Secondary wire & insulation

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Secondary wire & insulation
From: Trsla List <tesla-at-stic-dot-net>
Date: Mon, 02 Jun 1997 23:36:06 -0500
Approved: tesla-at-stic-dot-net
Subject:  Secondary wire & insulation
  Date:   Mon, 2 Jun 1997 17:48:58 +0500
  From:   "Alfred A. Skrocki" <alfred.skrocki-at-cybernetworking-dot-com>
    To:   Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>


On Fri, 30 May 1997 20:41:09 -0500 Rick Holland
<rickh-at-ghg-dot-net> wrote;

> Be careful here. You can also get bare copper wire (with no coating at
> all) from hardware and hobby stores. This wire has many uses, but would
> be extremely difficult to use in Tesla applications.

   Begging to differ here, most small commercial induction coils were 
wound with bare wire and many a tesla coil have too, you just have to 
space the wire and that is easily accomplished by making a loop of 
thread the same thickness as the wire you are using and put a 1/4 to 
1/2 oz. fishing sinker on the loop and wind the coil with the loop 
between turns it will keep the spaceing. The insulation on the wires 
is realy insignificant on most tesla coils and merely serves the 
purpose of keeping the space between the turns, it is the spacing of 
the wires and the several coats of polyurethane that are the actual 
insulation. I and most people I have talked to that were fortunate to
have wound both double cotton coated wire and enamel coated have fond 
the double cotton coated wire to yield better coils, this I attribute
to the cotton holding a larger amount of polyurethane between the 
turns thus insulating the coil better. As a mater of fact to quote
Thomas Stanley Curtis in his "High Frequency Apparatus" he states;

       "The conductor for the secondary windings of all types of
    oscillation transformers should be of soft, pure copper wire.
    The insulation may be of cotton or silk but NOT of enamel. The
    use of the later for high frequency secondaries has given the 
    author great dissapointment in the construction of several large
    and comparatively expensive coils. The insulation on the wire is 
    of no value whatever except to provide a mechanical separation 
    for the turns of wire and to form a base or support for whatever
    insulating substance is applied to the wire subsequenty."



 
                               Sincerely

                                \\\|///
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                           Alfred A. Skrocki
                   alfred.skrocki-at-cybernetworking-dot-com
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