Cauterodyne / Tesla Coil

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Cauterodyne / Tesla Coil
From: "Ross W. Overstreet" <ross-o-at-mindspring-dot-com> (by way of Terry Fritz <terryf-at-verinet-dot-com>)
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1998 06:14:23 -0700
Approved: terryf-at-verinet-dot-com
I found some interesting old electronics in a trash pile outside of an
old veterinary clinic.    I was pretty happy when I opened the case and
saw the label "Cameron Cauterodyne, Radio Frequency" in big letters. I
was even happier to see the big transmitting tube in the "device".
Apparently a Cauterodyne is the 30's or 40's equivalent of the little
electric scalpel or "bovie" that docs use today.

To get to the point, after disassembling the unit from the case and
cleaning it, I found that it contains a tube RF circuit on the right
side and a baby tesla coil on the left side.  The tube doesn't drive the
coil either, they appear to be completely separate circuits.  I haven't
reverse engineered the schematic, but I will give a brief description of
the components.  I will try to take some pics of it in the future.

The tube is a JAN 801A.  It's circuit seems to be composed of an air
plate capacitor the size of a deck of cards, a beer can sized inductor,
several caps and a ceramic resistor.  It will not arc, but will cut 3/8"
deep grooves in a weenie if you place it on the ground pad and plug the
"scalpel" into the tube output plug.  There is a "Tube Cutting Control"
knob that adjust a variable air capacitor.  There is also a "Tube
Coagulation Control" knob that somehow adjust tube output power.  In
summary, the output plugs on the tube side are labeled "Ground",
"Cutting", and "Coagulation".

The TC is a series of 3 coils, all helically wound on separate tubes
that fit inside of each other.  The secondary is 3" high and about .9"
in diameter.  The wire dia is about .010" magnet wire.  The high voltage
end of the secondary goes to some plug labeled "Desiccation High", then
through a resistor to "Desiccation Low".  The primary is about 1.25" in
dia and 1.25" long.  Looks like it may be insulated with some sort of
fiber, cotton maybe???  The primary is connected to a "MicaMold
Capacitor" with the following ratings : V.EFF 3000, Amps 3, MFD .005,
300KC.  Then it goes to the spark gap and transformer. On top of the
primary is a 3rd coil.  It consist of 6 turns of heavy wire and goes to
2 plugs labeled "Bipolar Spark Gap".    It has a knob labeled "Spark Gap
Control" that adjust the length of a spark gap.

The TC will produce nice corona about .125" long from the end of the
scalpel in air, or will arc about .5" to the ground pad.  The
Desiccation output plug does significant damage to the test wiener.
Can't really see the purpose of the Bipolar Spark Gap plugs and the
outer coil with so few turns.

This is what the label says:
Cameron Cauterodyne
Model SMB-25
Cameron Surgical Specialty Company
Chicago, USA
Frequency KC, 3500, 800

I am guessing the the tube side is 800 and TC side is 3500.

Sorry about the sketchy details.  I will try to draw the circuit if
anyone is interested.
Have any of you guys ever seen anything like this before???

Thanks,
Ross Overstreet
Huntington Beach, CA