Re: contrarotating gap

To: tesla-at-grendel.objinc-dot-com
Subject: Re: contrarotating gap
From: sroys-at-Anchorage.ab.umd.edu
Date: Tue, 26 Mar 1996 11:18:16 -0500 (EST)
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> The principle is simple.  The 2 disks rotate in opposite
> directions (though one could be stationary for 1/2 the BPS).
> The number of electrodes (e.g. tungsten pins) is *different*
> for each disk.  Strictly speaking, the numbers should be
> relatively prime to each other; they have no common factors.

 [snip] 
 
> I expect the stray inductance could be a problem, as could the
> precision of the electrode alignment, and the diameter would
> have to be large enough to allow one gap to quench before the
> next started, but there are no highly stressed components.
> 
> Anyone seen one of these?  Somebody probably patented it in 1903. :-/

Tesla described this rotary gap in his Colorado Springs notes.  I haven't 
heard of anybody who has actually built one of these, but I imagine that 
the alignment could be a problem.

Steven Roys