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Re: Great Balls of Fire

Tesla List wrote:
> 
> >From 100624.504-at-CompuServe.COMSun Oct  6 13:28:30 1996
> Date: 06 Oct 96 13:55:06 EDT
> From: Alan Sharp <100624.504-at-CompuServe.COM>
> To: Tesla List <tesla-at-poodle.pupman-dot-com>
> Subject: 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)?

Last Question first.  I mention fireballs in my book only in the context 
that Tesla notes them and give little more time to it that Richard Quick 
did in his fine update in this original post.  A good coiler can follow 
my book OK without the original notes, but having your own copy of the 
original notes allows you to sort of follow along and agree or disagree 
with my interpretation.

Oh!  before I forget,  My book is now officially sold out at my end.  I 
am already preparing for the third printing!  As I have not changed the 
text of the book, it will remain a first edition.  However, I am adding a 
bunch of more recent photo update pages and a paper or two in an 
addendum.  I just got the price to print and was blown away!!! The half 
toning of the photos was a killer.  Ouch, it looks like the postpaid 
price will jump to $25.00 from the old $22.50!  Sorry about that.  I will 
not have the printing done for a couple of months as I organize the new 
stuff.  Gotta' save my nickels and dimes.

Regarding the photos of fireballs.  Be very careful.  From video, beware 
of video noise artifacts being held out as fireballs!  A fireball will 
survive with little motion from frame to frame over a number of frames.  
It is unlikely to have a 4 frame fireball (i.e 1/8 second)  On still 
photos taken via time exposure, look for a bright streak with a very 
non-sparklike path.  Watch out for chemical streaks (processing faults), 
 Negative emulsion gouges, lens flares (often from rotary gaps in the 
same frame).  We, TCBOR folks, have never seen one in all our years.

Richard Hull, TCBOR