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Re: An old Tesla coil system More like a goldmine!
Jeff Behary wrote:
> Be VERY careful with that mercury interrupter -- any residual vapours could
> be lethal. In fact, VERY lethal.
Mercury is not so dangerous. It there is some remaining there, it would
be liquid. And there is easy treatment for accidental contamination.
> Effluve treatments with alternating currents of high frequency feels like
> 1000s of needles ricocheting off of ones body. I imagine that the hair on
> your body is violently standing on end and falling at the rate of several
> hundred thousand times per second, like the frequency of the coil.
The "needles" are more probably small sparks hitting the skin.
> Tesla
> makes some very interesting remarks in his lectures on this feeling, which
> are well worth reading if you have copies. I vividly recall reading in one
> of his lectures a hypothesis that if the current were higher the skin would
> burst from this bombardment, and, after trying some treatments I certainly
> agree -- or can see first hand how he came to the conclusion!!
The current would flow immediately below the skin, where conductivity
is rather high. The frequency is too high for a shock, but damage by
excessive heating can certainly occur, if not by other reasons.
Isn't the heating effect the desired effect on "diathermy machines"?
> Very very interesting, keep up the great photos and descriptions!
> I am very interested in the primary coil adjustment pictures.
This picture is already there. I have uploaded a few more, showing
a curious set of spark gaps that are under a cover in the "unknown3"
device (similar to the gaps shown at your site), a nice control panel,
a diathermy machine, some switches, and some other unknown devices.
All in:
http://www.coe.ufrj.br/~acmq/tesla
Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz