurately. So it depends on your goal. There is apparently no perfect solution for all situations.

This information is largely by private correspondence with Ralph Hartwell who builds pad and plasma tube amplifiers and Jeff Garff who builds the GB4000 system. They've both been active contributors to understanding and using Rife technology a long time and are both very helpful.

I hope it helps you, too.

John