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Misssing my coil, and the biggest tesla coil ever?
Terry, Chip, NIck, Cabbot, Mike (both), Alan (both), Vortexia guys, Greg,
Bob (both) Brian (both), Dr R, Richie, Jeff, Steve, Ross, Ed, Grayson,
Gary, Sam, Reiner, Martin, Bill and all....
I am writing slightly off-topic (ie design and construction here) but I
have to ask if people on the list have an emotional attachment to their
coil as well as a scientific interest - I know I do, as I have been away
from my coil for some weeks now, and the strain is starting to show! I find
it curiious how these wonderful devices appeal both to the scientific mind
and the artistic one - the joy and excitement of producing sparks of many
feet in length combined with the never-ending curiosity of perfecting and
deducing.... I will probably get a large piece of photo-canvas next and
attempt a Kirlian photograph of a tree we are about to cut down in the
garden. I am hoping 2.2kVA is enough to energise a 15' fir tree..... after
having chopped an insulating gap in the trunk and adding about 20 turns to
my primary!
I am also pleased that we've had some new joiners to the list. This is
surely an indication that a massive revival of interest has been taking
place over the last few years. Coiling certainly is inspiring - on
Vortexia-dot-com I found a fantastic and jaw-dropping mpeg of one of Greg's big
coils, and I drool when I see it - and can't wait to see if he can get the
Advanced Lightning Facility off the ground.
I also had the idea that if all the world's coilers got together (and
perhaps the list only represents a fraction of them) and contributed a
small amount of money within their means and a good dose of handiwork and
planning, we could produce a *seriously* large coil. If we really want to
examine the effects of natural-lightning scale discharges, then building a
coil some hundreds of feet in height is the only way to go. Of course, with
a Tesla coil we have the benefit that we can get a more or less continuous
and controlled discharge, whereas with most other systems you only get
single and intermittent shots. It's a shame we couldn't get one set up for
the millenium, but with the rate the hobby is seeming to grow it might
happen in 10 years... Maybe a pipedream but one worth thinking about.
More thanks to everyone for their encouragement and inspiration. Like
fishing, I don't think I'll ever be able to stop coiling! And thanks again
to Alan Sharp for getting us in the UK on TV at last!
Alex Crow
Pre-Millenial High Tension....