Power curve

To: richard.quick-at-slug-dot-org
Subject: Power curve
From: Esondrmn-at-aol-dot-com
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 1995 12:22:15 -0500
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Richard,

Did Nikola Tesla ever mention anything in his notes about saturation of the
Tesla coil?  I was thinking this weekend that there must be a power or
efficiency curve that applies to each particular coil configuration.  Back in
March of this year, I was using one home made rolled capacitor with 4 12kv 30
ma neon transformers and getting 4 feet of spark.  This is 360 watts in per
foot of spark out.  Now, with a commercial capacitor, pole pig, rotary gap,
etc. I am gettting just over 6 feet of spark with 8,000 watts in.  This is
1,300 watts in per foot of spark out.  If we had a curve of power in vs power
out for this system,  it seems like it would flatten out at or near 2000 to
3000 kva in.

As you slowly increase the power in, I would think the power out is near
linear for a while and then it gets to a point where the system cannot use or
process any more power.  Is this merelly a function of the secondary?  I
can't see how the primary would be a restriction.

Ed Sonderman