Re: grounding - this doesn't make sense - wire size

To: tesla-at-poodle.pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: grounding - this doesn't make sense - wire size
From: Tesla List <tesla-at-stic-dot-net>
Date: Tue, 06 May 1997 23:49:58 -0500
Approved: tesla-at-stic-dot-net

Subject:  Re: grounding - this doesn't make sense - wire size
  Date:   Tue, 6 May 1997 06:57:50 +0000
  From:   "John H. Couture" <couturejh-at-worldnet.att-dot-net>
    To:   Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>


At 04:14 AM 5/4/97 +0000, you wrote:
>Subject:  grounding - this doesn't make sense - wire size
>  Date:  Fri, 2 May 97 06:35:58 UT
>  From:  "William Noble" <William_B_Noble-at-msn-dot-com>
>    To:  "Tesla List" <tesla-at-poodle.pupman-dot-com>
>
>
>I read about the importance of a high current ground, and the use of
>heavy 
>wire to connect to it.  Yet the secondary wire isn't all that big.  I'm
>using 
>24 gague on a 4 inch secondary - if I remember right the largest wire
>size on 
>a secondary I've read about on the list is 18 gague???   What I don't 
>understand is why the wire from the secondary to the ground rod (or
>whatever) 
>needs to be more than one wire size (or 2) larger than the wire that the 
>secondary is wound with.  IT would seem to me that current is limited by 
>melting the secondary wire.  Can someone explain.
>
>-------------------------------------------------------

 William -

   I believe the only schematic in existance showing a typical grounding
setup for Tesla coil safety is shown in the Tesla Coil Notebook. There
is a
lot of other TC info in this book that is not on the Internet.

  The ground wire should be larger than you would expect because the
grounding currents are in large surges. Under these conditions large
wires
are required to keep the voltages in the grounding network to a minimum
for
personnel safety.

  John Couture