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Donner und Blitzen [zapped]




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From:  D.C. Cox [SMTP:DR.RESONANCE-at-next-wave-dot-net]
Sent:  Sunday, March 01, 1998 6:14 PM
To:  Tesla List
Subject:  Re: Donner und Blitzen

to: Bill

Fortunately, as I recall, only a smaller branch streamer nailed me.  The
main streamer strongly "attached" itself, a full 18 feet long, to the sharp
overhead edge of your eves trough on the garage.  We had justed switched
from an 1800 RPM synchro motor to a higher speed 3450 RPM non-synchro motor
and never really expected to gain an additional 8-9 feet of arc distance. 
At that point we both backed well into the garage before we threw the big
switch again -- that was just before we knocked out half the neighborhood
as Bill slightly nervously muttered, "Don't worry -- that police have been
here before and we are getting along quite well".  It all was quite amazing
and really drove home the "shocking point" of using high speed RSG's and
high rep rates for larger coil sytems.

Bill's library is quite amazing -- as I recall nearly as large as his
entire garage.  

The AXM was fun especially since it didn't seem to have any mufflers (or
very low restrictive ones at that time).  Bill also had a beautiful Pantera
with a very powerful Weber injected 351 that was occupying a significant
part of his RF Gulch lab -- did you ever get that beast running?  Still
have it??

