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Strange Spark Phenomena


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From:  George W. Ensley [SMTP:erc-at-coastalnet-dot-com]
Sent:  Saturday, January 31, 1998 1:06 AM
To:  Tesla List
Subject:  Re: Strange Spark Phenomena

gweaver,

I know exactly what you are talking about. I have seen this at certian power
levels. The sparks take on a certian jointed look. with some lengths or
sections being bright and others not so bright.

I had atributed this to the power being at a level that would ocasionally
push the gases into a higher level of ionization on one cycle and just
missing on the next.

just a wild guess though.

george....

-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: 'Tesla List' <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Date: Friday, January 30, 1998 1:18 AM
Subject: Strange Spark Phenomena


>
>----------
>From:  Thomas McGahee [SMTP:tom_mcgahee-at-sigmais-dot-com]
>Sent:  Thursday, January 29, 1998 8:17 AM
>To:  Tesla List
>Cc:  gweaver-at-earthlink-dot-net
>Subject:  Re: Strange Spark Phenomena
>
>
>
>> From:  gweaver [SMTP:gweaver-at-earthlink-dot-net]
>> Sent:  Wednesday, January 28, 1998 11:09 AM
>> To:  Tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
>> Subject:  Strange Spark Phenomena
>>
>> I fired up my tiny 1.5" TC today.  I changed the sphere from 2" to 4".
>> Changed the cap from .0014 uf to .005 uf.  Changed the spark gap from 4
gaps
>> .025 each to 3 gaps .025 each.  Moved primary tap from turn 5 to turn 3.
>> Spark output increased from 3" to 6".  The power supply is a furnace
>> ignition transformer 6K 20 ma.  120 watts.
>>
>> The output spark is strange.  I have seen this phenomena before but
haven't
>> thought much about it until now.  The first 2" of the output spark is
very
>> thin, the next 2" are very hot, thick and blue, the last 2" are very thin
>> like the first 2".   How can a spark that is all one continuous spark be
>> made up of 3 sections?  How can the center 2" of the spark be hotter and
>> thicker than the ends of the same spark?
>>
>> Gary Weaver
>>
>
>Gary,
>Take a length of nichrome wire, attach it to two clip leads and turn up
>the voltage. The center will be glowing red hot while the ends are dull.
>Simple heat-sinking effects.
>
>Your sphere is a heatsink. The place where the arc strikes is a heatsink.
>I am assuming that you are drawing the arc to a grounded wire.
>
>Besides the heat-sinking effect, there is also the increased heating
>effect that comes from being surrounded by other hot objects. The
>objects in the center will be much hotter than the objects around
>the periphery.
>
>I'm not saying these are necessarily the reasons for your strange
>arcs. I do not know all of the conditions under which these arcs are
>occuring. But I do know that at low powers you can see things that
>are greatly masked at high powers. And vice versa.
>
>Do the arcs exhibit the same peculiarities both when striking to a
>ground and when just brushing out into the air? If they exhibit them
>ONLY when arcing to a ground, then the above effects are probably
>at work. If not, then something else is probably at work here.
>
>Hope this helps.
>Fr. Tom McGahee
>
>
>