Re: Playing around

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: Playing around
From: Richard Hull <hullr-at-whitlock-dot-com>
Date: Tue, 16 Jul 1996 09:27:49 -0700
Tesla List wrote:
> 
> >From chadwick-at-flash-dot-netMon Jul 15 22:53:21 1996
> Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 23:07:08 -0500
> From: "Chad A. Madison" <chadwick-at-flash-dot-net>
> To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> Subject: Playing around
> 
> Well, just for hee hee's and ha ha's I decided to play with a 450 watt coil
> this afternoon.  Instead of your standard issue series spark gap, I strapped
> a Jacob's Ladder to it and took the shunt cap off.  Output with just the
> ladder was almost exactly the same (at the peak of the ladder) as with the
> .0056uf 40kvdc cap and 6-gap series spark gap.
> 
> Has Chad discovered some profound new way to completely eliminate the need
> for a shunted cap?  Try it and see what results you encounter.
> 
> Perhaps, in my somewhat inebriated state (four day vacation started today),
> I bore witness to an illusion.  But my brother-in-law was there too, and he
> agreed with me totally.
>                                        \/   \     /
>  Chad Alan Madison                      \   /     \
>  BSEE Undergraduate Student              \ /  \   /
>  University of Texas at Austin            \  /  //
>  Member: Tesla Coil Society                \/  \/
>  http://www.flash-dot-net/~chadwick/           ||  ||
>                                            _______
>                                           ////|\\\\
>                                           \\\\|////
>                                            \\\|///
>                                             |||||
>                                             |||||
>                                             |||||

Chad,

There is nothing striking about your revelation.  The jacobs ladder is a 
single variable space gap.  At the top of the arc in the ladder your 
spaceing is at a maximum and this is where best output always occurs in a 
system.  This is due to the higher voltage allowed to charge the 
capacitor.  More energy, more spark.  Also this is the most damaging 
point at which to operate a coil and many neon transformers are taken out 
with overwide gap separations. 

 This form of gap used to be used by old radio amateurs and is called a 
"horn gap"  It was also used as a safety type gap in early systems due to 
its natural tendency to ultimately self extinguish.


Richard Hull, TCBOR