strike rail??

To: tesla-at-poodle.pupman-dot-com
Subject: strike rail??
From: Tesla List <tesla-at-stic-dot-net>
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 22:20:43 -0500
Approved: tesla-at-stic-dot-net

Subject: 
        strike rail??
  Date: 
        Tue, 8 Apr 97 05:12:31 UT
  From: 
        "William Noble" <William_B_Noble-at-msn-dot-com>
    To: 
        "Tesla List" <tesla-at-poodle.pupman-dot-com>


please explain "strike rail", and when one is needed.  I presume it's a 
grounded ring above the primary to protect the "low voltage" side of the
coil 
from strikes from the secondary - do I need to know anything else???

I'm slowly building a small coil to run on a 15KV or less neon sign 
transformer - I've just about finished winding a primary using 1/4
copper 
tubing in a flat spiral affixed to an acrylic base - 50 ft of copper
starting 
with a 6" inner diameter and spaced with 1/4" acrylic bar stock glued at 
intervals throughout the spiral - my plan is to tune the coil and then
invert 
the primary so that the acrylic (1/4 inch acrylic base) is between the 
secondary and the primary to further reduce arcs from primary to
secondary 
(and to keep all that nasty dust off my nice looking copper spiral)