Info and requests for book

To: "'Tesla List'" <tesla-at-poodle.pupman-dot-com>
Subject: Info and requests for book
From: Tesla List <tesla-at-stic-dot-net>
Date: Wed, 17 Sep 1997 00:51:16 -0500
Approved: tesla-at-stic-dot-net

From: 	terryf-at-verinet-dot-com[SMTP:terryf-at-verinet-dot-com]
Sent: 	Tuesday, September 16, 1997 11:43 PM
To: 	tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: 	Info and requests for book

Hi,
        My name is Terry Fritz and I have been playing around with high
voltages both professionlly and for fun for many years (23).  Just joined
this group and I am interested in what's been going on in the world of Tesla
Coils.  I have always had this desire to write up a paper or GBC bound
"book" on Testla coil design.  I have the ones from Duane Bylund and D.C.
Cox and I think I could add a great deal of info.  Coupling coefficients,
secondary coil design, and secondary terminal design seem to need more
detailed explanations and info.  Since these require either heavy math or
computer analysis they tend to get left out.  However, They are VERY
important.  If any one has a "wish list" of things they would like to see in
a Tesla Coil design book please drop me an E-mail at "terryf-at-verinet-dot-com" .
>From what I have seen here and in the archives it looks like capacitors,
secondary inductors, and power sources are the big issues.  I guess I am
somewhat surprised that there is so little theory.  I am looking for any
info on the following:

1.      Any information on the losses on the secondary such as secondary
terminal capacitance change vs voltage, Energy loss vs voltage and time,
ect. would be useful.

2.      Has anyone tried using varistors (transient surge absorbers) instead
of spark gaps for transformer protection?  I realize they my need to be
isolated with chokes due to their capacitance but in quantity they are
fairly inexpensive (1800V 4500A $1.88ea from DigiKey) and they can be easily
chained together to reach a desired voltage.  I would think they would give
much better protection than a spark gap.

3.      Any info on predicting secondary parasitic capacitance or resonant
frequency.  This is a big killer for most Tesla coils and the info I have
seen tends to fall far short of what is needed.  There are certainly better
ways to wind the secondary to reduce this capacitance but I have never seen
any good details on doing this.  The programs and equations I have seen have
never predicted any of my coils very well at all.  Virtually all Tesla coils
tend to be big delay lines instead of antennas.

I guess I am one of those who never saw too much mystery in how Tesla coils
worked (although getting all the variables to work together is a challenge).
I guess it is time to finally put this all in some kind of book.  I hope
this doesn't take too much of the magic out of Tesla coiling but I feel that
there needs to be better basic info.  Thoughts / Comments  let me know.

        Terry