DR.RESONANCE-at-next-wave-dot-net



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> From: Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> To: 'Tesla List' <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> Subject: Donner und Blitzen
> Date: Friday, February 27, 1998 10:11 PM
> 
> 
> ----------
> From:  Wysock, William C. [SMTP:Wysock-at-courier8.aero-dot-org]
> Sent:  Friday, February 27, 1998 7:51 AM
> To:  Tesla List
> Subject:  FW: Donner und Blitzen
> 
> 
> 
>  ----------
> From: wysock-at-ttr-dot-com
> To: Listown-at-pupman-dot-com
> Cc: William C Wysock
> Subject: Donner und Blitzen
> Date: Thursday, February 26, 1998 11:44PM
> Priority: High
> 
> W. Encil Scott, Jim Lux, D.C. Cox, Bill Lemieux, and all:
> 
> Since I recounted an experiment I performed in 1981 here on the
> Tesla List, I've received a number of comments about giving more
> details on that event.  Let me begin by setting the record straight.
> 
> D.C. Cox wrote to the List today, that he took the picture that is
> on my web site at www.ttr-dot-com.  This is true.  D.C. visited me
> in 1981, for about a week long period.  He was interested in the
> work I was doing up to that point, and expressed interest in
> visiting me at my Monrovia location.  I opened up my library to
> him and gave him the use of my 1969 390 cu. in. 4-speed "tranny"
> American Motors AMX, for transportation around town; (D.C.
> and I are both "old gear-heads" when it comes to hot-roding.)  As
> I recall, D.C. even boasted of winning a street match with another
> muscle car about town at the time (do you remember that D.C.?)
> 
> Anyway, I had my Model 10 Tesla Coil all ready to set up (with an
> attached 35 foot long transmission line to the top of the 4 foot dia.
> toroid,) and this Aerovox 7.5 KJ -at- 60 KVDC energy storage cap.
> I only had a 30 KVDC power supply (to pre-D.C. charge the cap,)
> and I had manufactured a special "conical" triggered spark gap, to
> go across the coaxial output terminals of the Aerovox cap.  My idea
> was to pre-charge this cap with D.C.; then avalanche the trigger gap
> from a single-shot from the Model 10 coil (single shot being defined
> here as a one second long burst,) with the idea that the over-voltage
> across the trigger gap would fire, dumping the high current of the
> storage gap across this gap, and still be fed with a continuous
> supply of high voltage R.F. from the Tesla coil.
> 
> The [intended] purpose of this exercise, was a [crude] attempt to
> produce artificial ball lightning!  From the transmission line
> stretched across the back yard "high voltage lab proving grounds,"
> was a downward section of flexible aluminum tubing, terminating
> at a 20 inch diameter toroid on top of an 8 foot high station post
> insulator stand.  This caused about an 8 foot gap between the toroid
> and the 4 inch diameter copper sphere, which was attached to the
> center electrode of the trigger gap on top of the Aerovox cap.
> 
> The [thinking] here was that I could produce an avalanche ionized
> condition across the conical cross-section of this trigger-style gap
> from the initial over voltage provided by the Tesla coil.  This was
> [by intended design,] supposed to cause a very high current, very
> short pulse duration arc across this gap.  The thinking was that
> after this initial pulse had exhausted itself, there would still be
> enough energy supplied by the Tesla coil discharge, to continue and
> manifest the high current plasma of the Aerovox cap, long enough to
> "pump" this plasma with sufficient R.F. energy, to help maintain
> continued (and hopefully a uniformly expanding, hydro-dynamically
> stable plasmoid, i.e., ball lightning.)
> 
> This of course, as Mr. Murphy would have it, is NOT what occurred!
> Instead, the energy from the Aerovox cap, found its way back up the
> Tesla coil corona streamer, and through the secondary coil, and
> finally, back to ground.  From several posts on the List just today,
> it has been suggested that the inductance of the secondary coil,
> would have been too great, to support any high amount of current
> back to ground through that winding.  This is certainly logical and
> expected.  However, it remains that literally every circuit breaker
> (on my own equipment which was rated at 100 amps, 240 volts,
> curve #1 by Heinemann,) and all the breakers on the main house
> distribution panel, (more then 100 feet away from the back yard
> "H.V. proving grounds,"  as well as TWO neighbor's breakers,) all
> tripped in that single, glorious "FLASH!"
> 
> It was most fortunate, that D.C. was there, with his 35 mm camera
> with ASA-100 film, tripod, cable release, and (I think) an f-stop
> on the shutter (set for bulb exposure,) of about f-16.  He opened
> the shutter, I gave Model 10 a short "blast," there was a tremendous
> acoustic "BOOOOM!" and everything went dark.  Then the neighbors
> all came out.  Then I had a LOT of explaining to do.  Then I
> discovered all the damage that was done.  (Actually, it took until the
> following afternoon, to understand and comprehend, the extensiveness
> of all the EMP damage that took place the night before.)
> 
> Analysis:  In the years since, I have done extensive studies on the
> R.F. spectrum of Tesla Coil discharge itself (not including the
> resonant frequency or mode of operation of the coil itself.)  This is
> fairly simple to do with the right E-field probe and a high
> performance spectrum analyzer (such as an HP-8593.)  The E-field
> probe is set up in such a way as to "see" the signature of both the
> resonant frequency of the secondary, plus the spurious artifacts
> (that run into the megahertz range,) from the corona discharge.
> 
>  What I have concluded is this:  In any Tesla coil with a
> [comparatively] large ionization volume (corona discharge channel,)
> this channel forms its own multi-resonant modes with spurious
> frequencies many orders higher then the fundamental frequency of
> the coil's operation.  This can be easily shown by regulating the
> size (length) of the gap between a toroid on the coil, and a grounded
> electrode.  I [personally] have seen considerable E-fields generated
> up past 300 MHz, even though the resonant frequency of the coil
> was only 175 KHz.
> 
> What I believe happened on that [fateful] night is this.  The energy
> stored in the Aerovox cap, expended itself (for the most part,) in
> the discharge path (~ 8 foot long,) created by the Tesla coil
> discharge.  Here was the phenomena of an air-borne higher-order mode
> self-resonant R.F. cavity mechanism in operation.  The balance of
> the energy, that was to overcome the inductance of the secondary coil
> on its way back to an [electrical] ground, managed to also couple as
> a step-down function, back into the primary tank circuit, and back
> through all the power supply circuitry, and finally, back through the
> "house mains" and to the distribution line that is common to my
> property, as well as that of four other homes.
> 
> Considering the damage that was done in and around these other
> homes [electrically speaking,] it is clear that a tremendous amount
> of pulse energy made its way back through those lines.  The
> "frying" of the 300 MHz PCM 9 volt isolated battery transmitters
> on my property, indicated the nature of high energy EMP being
> released from this experiment.
> 
> As D.C. noted in his post of today, the camera really caught the full
> magnitude of this arc, which lasted but for a fraction of a second.
> In that photograph, you'll notice a couple of 8 foot long florescent
> tubes, leaning up against a chain link fence, glowing.  Remember, the
> total time exposure on D.C.'s camera at about f-16 was less then 5
> seconds total.  The firing of the Model Ten coil was a single push
> of the momentary contact operate mushroom button!
> 
> BTW; another "interesting development," that occurred at R.F. Gulch
> that week, was my initial firing of the Super Model Nine Tesla Coil.
> D.C. was there for that as well.  When I first fired the coil, D.C.
> was standing about 15 feet away for it.  I said,"Better step back a
> little further, D.C., I wouldn't want you to get hit."  He replied,
> "Naw, I'm fine right where I am."  I said, "Suit yourself...."  And
> with that, I zapped the coil at full power.  An arc went out from the
> 30 inch diameter toroid, and hit D.C. right in the forehead.  Knocked
> him right on his can! [Er, ground terminal.]  Do you remember that
> D.C.?  Anyway, when he got up and was only stunned, and said he
> was o.k. I said I was going to fire the coil again.  He wouldn't even
> allow himself to be anywhere in the back yard at that point and opted
> for the safety of standing behind the driveway gate.
> 
> But this is off the subject.  Back to the point.  Which  is this:
> I found out the hard way, as I believe Bill Lemieux pointed out, that
> even with the best of intentions and careful planning, etc., it is
> MORE the possible for Mr. Murphy to "ruin your whole
> [Tesla coil] day!" I vowed NEVER to repeat THAT particular
> experiment, under ANY circumstances, until I was [inside of]
> a controlled environment.  BTW: The quest for this form of
> generating ball lightning phenomena, continues.
> 
> Bill Wysock.
> ___________________________
> Tesla Technology Research