New to the group

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: New to the group
From: Julian Green <julian-at-kbss.bt.co.uk>
Date: Thu, 8 Aug 96 15:19:32 BST

Hello,

I'm Julian Green and am new to this group.  I am interested in TCs 
having read all about it from Richard Quicks mail archive (rqmsgs.txt).

 I have built my own coil and for a first attempt was very pleased 
with the results (22" streamers).

Having read a message in my first batch of mail from this group I 
noticed that soneone was wondering why more input power does not
increase the spark length by a similar amount.   I have a theory:

By observing my own coil running on a variac, I have noticed that
an increase in input power does not produce longer sparks, but more
of them.  (The sparks do get longer but not a much as expected).

I have put this down the the output frequency of the 
coil.   As the frequency of the coil increaces the capacitance of 
the air becomes more significant and discharge can occur at shorter
distances.   Without a toroid the resonant frequency is even higher,
the spark length shorter, but the cloud of crona around the top
very much larger.

My coil resonates at 220 KHz with 12" toroid.

So if you want longer sparks, lower the frequency of the coil
(add a huge toroid, or add more turns).  When you have a lower
resonant frequency and the number of parallel sparks reduced 
increacing input power should yeild longer sparks.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

Julian Green.