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Re: Spherical discharge terminal




From: 	Greg Leyh[SMTP:lod-at-pacbell-dot-net]
Sent: 	Sunday, June 22, 1997 6:47 PM
To: 	Tesla List
Subject: 	Re: Spherical discharge terminal

Esondrmn wrote:

> There was some discussion here a while back about the different effects
> produced by using round v.s. toroidal discharge terminals.  Last night I
> placed an aluminum foil covered styrofoam ball (about 6" in dia.) on the top
> of the toroid of my 3" coil.  When running, for the first several seconds,
> the discharges are similar to using the toroid - dancing around the ball and
> many forked like normal, then after maybe 20 seconds it settles down to just
> one streamer going straight up.  This one streamer walks around the ball
> somewhat but has no forks in the discharge except at the very top.  It goes
> straight up for about 16" to 18" then produces many forks at the top.  I have
> never seen this before.  It reminds me of a tornado in appearance.
> 
> Has anyone tried this on a larger, higher powered system?  That would be
> something to see a single discharge going straight up for seven or eight
> feet.  This would probably only work outside with absolutely no wind.


My coil does the same thing, but with the toroidal electrode.  I think 
that it has more to do with the time of formation of the ion cloud, and
convection currents around the coil.

-GL