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Re: Lightning Generator



Subject:       Re: Lightning Generator
       Date:   Wed, 7 May 1997 14:36:21 +1200
       From:   "Malcolm Watts" <MALCOLM-at-directorate.wnp.ac.nz>
Organization:   Wellington Polytechnic, NZ
         To:   tesla-at-pupman-dot-com


Re this....

>   From:  "Thomas McGahee" <tom_mcgahee-at-sigmais-dot-com>
>     To:  "Tesla List" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> 
> 
> 
> ----------
> > From: Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> > To: tesla-at-poodle.pupman-dot-com
> > Subject: Re: Lightning Generator 
> > Date: Monday, May 05, 1997 2:22 AM
> > 
> > Subject:   Re: Lightning Generator
> >   Date:    Sun, 4 May 1997 19:17:48 -0700 (PDT)
> >   From:   "Edward V. Phillips" <ed-at-alumni.caltech.edu>
> >     To:    tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> > 
> > 
> > " A lightning stroke has a
> > fast rise time, it is a RF voltage."
> > 
> >         No way!  Primarily unipolar with a rise time of a few
> > microseconds and a fall time of tens to hundreds.
> > 
> > Ed
> 
> Ed,
> It is a single polarity, true... but what makes something RF is the
> "apparent" frequency of a 1/2 cycle, which of course is a unipolar
> definition, is it not? Some Tesla coil builders use a DC supply to
> supply raw power to the tank circuit. The gap fires and we call it
> RF. And to take it to its extreme, a Tesla coil operated in ONE SHOT
> mode only gets a single half cycle of excitation. But it STILL
> operates as a resonant RF circuit anyhow.
> 
> >From this perspective Malcolm is correct in saying that the lightning
> STROKE is RF. BEFORE the lightning strike the potentials involved are
> INDEED DC. But with the stroke itself the basic phenomenon changes
> radically and is indeed RF. Otherwise it wouldn't mess up the
> reception on your AM radio :)
> 
> Fr. Tom McGahee

I think credit for that statement belongs to Mark Graalman. However, 
I also hold the view that any step function generates RF. I am always 
amused when people talk about hearing "static" on the radio. That is 
clearly an oxymoron.

Malcolm