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Voltage/Length (fwd)
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From: D.C. Cox [SMTP:DR.RESONANCE-at-next-wave-dot-net]
Sent: Sunday, February 01, 1998 10:32 PM
To: Tesla List
Subject: Re: Voltage/Length (fwd)
to: Greg
One could strike an arc with a super powerful welder or a 10 kV arc at
perhaps 1000 amperes and surely draw an arc 9-10 feet long so there are
many parameters. We used three different "standard" Tesla coil to take our
measurements and used a measured calibrated x-radiation system to determine
the potential. The coil, when operated in free air, and running at the
power levels I specified produced a striking arc at 9 ft in length. In the
pulsed mode it generated 1 MEV x-rays. Measurements were taken at various
potentials and spark lengths with 3 different systems and the 500 kV and
1000 kV free air sparks measured 5 ft and 9 ft respectively in continuous
400 pps mode. Primary cap value on the 9 ft spark primary was .05 MFD and
.03 MFD on the 500 kV system. The 500 kV system was a sync gap coil firing
at 120 pps. The coils in the single fire mode were triggered with 7703
ignitrons thru a 10 meg recharge resistance. The spark gaps were set for
identical cap firing values so the primary potential was the same --- as
confirmed on a scope fitted with a potential divider. The x-ray and
calibration measurements were done by a friend who is a plasma research
scientist at Univ. of Wis. plasma physics dept. He assured the
calibrations and measurement equipment was traceable to National Bureau of
Standards values for x-radiation measurments. The tube we used was an
antique one used on the 1000 kV General Electric resonance transformers
originally developed at Stanford by Sloan, et al. It was a hell of a lot
of work because we had to dig a big trench and use the earth to contain the
emitted x-rays and fought other little glitch problems, but about 12 years
ago I wanted to find out once and for all with a certain size Tesla coil
exactly what was required for a true 1000 kV output.
Hope this data is of assistance.
DR.RESONANCE-at-next-wave-dot-net
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> From: Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> To: 'Tesla List' <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> Subject: Voltage/Length (fwd)
> Date: Sunday, February 01, 1998 1:53 PM
>
>
> ----------
> From: Greg Leyh [SMTP:lod-at-pacbell-dot-net]
> Sent: Saturday, January 31, 1998 10:29 AM
> To: Tesla List
> Subject: Re: Voltage/Length (fwd)
>
> John H. Couture wrote:
>
>
> > So now we have a spark length from 3 ft to 9 ft representing one
million
> > volts for the Tesla coil output.
> [big multi-nested snip]
>
>
> That does not appear to me to be the logical conclusion
> for this rather lengthy, yet interesting thread.
>
> In fact, it seems that most of the folks on this List
> already realize that a properly working Tesla Coil does not
> require anything near one million volts of output in order
> to create and maintain even a 9 ft long streamer!
>
> Tricks such as high break rates and ion persistance allow
> the TC to 'cheat' the normal Voltage/Length ratings for air,
> and produce 9 ft streamers with as little as 200kV output.
>
> Think about it -- without such tricks, how could a Tesla
> Coil produce an arc that's longer than its secondary winding?
>
>
> -GL
>
>