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Re: Toroid Design from 1/4" tubing

Tesla List wrote:

> > Why not go with a tube frame scheme like Gregy Leyh used on Electrum (and
> > Nikola did on Wardenclyffe, for that matter).  Light weight, good
> > performance, etc. If you could find some nice soft, cheap aluminum tubing,
> > it would be almost idea.
>
> I have done some experementing.  I made a 12" diameter sphere shape using
> 1/4" copper tubing.  I found I can not bend 1/2" tubing very easy into tight
> radius but 1/4" tubing is no trouble at all.  I made several 1/4" tubing
> circles each one a little smaller in diameter.  I bent the tubing around
> anything I could find that was round, 1 gallon paint can, pvc pipes, bondo
> can, V belt pully, wooden disk, soup can, glass jar, etc. and soldered the
> ends together.  Soldered several circles together into a sphere shape. It
> looks like a small version of the one on the Electrum.  It works and it
> looks cool.  A 12" sphere shape made from tubing isn't going to work as well
> as a smooth surface 12" sphere but it beats a 12" basket ball covered with
> aluminum foil.

    On a similar note, my 4 inch coil uses a wire cage toroid as a top
terminal,
it is 14 inch overall diameter, 3 inch high, it is constructed from 13
hoops of
1 mm copper wire which are held in wooden grooves in the wooden former. There
are also 8 wires on the top and bottom of the toroid arranged like spokes of a
wheel, and each hoop is connected a 4 points to the hoops above and below.
    Using this toriod, I have been getting 18 inch arcs, although the
topload is
about 40% too small. From the tuning point I am guessing that the wire cage
toroid gives 60%-70% of the capacitance of a solid toroid. I has slightly
different operating properties to a solid toroid, it is impossible to get
just a
single breakout without putting a large breakout on it ( I use a length of
wire
or tubing about 4 inch long and still get at least 2 streamers although the
one
coming from the point is ~10 times larger than the other one). Also when the
coil is operated just below breakout, there is a clearly visible corona
extending over 12 inch is all directions

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