Re: 'true" spark length was Re: Desktop Bipolar Coil

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

Original poster: "Malcolm Watts by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <m.j.watts-at-massey.ac.nz>

Hi Jimmy,

On 4 Jul 2003, at 12:36, Tesla list wrote:

 > Original poster: "jimmy hynes by way of Terry Fritz 
<teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <chunkyboy86-at-yahoo-dot-com>
 >
 > Hi,
 >
 > I wouldn't have thought that the streamer growth would
 > have made that much of a difference, at such a low
 > break rate, and such a small coil. If I remember
 > correctly, Steve's mini OLTC didn't show streamer
 > growth until around 400 bps. Do you have any idea why
 > there is such a big difference in break rate needed?
 > Could you give some more specs on the coil you're
 > referring to?

I'm not talking about streamer growth in the "traditional" sense. I'm
talking about the distance between the terminal and a grounded rod
with distance set for consistent attached sparks. In effect, the
spark energy was focused into a channel rather than dissipating into
thin air.
      I don't recall the exact coil details sorry. I have over a dozen
secondaries of various sizes lining the garage walls. I performed
these experiments about seven years ago.

Malcolm


 > --- Tesla list <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com> wrote:
 >  > Original poster: "Malcolm Watts by way of Terry
 >  > Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>"
 >  > <m.j.watts-at-massey.ac.nz>
 >  >
 >  > Hi Jim,
 >  >
 >  > On 2 Jul 2003, at 19:18, Tesla list wrote:
 >  >
 >  >  > Original poster: "Jim Lux by way of Terry Fritz
 >  > <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>"
 >  > <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>
 >  >  >
 >  >  >  > system or, to put it another way, a rather low
 >  > output voltage/energy
 >  >  >  > storage ratio in the secondary. I dare say the
 >  > result was also
 >  >  >  > dependent to a degree on the humidity content
 >  > of the air at the time
 >  >  >  > (I recall it as being rather low).
 >  >  >  >
 >  >  >
 >  >  >  >From a purely theoretical standpoint, I
 >  > wouldn't expect humidity to have a
 >  >  > huge effect.  Humidity has a big effect on static
 >  > electricity machines where
 >  >  > you depend on a very high surface resistivity
 >  > because the charging current
 >  >  > is so low.  On a TC, though, you've got energy to
 >  > burn, and corona is
 >  >  > probably a bigger loss source than leakage.
 >  >
 >  > I should have been more explicit. Humidity had
 >  > little if anything to
 >  > do with the result of upping the breakrate - only
 >  > with the actual
 >  > sparklength attained which I never mentioned. In
 >  > SShot mode it was
 >  > about 7" attached, increasing to about 13" at 2 -
 >  > 3BPS from memory.
 >  > Sorry for injecting noise and confusion.
 >  >
 >  > Malcolm
 >  >
 >  >
 >
 >
 > =====
 > Jimmy
 >
 > _
 >
 >
 >