Re: New Capacitor (and a question about bombarders)

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "acmnovak" <acmnovak-at-email.msn-dot-com> 

Hi David,
snipzz below

>
> I just received my .22 uFD -at- 50 kV Maxwell pulse cap that
> I won off of ebay today. It was supposed to have come out
> of a Marx generator bank from Los Alamos Labratories. It is
> amazingly small considering its voltage/capacitance comb-
> ination ( 11 3/4" long X 5 7/8" wide X 2 3/4" thick ), but is
> quite heavy for this size, too (~15 lbs). It's suppoesd to have
> .93 uH equivalent series inductance ( I'm assuming that that
> is quite low, which is good?) I determined its actual measured
> capacitance to be .211 uFD. I figure this is enough capacitance
> to handle one monster of a Tesla coil ( like Kevin Eldrege's
> "Biggg Coil"), but may have to incorporate a series/parallel
> configuration of 4 for the same capacitance -at- 100 kV to safely
> handle the required voltage and current levels for such a system.

I'm afraid to ask how much you paid for this... But my .1uF 36kV MMC cost me
230 clams and If I had two buy four times that many, I'd just say screw
it...

>
> Now to my bombarder question. I've heard of using pig-like
> transformers to "bombard" a bank of NSTs, but I really don't
> understand exactly what this is referring to. If it's not getting
> too much off topic, maybe some of the engineers on this list
> could enlighten me concerning this ;-]
>

Bombarders would make an excellent Tesla PSU for anyone who only has access
to a standard (120v 20A) circuit. They are usually just real big NSTs used
to obtain a higher degree of exhaustion in neon signs. As the high current
passes through the slightly rarifiied gasses in the tube, a mass of heat is
created which is sufficient to burn off any impurities in the glass while
driving out a large protion of the remaining atoms of gas by means of
difusion.  The reason they'd be great for tesla coil duty is their physical
size (roughly 1.5X the size of a 15/60), the voltage is 15kV with a current
of 120mA, they usually have current limiting, and they can be over-driven
like no tomorrow. If one were to unpot a bombarder, one would esentially
have a pig with shunts. Take out a few (or all:) and slap it back in the
enclosure with vasaline and you have a tiny (50lbs) pole pig. More of a
"porkchop" really, to quote (the now famous) Finn Hammer.
Oh, and bombarders are used hours at a time so duty is simply not an issue
here...

Good luck,

-Mike