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Re: Tesla's Energy Trans.

Hi Charles,

At 05:19 PM 12/28/1999 -0500, you wrote:
>>I disagree - the 50 foot streamers were from the extra coil to an electrode
>>at one side of the safety fence around the magnifier.  Therefore they were
>>not limited to the 31-32 foot height of the roof.
>
>Hi all,
>
>The above was closely interspersed with someone else's message so I am not
>sure who wrote it (no quotes or ">" signs were used to differentiate the
>text).
>
>I'm confused about the reference to a safety fence around the magnifier. If
>you look at photos of the interior of the Colorado Springs lab you see what
>looks like a huge fence encircling the room.  Is that what is being
>referred to?  That was not a safety fence.  That structure was the form
>that held the magnifier's primary and driver coils.  They encircled the
>room and consisted of just a few turns of wire (see Tesla's notes).   When
>Tesla achieved his amazing record of 32 foot sparks, they were arcing from
>the third coil in the center of the room, to the corners.  A few weeks ago
>I posted a quote in which Tesla described this in detail, and I believe
>Terry(?) also posted this quote more recently.  There is very little
>ambiguity there, and Tesla mentions that at that length the sparks were so
>feeble that when they hit him and his photographer they were barely
>noticeable.  Is there a quote and date for the 50' reference above?  That
>would be a great help in determining its validity.
>
>Interesting dicussion.  Let's keep it friendly!
>
>Cheers,
>
>
>Charles F. Brush
>http://www.VoltNet-dot-com
>

On page 323 of "The notes", there is a photo showing what appears to be a
heavy twisted pair of wires above the main primary coils that appears much
as our strike rails of today.  However, from reading the notes (like page
203), it appears this top wire was actually the top turn of the primary
rather than a grounded strike rail.  Perhaps this is were the confusion lies. 

One can roughly figure the dimensions of the lab based on the long terminal
details on page 192 that state the long terminal pole is 140 feet high.
The "moon light" photo on page 325 can the be scaled to figure the lab was
25 feet high and 62 feet square.  If Tesla could get an arc from the center
of the building to a corner, That would be 44 feet.  But he probably didn't
have room for that.  The 31 foot distance from the center of the building
to the walls matches Tesla own 31 foot "length claim".  So Tesla could
obviously hit the walls and ceiling of his lab.  But that "little box"
limited is actual achieved arc lengths...

The long terminal pole was made from metal pipe sections and was only
isolated by about 19 feet of heavy wood pole (page 227).  Thus, he would
not have been able to get much of an arc of the top of this massive tower.

I must conclude that Tesla's claim of 31 to 32 feet were indeed "the
longest producible in the present building" (page 330).  Tesla simply did
not have the equipment with the distances needed to get arcs over 50 feet
and probably not over 32 feet.  At the bottom of page 230, Tesla rambles
and dreams a bit to conclude "I can certainly expect to reach, measured in
this way, a length from 372 to 384 feet from end to end" (he multiplied 31
and 32 feet by a factor of 12).  However, that was as easy for Tesla to
"write" then as it is for book authors to "write" now.  Unfortunately,
those 150, 200, etc. foot arc lengths were only words and not real arcs.
Of course, "that don't count" ;-))

It is interesting to imagine what it must have been like in that lab 100
years ago.  Deafening arc noise.  Sparks filling the place, not "up to
code" electrical stuff all over.  Freezing cold.  A fire trap building.
Not much idea what was going to happen.  I bet even today's most brave
coilers would have fled that place as fast as their feet could carry them
despite the fact that the arcs were only a measly 30+ feet long :-))  If
you think running your coil is scarry, take a look at the mess Tesla used
to run his coil on page 430.  Although, the person (Tesla and Alley had
full mustaches) in that picture, seems rather happy...

Happy New Millennium,

	Terry
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