Re: Tesla magnifying transmitter (long sparks)

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: Tesla magnifying transmitter (long sparks)
From: "Jim Lux" <jimlux-at-jpl.nasa.gov> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)
Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2000 17:00:54 -0700
Approved: twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net
Delivered-To: fixup-tesla-at-pupman-dot-com-at-fixme

Not exactly... Long sparks require several conditions:
A suitable non uniform field (enough voltage to get the breakdown going) ;
enough energy to keep the spark growing and the channel hot;
and a high enough terminal voltage so that the voltage at the end of the
spark is still high enough.

 You DO need a fair amount of voltage so that the voltage at the END of the
spark is still high enough while the spark is growing.  Once the spark is
fully established the current increases and the voltage drop along the spark
decreases, but while the leader is moving out, you need enough voltage to
overcome the drop along the spark (which isn't carrying all that much
current yet).

500 kV to 1 MV will, with enough low impedance stored energy behind it, make
plenty long sparks.  Not to say that 5 MV doesn't help....




-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Date: Thursday, January 06, 2000 1:51 PM
Subject: Re: Tesla magnifying transmitter


>Original Poster: Apollo <ollopa-at-jps-dot-net>
>
>Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought it took more than 1million volts to get
>31ft arcs, and I'm sure it takes more than 500,000...
>
>Or else we'd all have 31ft arcs.
>
>??
>--Rick--
>
>
>> Longest sparks were 31 feet or so, highest voltage was maybe 1/2 to
>> 1 million volts or so at the very most, I would think.
>
>> Cheers,
>> John Freau
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