Re: Safety Gap Puzzle

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Scott Fulks by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <darkthing-at-earthlink-dot-net>

Greg wrote:
> The shot
> happened to catch the NST supply in the background
> behind the Tesla coil with the safety gaps firing, and
> the toroid streamer is MUCH thicker & more intense.
> What is that about?

The safety gap fires when the tank voltage is higher than normal.  Because
the energy in the tank circuit increases as the cap voltage squared, when
the voltage goes up, the output current is going to go up a lot as well.
The firing of the safety gap is a result of the excess energy, not the cause
of it.

Regards,
Scott Fulks (darkthing-at-earthlink-dot-net)