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Re: input-output, sparks and power




From: 	FutureT-at-aol-dot-com[SMTP:FutureT-at-aol-dot-com]
Sent: 	Sunday, July 20, 1997 4:07 PM
To: 	tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: 	Re: input-output, sparks and power

>big snip>
>The spark based method relies on a uniform spark intensity, coil to coil,
>with subjective calibration efforts won only with experience.
>big snip

Richard Hull, TCBOR
>>

Richard, All,

You bring up many good points, and your point above is the one of the
most powerful arguments against the input power vs. spark length
measurement.  I should not assume that everyone wants maximum
spark length regardless of spark brightness.  I do find that my sparks
are bright enough, but some may prefer or require brighter sparks to
show up in a darkness-impaired environment, etc.  Others may prefer
to have a multitude of streamers shooting from their toroids, even if
more power is required to produce them.  If this is their goal, then the 
extra energy they dump into their sparks justifies the increased power 
input.

Despite my previous posted comments, I too would prefer a scientific
way to measure TC efficiency, but as you suggest, it seems too difficult
in most cases.  I guess the main factors are; how bright the sparks are,
how many streamers exist, and their length.  Like you said, the hardest
thing to measure is the brightness.  

An experiment I did with tube coils I believe bears upon these issues:
In certain staccato (pulsed) experiments, certain adjustments produced
long straight sparks, whereas other adjustments caused shorter, thicker
sparks to be formed.  It just happens that these adjustments were very
critical, thus, I believe that power and energy levels were remaining quite
constant, although the spark characteristics changed greatly.  Would it
be correct to say that the efficiency of the coil remained constant?  
Perhaps.  (Tube coils...always helping us to understand S.G coils.)

Maybe to satisfy those who demand scientific rigor, we shouldn't call
power input vs. spark length by the term "efficiency" even in quotes,
maybe it's too misleading.  Maybe we need new terminologies, or a new
and innovative application of existing terminologies.  In any case, it would
be useful if standard coil measurement approaches could be agreed upon.

So much of coil-performance depends upon the action of the ion cloud 
and the growing of sparks that I do not think we should ignore or short-
change this TC aspect during our measurements.  This pretty much 
requires that we measure our coils in free air sparking conditions IMO.

Overall, it is not an easy issue to solve to everyone's satisfaction.  As
you said, we can begin by measuring the efficiency of certain sections 
of the TC which may be more easily measured such as the power 
supply, etc.  Equipment such as Dave Sharpe's opto-wattmeter will help.

Onward toward the TC horizon,

John Freau