Re: 3 Pahse Rotary Gap

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: 3 Pahse Rotary Gap
From: "Robert W. Stephens" <rwstephens-at-headwaters-dot-com> (by way of Terry Fritz <terryf-at-verinet-dot-com>)
Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 16:52:49 -0600
Approved: terryf-at-verinet-dot-com
Tesla List wrote:
> 
> Original Poster: "Robert W. Stephens" <rwstephens-at-headwaters-dot-com>
> 
> Tesla List wrote:
> >
> > Original Poster: Greg Leyh <lod-at-pacbell-dot-net>
> >
> > > >Of course there is an alternative to using a 6-pulse
> > > >rectifier stack -- THE 3-PHASE ROTARY GAP.  <8^O
> > >
> > > OK ........ I'll bite .......... what exactly is this beast ??
> >
> > Imagine that each of your 3 HT secondaries had its own primary
> > capacitor.  The 3-PHASE ROTARY GAP would be synchronized to
> > switch each cap into the primary only at its peak voltage point,
> > of which there are now six per cycle (2 peaks per cycle per phase).
> > This provides the advantage of 360PPS operation with every firing
> > at the peak transformer voltage, and no rectifiers.  Although this
> > gap is not speed variable, one could operate at 240BPS or 120BPS
> > selectively by inhibiting one or more of the phases with a contactor:
> >
> > CONTACTOR 1 - 1/3 POWER
> > CONTACTOR 2 - 2/3 POWER
> > CONTACTOR 3 - FULL POWER
> >
> > With this setup, no variacs OR motor speed controls are required.
> > --
> >
> > -GL
> > www.lod-dot-org
> 
> Greg,
> 
> I considered this system and in fact had detailed discussions with
> Malcolm Watts about it (at the time being my idea I thought) about 2-1/2
> years ago.  The "big problem' is that you cannot capture the full power
> capability of your power source and place it in every single repeating
> 'Bang'.  At best you go to a lot more costruction trouble to make a
> 3-banger system that should perform no better than a much simpler system
> on single phase power at 1.732X the ampacity of this 3-banger. As such I
> dismissed this engineering idea, which initially appeared clever, as a
> loser in practice.  Do you know anyone with a large Tesla 'show only'
> (as opposed to reseach) coil that *ever* demonstrates it at 1/3rd or
> 2/3rd's power of what it can achieve at full horsepressure?
> 
> Robert W. Stephens

Greg, All,

In addition to my post above I forgot to add that in my design I was
also looking at 3 separate interwoven primary tank coils (along with
their own capacitor and dedicated rotary wheel) all attempting to share
as closely matched a coupling factor K with the single HV resonator. 

One advantage that _was_ apparent from the 3-banger idea is that one
could reduce the capacitor abuse factor for any given break rate and
make a coil with a break rate easily above 1k BPS, which may be
advantageous for special show or research applications.

Such a 3-banger scheme could operate either of normal 3 phase mains
power, or highly filtered and stiffened DC.

Robert W. Stephens