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Re: Delta Fo (was How to raise secondary) Ion clouds (fwd)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 13:44:54 -0700
From: Jim Lux <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>
To: Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Subject: Re: Delta Fo (was How to raise secondary) Ion clouds
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Sat, 18 Jul 98 12:13:38 EDT
> From: Gary Lau 18-Jul-1998 1152 <lau-at-hdecad.ENET.dec-dot-com>
> To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> Subject: Delta Fo (was How to raise secondary)
>
> While I was ready to embrace the theory that the attached streamers were
> responsible for adding to Ctop, the point raised that the streamers only
> occur _after_ ringup pretty much discredited that in my mind.
>
> Instead, what ever became of the theory that, in operation, an ion cloud
> with a persistence greater than the bang interval, exists about the top
> terminal, effectively increasing it's size and capacitance? Seems to
fit.
>
> Gary Lau
> Waltham, MA USA
To get the ion density up to where it starts to make any real contribution
to the conductivity of the air (and hence can make the effective size
bigger) requires an air temperature on the order of 5000K, at which point
the ionization will be obvious, because it will be glowing literally white
hot. The ion density (and hence the conductivity) of air at 1 atmosphere
pressure is a real step function of temperature. below a few thousand K,
there is nothing to speak of, above 7000K, it is almost all ionized, and
the transition is pretty fast. This is why sparks appear to have sharp
edges. The current really only flows in the part that is hot and glowing,
which heats the hot and glowing part even more.
If you reduce the pressure, you can start to get an appreciable ionization
from the E field, without resorting to the high temperatures.
>