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Peak cap voltage, was 12kV, 30ma TC specs, 42" spark


From: 	Malcolm Watts[SMTP:MALCOLM-at-directorate.wnp.ac.nz]
Sent: 	Tuesday, September 23, 1997 3:03 PM
To: 	tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: 	Re: Peak cap voltage, was 12kV, 30ma TC specs, 42" spark

Hi John,

> From:   FutureT-at-aol-dot-com[SMTP:FutureT-at-aol-dot-com]
> Sent:   Tuesday, September 23, 1997 5:12 AM
> To:     tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> Subject:    Re: Peak cap voltage, was 12kV, 30ma TC specs, 42" spark
> 
> In a message dated 97-09-22 22:39:24 EDT, you write:
> 
> <<  I ran an async rotary (BPS at least 4x 
> > Fmains) with a static gap planted firmly across it to catch misfires.
> > First point of note was that the coil never emitted sparks until the 
> > variac was turned well up. 
> 
> Hi Malcolm,
> 
> Sounds like the rotary gap spacing was too wide, or the electrodes 
> happened to present at the wrong times.

I think the electrode spacing was too close as Ep was severely reduced
or maybe it was discharging too often with reduced bang size until 
the power was turned up. The gap fired alright in a wimpy kind of way.

> >Second was that while I got a pleasing 
> > tone, I always obtained the single waving streamer from the sphere 
> > with virtually no variation and the ionization was severely clamping 
> > the output.
> 
> This effect may be related to a high break-rate, and lower voltages?
> 
> > If I'd known the transformer was going to fail later that 
> > day, I would have let the coil discharge to a ground under these 
> > conditions to see exactly what sort of attached discharge it would 
> > produce.
> 
> > It seems clear from my failure that it pays to adjust k carefully 
> > before letting it totally rip or risk leaving a significant amount of 
> > energy in the system to impinge itself on the transformer. No simple 
> > answer here. If the gap quenches well and the secondary can't unload 
> > fast, major problem. 
> 
> I agree, my secondary resonator unloads pretty quickly, maybe within
> little more than one beat envelope of time.
> 
> > I now wonder whether Dr Resonance's observation 
> > that low frequency systems seem to cause less kickback is related to
> > streamer formation speed.
> 
> I was unaware of this observation by Dr Resonance...most intriquing.

He actually said "big coils" which I immediately inferred to mean low 
frequency.
    I am here rather late in the piece really. Many many people would 
have run into these problems and have formed ideas on the mechanisms 
responsible. If so, I'd love to hear. This is a new area for me. The 
energy in the safety gap was *low* compared with that originally 
stored in the primary cap. There didn't seem to be a great deal of 
correspondence between the safety gap firing and the coil output. 
However, neither coil was firing all that smoothly. My choice of 
primary cap size should have been within the ballpark.

Thanks for bearing with me on this one everybody. Hope I'm not boring 
everyone.
Malcolm