Insulator Tracking, was Along the lines of "Trying this at home"

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

Original poster: "Christopher Boden by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <chrisboden-at-hotmail-dot-com>

>Original poster: "BunnyKiller by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" 
><bigfoo39-at-telocity-dot-com>
>my coil puts out 12' ( foot) long streamers....  I wouldnt touch it with a
>20' fiberglass pole
>...   in a previous test I placed a 4' long glass tube near the toriod of
>my small coil ( which
>puts out 1 - 4' long streamers) and at low output ( normally 1.5'
>streamers) the streamer
>traveled across the tube and over to the grounded wire. Goes to show how
>"non insulative" glass
>is at higher voltages...
>
>Scot D

Yes, I've seen this with Flouresant tubes all the time, but the rules are 
different for them somehow. I think it's a capacitor thing, but I'm not 
smart enough to know the hows or whys. There are a couple observations I 
have made over the years.


1. 6'x.75" wooden pole with 1'x.75" Cu pipe as an end, with a piece of 12AWG 
wire to Ground makes a great Jesus Stick (It's what we use in the lab). I 
have taken a thousand arcs to the tip of it while holding the other end, and 
never had a problem. I've done this with the coil shooting 6' arcs.

2. A flourecant tube, 8' long when held at a distance from the operating 
coil, but within the field (It was lighting up) will give you a slight zap 
from the end (CApacitively coupled?). If you bring it too close and the 
streamer connects it will BITE you  ;) learned this the hard way.

3. A .5" UHMW rod 5' long with a small antenna on the end (Our first Jesus 
Stick) will Carbon track as the arc gets closer and closer to me when I hold 
it, this can be rather unerving. That's why we made the new one (new 
one....it's over a year old, lol)



I've seen our nice new 24" station post insulators surface tracking 
beautifuly enough times to be VERY aware of how the insulative properties 
get FUNKY at HV and especially HF.



duck




Christopher A. Boden Geek#1
President / C.E.O. / Alpha Geek
The Geek Group
www.thegeekgroup-dot-org
Because the Geek shall inherit the Earth!


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