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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
> 
>