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Re: Phantom Arcs

> Original Poster: carl a willis <cwillis4-at-juno-dot-com> 
> 
> 
> Hi Grayson,
> 
> >I recently read about similar arcs in a book regarding a variety of 
> >Tesla's experiments, and the mentioning was in a part written by 
> >Tesla,  
> >concerning his high-frequency experiements. I can't, for the life of 
> >me, 
> >remember what the name of the book was.
> >Grayson Dietrich
> 
> This probably came from one of Tesla's lectures, "Experiments with
> Alternate Currents of High Potential and High Frequency" (1891), where he
> described what he called "phantom streams" encountered with an early
> bipolar coil. He writes "a most curious form of discharge is observed
> when the frequency and potential are pushed to the extreme limit...to
> perform the experiment...only two small spheres...or sharp-edged metal
> discs [connected to the terminals of the bipolar coil] no more than a few
> cm. in diameter should be exposed to air...It occurs under these
> conditions that misty white streamers break forth from the edges of the
> discs and spread out phantom-like into space." I actually tried to
> reproduce this effect with a conventional, monopolar OBIT-powered coil I
> built a few years ago, but could not see anything comparable to the
> description. That's very interesting that you have seen it. Perhaps
> someone else on the list knows about the "phantom streams"?? While you
> describe your setup pretty well, it might have been easier to remember
> the details if you had just seen the effects rather than waiting till now
> to bring it up.
> -Carl Willis

     After reading the same work a few years ago, I built a modern 
replica of Tesla's early lumped 1/2 wave disruptive coil and saw the 
same thing with metre-long wires running upward from the terminals. 
However, the same sight is easy to produce with the standard 1/4 wave 
setup. During some single shot tests on a coil topped with a 9" 
sphere in complete darkness and with the gap covered, I observed 
phantom streamers reaching out in all directions in a three 
foot diameter ball. 
    BTW, the replica wasn't a patch on the upright setup for 
efficiency. The Q was appalling and resonances popped out all over 
the place. It was no wonder Tesla was able to excite standing waves 
of a few feet long on copper bars.

Malcolm