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Re: stepped leaders

Tesla List wrote:
> 
> > Subject: Re: Safety FAQ is here -- draft, asking for comments.
> > >Subject: Re: Safety FAQ is here -- draft, asking for comments.
> 
> >From sgreiner-at-wwnet-dot-comMon Aug 19 21:52:35 1996
> Date: Sun, 18 Aug 1996 01:37:52 -0700
> From: Skip Greiner <sgreiner-at-wwnet-dot-com>
> To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> Subject: stepped leaders
> 
> Tesla List wrote:
> >
> > >From rwstephens-at-ptbo.igs-dot-netThu Aug 15 21:17:47 1996
> > Date: Thu, 15 Aug 1996 20:49:50 -0500
> > From: "Robert W. Stephens" <rwstephens-at-ptbo.igs-dot-net>
> > To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> > Subject: Re: Safety FAQ is here -- draft, asking for comments.
> >
> > >>From sgreiner-at-mail.wwnet-dot-comTue Aug 13 15:19:09 1996
> > >Date: Mon, 12 Aug 1996 14:50:57 -0700
> > >From: Skip Greiner <sgreiner-at-mail.wwnet-dot-com>
> > >To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> > >Subject: Re: Safety FAQ is here -- draft, asking for comments.
> >
> > >Tesla List wrote:
> > >

the mother of all snips!...

Skip wrote:

 The questions which come to my mind are:
> 1. Does each zigzag represent one ring-up of the secondary?
> 2. If 1 is true , is each zigzag added at the toroid end of the spark or
> at the far end of the spark?
> 3 Why the random lengths ? The secondary obviously rings for hundreds of
> cycles....it is very high Q.
> 
> Answers to these questions seem to bear heavily on the ion cloud which is
> proposed to exist around the toroid and how it affects the toroidal
> discharge and more importantly, at least to me, exactly what makes spark
> grow to the longest possible length.
> 1. Is the spark current (power) or voltage driven (dependent)?

The spark grows due to the ion cloud which is a both a function of 
voltage & power!  Voltage is needed to break down the air in the first 
place.  The size of the arc channel and the number of ions in it are 
related to the current in the arc which is inturn related to the power 
input.
R Hull


> 2. Why does a spark once started....cease ?

The question of the century!!!  Still workin' on this one.
R Hull


> 3. Can we find a way to keep a single spark activated and cause it to
> continue to build along the supposed ionized channel ?

Yes!  The Corums, and perhaps Tesla have worked on this one point.  A 
blast of micron sized tungsten particles in an air stream away from the 
toroid is supposed to be able to reach out a kilometer with a few 
megavolts.  The corums did a great talk on this at one of the ITS 
symposium about 4-6 years ago.  You can get a tape of the talk for more 
info.
R. Hull


> 4. How about highly insulating the toroid except at one spot to
> concentrate the discharge energy ?
> 5. Etc., etc.,..........

The same effect can be had but with less effort by lightly upsetting an 
un-insulted toroid's field with a "micro-bump"  See a former post of mine 
(last week) about the exact proceedure for accomplishing this.  We have 
used this method to maximize and control our discharges, exclusively, for 
about 4 years now.
R Hull
> 
> Just some food for thought
> 
> Skip

All,

The subject of stepped leaders is a moot one.  The average lightning bolt 
with numerous stepped leaders takes mere microseconds to race to the 
vicinity of the earth from miles up.  At our resonant frequencies, 
<100KHZ, I think the spark jumps to its maximum on each individual spark 
gap discharge based on the current residual air ionization path energy.

Richard Hull, TCBOR