Re: Sparklength inquiry

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: Sparklength inquiry
From: Greg Leyh <lod-at-pacbell-dot-net> (by way of Terry Fritz <terryf-at-verinet-dot-com>)
Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 04:18:22 -0600
Approved: terryf-at-verinet-dot-com
> Original Poster: FutureT-at-aol-dot-com

> I posted the square law suggestion some time ago, based on my
> results with the sync gap coils in which I obtained 42" sparks using
> 620 watts, and 64" sparks using 1570 watts.  I was relating input
> power to spark length.  I then scaled up the spark lengths using the
> square law, and your 25' spark TC fit well on the curve.  This
> posting was before I improved the efficiency of my coils, the old
> figures were:
>
Power input  (revised)         spark length      toroid dia (inches)
> 680 W         620W actual       42"                   20
> 2100 W       1570W actual       64"                   30
> 8400 W       6280W             128"                   60
> 33.6kW        25kW              21'                  120
> 67kW                            31'                  240
> 134kW        100kW              42'                  480
> 538kW        400kW              84'                  960
> 1.6MW                          168'                 1920
> ***new**     5.1MW             300'   

> I noted in my posting above that this chart was created before I
> improved the efficiency of my coils. I added a new column in the
> chart above, and plugged in the values for my present efficiency
> of my coils (see chart).  Using these new values, I show a need
> for only 5.1MW to develop the 300 foot spark, which by coincidence(?)
> agrees exactly with your figure.
> 
> John Freau

Here's another correlating datapoint for your curve --
At the NZ site, Electrum produced a 40 - 45ft ground strike
(observed 3 times) with 109kVA on the main transformers.  
There's this one particular plant (called a 'flux' plant?!) 
that seems to attract strikes, when the wind is right.

My two coils land pretty close to the square-law curve 
that is defined by your two coils.
And Ed's halfwave coil lands fairly close as well, beating 
the revised curve by about 20%.  But a halfwave coil should
be more efficient at producing spark length -- since the spark
channel is supported at both ends, the ends of the spark need
be only as thick as the base of a single spark half its size.

So with 5 data points that span over 7 octaves of power,
it would seem that a simple square-law is a good fit.

Can it be that easy?  Here's where a good survey would
come in useful. 
-- 


-GL
www.lod-dot-org