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Re: Spark Gap Gasses Experiment
At 01:21 PM 9/1/98 +1200, you wrote:
>Hi John,
>
>> Original Poster: FutureT-at-aol-dot-com
>>
>> In a message dated 98-08-31 14:14:27 EDT, you write:
>>
>> <<
>> > Interesting. I wonder if perhaps the purpose of the airflow is to cool
>> > the metallic faces to keep hot "cathode spots" from forming. Once a hot
>> > spot would form, the breakdown voltage would be greatly reduced (just my
>> >guess) since the hot spot would then be maintained via metallic arc
>> >(since all the energy would continue to flow through that location).
>> > This operation is opposed to the conventional wisdom that the air blast
>> > interrupts the damped waveform (which, according to Terry's
>> > measurements, is not the case)...
>> >>
>>
>> Bill, Terry, all,
>>
>> It is also interesting that static gaps often stop firing for awhile (when
>> the total gap spacing is wide) and
>> then start up again, by themselves. I would think that if they are firing
>> at a reduced voltage as they heat, then they would not tend to stop
>> firing once they start, yet they do. Another mystery.
>>
>> John Freau
>
>That might occur if the charging circuit is fractionally off its
>resonant values. Perhaps I might try this (sometime as usual). I find
>I have to generally set static gaps to somewhat less than such a
>marginal value.
>
>Malcolm
>
I have played a lot with different capacitance values trying to get the
waveforms to "shape up" to what they should be. There seems to be
something more to why the gap fires when it does. I can vary my cap value
in 10% increments but I still cannot tune the charging waveforms to look
the way they should. There are still unknown factors at work! The gap
really wants to fire early in the sine wave. I have no idea way, but I
WILL find out! there are definitely things going on in when and how the
gap fires that need to be investigated.
Terry Fritz