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Re: Light Bulb Experiment (ala Brent Turner)

Tesla List wrote:
> 
> >From rwstephens-at-ptbo.igs-dot-netTue Sep 17 22:46:50 1996
> Date: Tue, 17 Sep 1996 21:16:17 -0500
> From: "Robert W. Stephens" <rwstephens-at-ptbo.igs-dot-net>
> To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> Subject: Re: Light Bulb Experiment (ala Brent Turner)
> 
> >>From bert.hickman-at-aquila-dot-comSun Sep 15 21:41:18 1996
> >Date: Sun, 15 Sep 1996 14:31:17 -0700
> >From: Bert Hickman <bert.hickman-at-aquila-dot-com>
> >To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> >Subject: Light Bulb Experiment (ala Brent Turner)
> 
> <snip>
> 
> Bert wrote:
> 
> >All,
> 
> >After looking at Brent's picture (BRENT_1.JPG) showing a 40W bulb being
> >lit from current coming off his coil, I decided to replicate this on my
> >10" coil (without me being an integral part of the experiment. ;^) I
> >took a standard 120V ceramic light socket and mounted it to a piece of
> >wood. A short piece of magnet wire was connected to one terminal of the
> >socket, and the other end was run to the reverse side of the wood block
> >and secured with a piece of conductive aluminum heating-duct tape. The
> >other socket terminal ran to a 1 foot piece of HV wire. By setting the
> >assembly on the top of the toroid, I could position it so that the loose
> >end of the HV wire just poked out from the outer edge of the toroid. Any
> >current flowing through the corona would flow through any light bulb
> >screwed into the socket.
> 
> >I then proceeded to try various sizes of incandescent light bulbs to see
> >if they would light from the current drawn by the corona coming off the
> >HV wire. Although a 40 W bulb would light (orange color), I got the best
> >results from 15 and 25 Watt bulbs, lighting them to almost full
> >brilliance. I also succeeded in blowing out the filament of one 15 watt
> >bulb - this bulb had a filament that started jumping all over the place
> >once current started flowing through it, and it finally just openned up.
> >I'm also thinking about getting one of those trick "party" bulbs that
> >has a dancing filament to see how it would work.
> 
> >Anyway... I made an interesting discovery: If I had a fairly steady
> >streamer that didn't arc to gound, the 25W bulb lit up at a fairly
> >bright and constant level. However, once I got heavy discharges to
> >ground, the brightness level declined significantly, and my AC primary
> >current climbed from about 22A to >28A off the 120V main. I don't
> >understand why this should be! I would have expected that the bulb would
> >brighten, since the discharge current to ground clearly seems to be much
> >higher than the corona streamers. The fact that my primary current
> >climbs also would suggest that I am processing more power under this
> >condition.
> 
> >Some other information that may be relevant... the system's 15 KV 120 MA
> >neons and tank cap resonate at about 60 Hz (by design), and I'm using
> >about 170 uF of PFC capacitance. The gaps are a combination of static
> >and vacuum, totaling about 0.54".
> 
> >Any ideas about what is going on??
> 
> >-- Bert --
> 
> Bert,
> 
> This is an interesting experiment.  I would like to propose that you
> also install a tungsten filament bulb in series with the base of the
> secondary winding and RF ground and simultaneously view this lamp and
> the one upstairs.  Could lead to more insight.

Robert,

I tried this out this evening. A 100 watt bulb was inserted into the
ground path. When I fired up the coil, the bulb lit up nicely. Once I
started getting heavy discharges to ground through the top 25W bulb,
BOTH lights went dimmer, even thought I was getting very heavy
discharges...

> As a possible attempt at explaining your phenomenon of the light
> dimming as power to make a bright arc is drawn through it to a ground target,
> I wonder if under these conditions, since there is more RF current being passed
> through the bulb circuit (we would think?)  perhaps the inductance
> of the filament is causing the energy to seek a more direct path and
> there is some bypass arcing occuring in the base of the lamp or in
> the socket.

Perhaps - On some bulbs, there is definate arcing between the filament
support leads, even though the filament is intact. 

> On the matter of your primary current increasing when you load the
> secondary output with a power arc to ground, I think under these
> conditions your tank curcuit Q drops more than when just feeding streamers
> to air.  Reducing the tank Q would draw more power from your 60 Hz
> resonant balancing act you say you have deliberately engineered into your
> power supply.  This extra loading could well be causing it to shift tune off 60
> Hz resonance and thus drawing more primary current from the mains as its
> own Q becomes reduced.
> 
> What does everyone/anyone think?
> 
> regards, rwstephens

I agree, sort of... except that I would think LESS current would be
drawn if I was being pulled off 60 Hz resonance. I think I've got series
resonance between the transformer inductance and the primary cap, which
should make the current decrease once I get off the resonance peak. It
sure does look like, whatever is happening, the secomdary
tune/efficiency is dropping under heavy arcover. I'm still mystified by
what's going on... 

-- Bert --