A "Revolutionary" Idea

To: tesla-at-poodle.pupman-dot-com
Subject: A "Revolutionary" Idea
From: Tesla List <tesla-at-stic-dot-net>
Date: Sat, 22 Mar 1997 00:21:58 -0600
Approved: tesla-at-stic-dot-net

Subject: 
        A "Revolutionary" Idea
  Date: 
        Fri, 21 Mar 1997 13:27:05 GMT
  From: 
        Joe Cummings <joecmn-at-globalnet.co.uk>
    To: 
        tesla-at-pupman-dot-com

At present I'm not able to do any practical work, so all I do is carry
out
Gedankenforschungen - thought experiments.

I have an idea about rotary spark gaps that, knowing the amount of
expertise
to be found on this list, I'm sure has been dealt with before. Anyway,
I'll
float it.

I assume a rotary S.G. has an electrode on the rotor, which, as it
rotates
comes opposite one or more electrodes on the stator, so to get more
frequent
sparks, the rotor has to be accelerated.

Now, has anyone tried staggering a number of electrodes on the rotor, so
that there

 is more than one spark per rev, or x sparks per rev, depending on the
number of electrodes on the stator?

Let's build a rotary with six static electrodes, and five on the rotor.
Let
us space the electrodes on the rotor using a compass, set, not at the
radius, but at the length of the radius plus one fifth the length of the
radius. Let's call the stator elctrodes S1,S2,etc., and the rotary
electrodes R1,R2,etc.

Now starting with R1 and S1 sparking opposite each other, after a fifth
times a sixth of a revolution, R2 and S2 are sparking, and after another
thirtieth of a rev., R3 and S3 are sparking and so on. This will mean
that
there are thirty sparks per revolution.

Is this a feasible proposition? If so, then it could be worked out for
any
number of
electrodes.