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1899-on times.
All,
It is my considered opinion that Tesla never ran the Colorado system for
any length of time. Maybe on one or two occassions he may have let it
run a bit, but basically, he just hit it for seconds. The clue comes in
the CSN. Mainly from the photographic descriptions near the end. (Dec
1899).
He also notes that the danger from fire in the ultra dry CSL made for
near tender box conditions. I would be amazed if the Colorado coil was
ever operated for 30 seconds in a continuous run!! I would think that
Tesla might have considered a 15 second run quite bold.
Tesla mentions that some of the photographs were made with many (hundreds
on occassion) individual switch closings and openings. There is
absolutely no reason for this tedious practice while photographing a coil
in operation. He knew he would need to pile up the photons on the old
orthochromatic plates. He could have let the coil run for 30 seconds to
a minute. (he probably shuttered at the thought) He could also just hit
the switch a large number of times for a fraction of a second each to
make sparks jump and reduce the risk of fire to zero!
A number of causitive agents could have worked in concert to limit
Tesla's on times. Fire was probably the most serious. The stiffness of
his power source and internal transformation could have been another
issue. Remember, at that time all of Colorado Springs had a single
generator and one backup. More important, Tesla notes that his "supply
transformers" were woefully under rated. He used three of them as I
remember. He noted that 5KVA might be their rating. Naturally these
ratings could be "pushed". These units can just be glimpsed on the
floor of the lab in the CSN notes in what I consider the best photo of
the CSL period. It was taken in December by Mr. Alley, head photographer
of the CENTURY magazine who was packed up from New York and shipped out
to Tesla when a local photographer proved less than adept at the job.
Tesla would only suffer the best of the best!! (More little known and
never published info that came straight from Anderson's achives) This
photo is a shot over the tops of the capacitor bank looking towards the
Westinghouse transformer.
Supply transformers???! Tesla received 1000 volts from the outside
lines. 1000 volts, at that time, was considered a high tension line for
major distribution around a city. The big Westinghouse "custom wind"
inside the CSL used 200-400v in taps. He had these "interstage"
transformers to match the line to the big Westinghouse. They were his
weak link in the lab. This is why I doubt that he ran even 50KVA at his
most maniacal moments.
I think that if Tesla were alive, he would be amazed at some of our run
times. Of course, if he were alive, he would have access to all our
modern stuff and would undoubtedly beat us on our own turf.
Richard Hull, TCBOR