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Art, Math, & Science


First off, I want to apologize to the group for leaving the
impression that Tesla coiling is not a science, or that math
cannot assist in Tesla coil design. I have been hammered with
private mail on the subject, and a couple of public posts
indicating dissent. I reviewed the post I sent up before I had
received any responses and determined that I was perhaps a bit
disgustingly sanctimonious. I apologized in private to Jim
Oliver, and I read the mail from everyone who contacted me on the
subject, private and public. I could spend hours in responding
individually and publicly in a effort to defend, dissuade, and
retract various points. The bottom line however is that I don't
think pursuing this will assist anyone in building a better coil
in the near future. 

I was asked to provide certain documentation by at least two
parties specifically relating to the ongoing debate regarding
coils as transmission lines or lumped circuits. This I am always
happy to provide documentation within reason. 

The Corum brothers have been published in past issues of the
Tesla Coil Builders Assoc. publication, "NEWS" clearly explaining
their views that coils should be mathematically treated as
transmission lines. Their work derives from transmission line and
antenna theory. There is a general explanation in Volume 8-4,
page 12 of the NEWS.

Duane Bylund is a leading proponent of lumped circuit analysis,
and his work is built upon a series of experiments by the
eminently practical Richard Hull. Duane's ideas are documented in
his book: MODERN TESLA COIL THEORY, chapter 3, and in the
recently published supplement. Duane accurately reports that in
many ways the Tesla resonator behaves as a series RLC circuit.
Before anyone jumps on me again about this, read the supplement
and perform, or at least understand, the experiments. Duane has
carefully thought this through and has designed experiments that
strongly supports his position. This one can be argued against
the facts.

Note: I have not, and do not, intend to take sides on this issue.
As a practical coiler I will use whatever theory best supports
the data in my specific application of the day. They both come up
short at times.

Other documentation in the form of my personal lab notes, charts,
and diagrams is more difficult to provide. The sections in
question have not been transcribed into ASCII, nor am I motivated
to do so any time soon. This material is loosely organized and
fills many pages. It is valuable as a personal reference, but
until the material is collated it would be useless to the group.
I am not even sure if the entire data sets would be worthwhile
enough to include in the book. It seems more reasonable to
present the data as a range of effective design parameters, parts
of which are already incorporated into the COILBLD?.TXT series on
secondary coil design and construction. This has been released to
the group as Graphical Coil Instructions 1-4. This material is
available from the FTP site as COILBLD.ZIP. 

I was asked what types of software I have used to run coil
designs. I have tried all of the commercially available coil
software except for the program by D.C. Cox of Resonance
Research. D.C. Cox wants $250.00 U.S. currency for the program,
and I can tell from looking at Ed Wingate's coils that I don't
want to spend that kind of money to build those kinds of coils.
Coil math and software can be very useful for obtaining rough
parameters before and after construction. If you want to know the
real answers however, you still have to measure.

In closing I would like to say it was not my intent to belittle
the efforts of mathematicians or theorists in their efforts to
finally resolve the incongruities of Tesla resonate systems. I am
most certainly not a mathematician. I am a practical coiler. All
I want is a big bang for a little buck. As a practical man I am
keenly aware that coiling in the real world is subject to far too
many variables to be predictable with set of easily definable
equations.  

Richard Quick
... If all else fails... Throw another megavolt across it!
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12