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Re: Electrostatics
At 22:48 8/17/96 -0600, you wrote:
>Charlie, all:
>
>I have just been a-messing around. Just a few days ago Richard
>Hull was discussing electrostatics and Tesla coils. He remarked
>that actual experiments provide support to the idea that Tesla
>coil outputs have many DC qualities. This one was all but too
>easy to set up and run:
>
>I took a simple 6 inch coil system with a foil wrapped funnel
>taped to the side of the toroid. The funnel had the "pointed" end
>facing away, and the tip of the funnel was rounded or "blunted"
>with a small rubber ball under the foil wrap. The coil was then
>tuned as a transmitter (no breakout or spark issues from the
>discharger).
>
>About twenty inches from the rounded "point" of the conical
>projection, I suspended a spherical terminal 4 inches in diameter
>from nylon monofiliment fishing line. A lead wire was taken from
>the sphere and routed on insulators towards my system ground. All
>measurements/distances were approximate, as I was changing things
>constantly, but this should give an idea of the basic arrange-
>ment.
>
>The coil was fired at very low power, >1kva, and the suspended
>sphere terminal distance to the toroid was adjusted until blue
>corona just illuminated the space between the two. By changing
>the distance between the lead wire from the elevated spherical
>terminal and my system ground, thereby drawing sparks to ground,
>I was able to verify the sphere was being charged by the coil.
>
>My next step was to build an insulated counterpoise above the
>ground by stacking some large toroids on a plastic milk crate.
>I connected the counterpoise (a high voltage capacitance of small
>value) to the lead wire from the sphere and discharged the
>counterpoise to ground periodically with a shunt on an insulated
>handle.
>
>For all appearances, this system was acting as if the spherical
>"pickup" terminal and the insulated counterpoise above the ground
>were being charged with DC from the coil. The more capacitance
>added to the counterpoise, the bigger and brighter the sparks I
>was able to draw to the system ground. The longer I allowed the
>counterpoise to charge, the bigger and brighter the sparks I was
>able to draw to the ground.
>
>There is a lot of additional experiments I have not yet
>undertaken with this rather simple apparatus. I will look into
>this more in the coming days.
>
>Richard Quick
>
>
>... If all else fails... Throw another megavolt across it!
>___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12
Hello Richard & All:
Ironically I had just posted a message to Richard Hull proposing
some details of the construction of the system I am building. Here
is part of the message for you and everyone to digest.
(section of post to Richard Hull)
>Several of Tesla's experiments were conducted with a type of field
>emission device which generated x-rays of considerable voltage.
>By using a similar device I intend to focus this energy onto a lead
>coated large block of metal connected electrically on a tether to
>a large conducting sphere elevated by helium. This should charge the
>lead block and sphere to a high potential.
>
>By using a spark gap from the lead block to ground and then by
>varying the distance and/or voltage I should be able to control
>the frequency of the discharges to the ground.
I remember quite some time ago, you and I were discussing this method
of rectification and I am pleased with the results of your latest
experiment. I will keep all of you posted as to my results also.
Thanks much
Charlie
Elfrad Group