Re: AMRAD Spark Gaps

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Ed Phillips by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <evp-at-pacbell-dot-net>

Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "Steve & Jackie Young by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <youngs-at-konnections-dot-com>
> 
> Ed,
> What keeps the sparks from tracking across the fiber washer edge, thus
> carbonizing it and ruining the gap?  Why does the gap stay in the center of
> the disks?  Are the disks thicker in the middle and thus closer together in
> the middle?
> --Steve

	Yes, in effect the disks are thicker in the middle.  That's where a
picture would help.  The fiber washers are perhaps 1/32" thick (think
they were thicker than that originally, but have squished down a bit
after 80 years of pressure.  The actual gap spacing is about 1/64".  The
reason the discharge stays in the center is that there is the actual gap
is isolated by a groove around the edge.  Although it isn't possible to
see the discharge, from looking at the disks I suspect that the
discharge moves around over the electrodes.

Ed