Subject: Re: How do sparks propagate, anyway?
Date: Tue, 6 May 1997 00:01:31 -0400 (EDT)
From: richard hull <rhull-at-richmond.infi-dot-net>
To: Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
At 10:29 AM 5/4/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Subject: How do sparks propagate, anyway?
> Date: Sat, 03 May 1997 17:47:12 -0800
> From: Greg Leyh <lod-at-pacbell-dot-net>
> To: Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
>snip
>Point taken -- However it would seem that the 'primary' source of
>pleasure
>for most coilers comes from the actual construction and operation of
>their
>coils, rather than the whys and wherefors of the physics involved.
>There is
>a small group of theorists on this list though, and I would like to
>count
>myself as one of them.
>
>Given the large number of newbies on this list, I would like to re-visit
>an
>old issue from a 'theory of arc dynamics' standpoint -- Why do many
>coilers
>report that a larger toroid increases the striking distance of their
>coils,
>given that increasing Coutput always decreases the output voltage?
>(I am assuming that the striking range is increased by more than just
>the
>increase in toroid radius.)
>
>-GL
Greg,
I have probably done more to push for the use of obscene toroid sizes
than
any one and probably most of the modern genisis of this craft is of my
doing.
I have always stated that given a well desinged, fixed system. the
toroid
size could be increased almost indefinitely, if skill fully done, with
an
attendent increase in spark output. In the same breathe and in all my
articles and tapes on the subject, I have also reiterated that it is
incumbant on the experimenter to also increase the power to the system
to
achieve this. This can be done with capacitance or break rate. I prefer
break rate up to the point where more than 13 turn primaries are
required
and then push the tank capcitor only a tiny bit higher. This has
allowed
small systems to here in a two coil model to push out over 4 times the
resonator length in output spark and a magnifier to shove out 10.5 times
the
resonator's winding length in output spark. (10.5 feet from a 12"X4"
resonator with .03ufd of primary tank capacitance 6-7 KVA).
Much of what I have learned flys in the face of standard spark gap radio
and
EM accepted operation for capacitively discharged devices. Instead of
radio
waves or proper capacitive discharge tecniques, I just got long
discharges
and maximized the air losses of the system to there greatest allowable
degree.
Sparks are what I went after and are what I got.
The most recent article in TCBA NEWS in 1996 stressed all the above in
great
detail. Energy can't come from nowhere, but with tiny systems and huge
toroids it can be rammed through to yield results far beyond even
Tesla's
record in Colorado on the spark length Vs. resontor size. A new idea
for
the old Tesla coil grandpa used to make with the bed post ball on it of
the
1900-1970 era.
If others look at the Toroid as the Tesla nirvanna they need, they are
falling into the old, ...There's just one more secret and I'll have
it"....,
syndrome. The real secret is in understanding electrostatic field
control
with these systems and that's a hands-on thing.
Richrd Hull, TCBOR
>
>