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Re: Great Balls of Fire
Greetings
My thanks to Richard Quick, for a very full answer to the question on Fireballs.
If anyone has a picture of fireballs that they can share over the net
then I would be glad to see it.
Next question is: Goodness Gracious can I make them in the garage?
I hope to have a working 1kw solid state driver soon and I'm interested
in seeing what effects can be generated by using several coils at different
phases or frequencies. I've just finished what I hope is a robust 1.2KW psu.
I've found a source for "non-inductive" resistors - which I'll use to replace
the wire wounds (eeeeek - I wondered why it did that) in current sensing and
snubbers.
If I have a couple of 1kw solid state coils - say capable of 18" arcs. Very
different
frequencies - but switched by the same 60Hz oscillator. And then connect to
carbon
discharge electrodes:
a) Would I be able to make fireballs?
b) Is the interaction likely to blow the electronics?
(I think I know the answer to (b) - I noticed that a physicist has won the
"Ignoble
Prize for physics" for experimentaly verifying that a dropped piece of toast
will tend to
land butter side down. Murphy's law of course always fails when its correctly
anticipated.)
Does Richard Hull's Guide to the Colorada Spring Notes cover this - and does the
topic (and the guide generally) make sense on it's own (ie without the CSN)?
>>>>>>>>Richard Quick wrote>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Yes, this has been done by Tesla, and by Kenneth L. Corum and James
F. Corum, who were the first people to my knowledge to accurately
decipher Tesla's sometimes crypic notes and reproduce Tesla's orignal
experimental method. Corum & Corum published in the Tesla Coil Builders
Association publication "NEWS" Volume 8, #3--July, August, September--
1989, "Tesla's Production of Electric Fireballs", pp 13-18. This article
includes four B&W photos, one page of apparatus schematics, and an
extensive bibliography. It is available as a back issue from the TCBA.
In addition Corum and Corum published a more lengthy paper in 1988 titled:
FIRE BALLS - A Collection of Laboratory Experiment Photographs; which
consists of text plus 36 color photographs and commentary, 50 pp total
for $55.00 and available from: Corum & Assoc. Inc., 8551 State Route 534
Windsor, OH 44099.
Yet another paper on the subject was presented by the Corum brothers at
the 1990 Tesla Symposium at Colorado Springs, Colorado. The paper titled
"Fire Balls, Fractals, and Colorado Springs: A Rediscovery of Tesla's RF
Techniques" may be found in: PROCEEDINGS of the 1990 INTERNATIONAL TESLA
SYMPOSIUM, 1991, International Tesla Society, edited by Steven R. Elswick,
Asst. Editors Gary Peterson, Jason Wentzell; ISBN 1-9620394-2-X
Tesla, of course, was the first person that I am aware of to produce
electrical fire balls in the laboratory. Tesla shows dozens of diagrams
and photographs of apparatus capable of producing fireballs in the
COLORADO SPRINGS NOTES (or CSN). See the notes and diagrams on pp
114-115, 174, 176, 177, text on pp 368-370, etc...
The CSN is liberally sprinkled with circuits and techniques for fire
ball production; the problem being that Tesla does not show a wiring
diagram and say "This circuit produces fireballs." The circuits he
used are diagramed in the course of the notes, but the discussion of
fireballs appears in different sections with no clear connection to a
particular circuit schematic. The key to understanding the versitility
of these circuits is in realizing that the main coils were large and
difficult to move. However, by simply moving the base lead wires around
and adjusting the dischargers and tank circuit tune, it was easy to fire
a Magnifier configuration one minute, and a fire ball machine the next.
(well a few minutes anyway!)
> THE COLORADO SPRINGS NOTES, 1899-1900
By Nikola Tesla... Hardcover, 440pp, Published by NOLIT, Beograd,
Yugoslavia, 1978. Prefaced and annotated by Aleksandar Marincic,
Assoc. Prof. of EE Beograd Univ. and advisor to the Nikola Tesla
Museum, Yugoslavia.
BTW, the fireball circuit basically consists of two secondary coils
with substantially different frequencies (say 67 kHz & 156 kHz)
coupled to the same tank circuit. The Corums used a primary coil
shaped like an oval racetrack (or a modern football stadium) with
the two secondary coils positioned inside. Points are generally
added to the coil dischargers to force the two coils to strike one
another. Carbon vapor assists in the production of a stable plasma
sphere, so the discharger points are doped with carbonaceous material.