laser guided discharge

• To: tesla-at-poodle.pupman-dot-com
• Subject: laser guided discharge
• From: Tesla List <tesla-at-stic-dot-net>
• Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 16:58:58 -0500
• Approved: tesla-at-stic-dot-net

Subject:  laser guided discharge
  Date:    Wed, 21 May 97 08:43:17 EDT
  From:    pierson-at-ggone.ENET.dec-dot-com



>> David, I don't think that uch power is required. I remember hearing
>> back around 1973 that some students at MIT used a U.V. laser of a few
>> watts (Nitrogen laser I think) to conduct the output of a small Tesla
>> coil several hundred feet to an isolated terminal and draw several
>> inches of spark from the isolated terminal to ground.

>Several hundred feet?  I am skeptical, as the laser needs to have an
>intensity sufficient to ionize the air along the entire light path.

        errrr.
        Does it?
        The discharge iteself has a lot of energy.  I suspect the laser
need
        only 'ease the way' (to put it nontechnically) by making that
path
        preferable to others....  That is, it may be sufficient to
provide a
        few ions along the 'desired' path, not completely stip every ion
        all the way along...

        regards
        dwp

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