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Re: Magnifiers revisited
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 7 Oct 1997 15:04:26 -0400
From: Thomas McGahee <tom_mcgahee-at-sigmais-dot-com>
To: Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Subject: Re: Magnifiers revisited
----------
> From: Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> Subject: Re: Magnifiers revisited
> Date: Tuesday, October 07, 1997 1:47 PM
>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Tue, 7 Oct 1997 11:30:59 -0500
> From: "DR.RESONANCE" <DR.RESONANCE-at-next-wave-dot-net>
> To: Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> Subject: Re: Magnifiers revisited
>
> To: Tesla List
>
> You can turn almost any Tesla coil into a magnifier as follows:
>
> Assume you a normal Tesla coil running at 3-5 kw of power. Remove
the
> secondary coil from its normal position and place it on an
insulated
> platform a few feet away from the normal primary coil. We placed
one of
> ours in a test on a large porcelein insulator. Now connect a piece
of
> heavy welding cable (very fine strand) such as 2 ought directly to
the
> bottom of the secondary coil where the ground would normally
attach. We
> also attached a 2 inch dia ball to help prevent corona in this
area.
> Attach the other end of the welding cable to the same point where
the
> primary tap is presently attached (next to it is fine). Turn on
your
> system and run it --- viola!! --- you now have a magnifier system
that will
> give sparks equal to or slightly longer than your normally running
coil
> system. Adjust the 2nd tap point slightly as necessary. You can
also
> adjust the primary tap but usually this is not necessary. Although
a
> faster quench helps out it seems this technique works quite
effectively
> with almost any coil design and usually works right out of the gate
without
> too much adjustment. Yesssirrr --- I can almost see everyone
running for
> the garage right now! It works and its unique. You can even mount
your
> primary and tap into a large "hidden" box with only one very large
> insulated wire coming out and running to the bottom of the
displaced
> secondary coil. Most electrical people scratch their head for
awhile as
> most have never seen a transformer work without a coupled primary
in the
> vicinity of the secondary coil.
>
> DR.RESONANCE-at-next-wave-dot-net
>
Dr. Resonance,
You didn't mention it anywhere in your circuit description, but I am
sure that *something* in the system is directly attached to a good RF
ground! Otherwise this arrangement is an accident waiting to happen.
I just don't want a lot of coilers running out to their garage and
throwing this configuration together only to discover that they have
nice arcs leaping from various components of their TC system to the
nearest available ground.
The setup you mention appears to be a variation on the Oudin coil,
which is characterized by the electrical connection between the
driving system and the driven resonator (no separate RF ground).
I was looking at a couple of old photographs of Tesla running a demo
of one of his coils. From the faint corona pattern visible in the
photo it appears that he was driving this particular setup with a
primary/secondary that was a large flat spiral wound ribbon coil that
was mounted vertically. The "primary" section appears to be the outer
few turns, which appear dark in the photo, and the inner set of turns
are the secondary... the ones that show corona. The base of the extra
coil is attached to the center of the spiral primary/secondary coil.
Thus this old photo shows a slight variation on the scheme you
outlined above. In one photo the extra coil is horizontal, and in the
other it is vertical.
Thanks for the post!
Fr. Tom McGahee