Re: Toroid, Humidity, New Coil

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: Toroid, Humidity, New Coil
From: Open Minded <unknown-at-apc-dot-net>
Date: Thu, 23 Jan 1997 23:55:30 -0800
Subscriber: unknown-at-apc-dot-net Fri Jan 24 22:19:17 1997

Tesla List wrote:
> 
> Subscriber: erc-at-coastalnet-dot-com Thu Jan 23 22:50:36 1997
> Date: Fri, 24 Jan 1997 00:02:43 -0400
> From: "George W. Ensley Jr." <erc-at-coastalnet-dot-com>
> To: tesla-at-poodle.pupman-dot-com
> Subject: Toroid, Humidity, New Coil
> 
> Group,
> 
> After making a few mistakes with my first TC i built a 6" coil using
> information gleaned from this list. What a success, 4.5 feet right out of
> the gate with 1.4 KVA. I hope some tuning will prove as fruitful.
> 
> In the process of  getting the new coil together I built a 19"x4.5" toroid.
> I immediately noticed that breakout didn't occur until about 80% power, well
> after the gap had begun to fire. The temperature was in the twenties and the
> humidity was low.
> 
> Now that it has warmed up a bit the humidity is higher and the toroid breaks
> out as soon as the gap begins to fire, 60% power or so. Can it be that the
> humidity is solely responsible for this or am i overlooking something else.
> 
>   (((())))
>      |  |
>      |  |
>  \\\\\\//////
> -.. . -. ....- --.. .--. ---   --. . --- .-. --. .   . -. ... .-.. . -.--
> GEORGE W. ENSLEY

George -

   When the air is more humid (higher moisture content) it will be
more conductive. Ergo, sparks break out sooner, and typically are
not as long. I had a similar experience several years ago when I
gave a Tesla demonstration down in San Diego, next to the ocean. It
was at night, and you could smell and sense the salt water in the
air. Needless to say, my coil was doing all it could to push 3.5 foot
sparks into the air. The next day, still in the same place but inside
with air conditioning, the coil worked it's usual 5 footers.

- Brent