Re: Thanks, Everyone !

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: Thanks, Everyone !
From: Malcolm Watts <MALCOLM-at-directorate.wnp.ac.nz>
Date: Wed, 10 Jul 1996 18:35:17 +1200

Hi Tom,
        Congrats on your first firing of your new system. This 
grabbed my attention....

>          50" FAT white bolt to some hand tools sitting on a cardboard
>          box (go figure?) Also, one of the bolts went AROUND the strike
>          rail, and hit the 50in. sq ground plane. Why did this happen?
>          Also, can someone tell me why a bolt went 1" over the strike
>          rail and then go another foot to the output of the neon? Our
>          electronic engineers at work say it is totally impossible. I
>          would love to know what is going on!!!

Well I'd say your engineers are wrong :(  My explanation : the voltage
produced by your coil is insufficient to head directly for the 
nearest object. The sparks reach out through repetition as well as 
voltage. All metal objects near the coil will produce small leaders
and coronas esp. on sharp edges. As the sparks reach out, the point
comes at which they are able to bridge the gap to the nearest corona
producing object.
     My coil at work produces sparks 5 times the "voltage" length.

Malcolm