Re: stepped leaders

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: stepped leaders
From: Jim Fosse <jim.fosse-at-bdt-dot-com>
Date: Fri, 23 Aug 1996 17:18:06 GMT
>From: "Robert W. Stephens" <rwstephens-at-ptbo.igs-dot-net>
>To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
>Subject: Re: stepped leaders
>
[snip]
>You then conclude: "The multiple beat envelope one gets shows that 
>the system is vastly overcoupled before spark production."  Yes I 
>agree with you, this seems intuitively correct. 
>
>DING, light going on!  This is the scientific explanation why on a sizeable
>system, when big power is going in, and no streamers are yet coming out, the 
>rotary break is beating itself up! (with greatly increased light 
>output).  I used to give this the casual explanation that the input energy was
>merely 'piling up' at the break contacts, but you've just cleared it up for me!

Could I interject a thought on this condition? Under this condition,
the TC secondary IS acting like an unterminated transmission line with
the attendant high SWR that this condition implies. (Standing Wave
Ratio can be thought of as the ratio of forward power to reflected
power) With no load at the end of the transmission line (no sparks at
the discharge terminal) and all the power sent down to the far end of
the secondary is reflected back to the near, driven, end.

This reflected power is transformed by the transformer action of the
TC secondary to TC primary coupling and is dissipated in whatever
lossy components are in the primary circuit. Given most construction
methods used by the coilers on this list, the primary is of low R, the
cap is of low D, that leaves the spark gap as the losseist component.
It starts dissipating the power of the system.

One of my unanswered questions: is the output voltage of the TC
secondary: a) strictly the input voltage multiplied by the turns
ration of the secondary to primary? b)input voltage multiplied by the
turns ratio multiplied further by the 1/4 wave transmission line
properties of the secondary? or c)some combination?  I am waiting to
measure this until I can build some type of metering scheme; field
mill or HV resistive divider.

If the answer is b or c, then the voltage across the spark gap is much
greater under no load conditions than under a loaded condition because
the reflected wave is of greater voltage that the simple turns ratio
would provide and is transformed backwards only by the simple
transformer action of the secondary:primary.

Any thoughts on the transmission line voltage multiplication effect?

	Regards,

	jim