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Re: Strange Spark Behavior

Hello, Greg

I believe it may have something to do with the fine spherical terminal. A
coil of mine, much smaller than yours (uses a 9kV/30mA NST& SW caps) has
done this consistently for me. It uses a 4" flattened spherical terminal
I cast from aluminum. It was finished to a mirror surface after a few
hours of filing, sanding, and buffing. When used on a 2.5"X10" #26 AWG
coil, the sreamer usually coalesces into a single, slightly wavering
"snake" pointing, for the most part" strait upwards. Very cool, though
the coil isn't much of a performer, with only a 6" arc for a 9/30 NST.
But better parts (like an MMC, better gap and primary) would help.

TTYL

Grayson Dietrich
http://www.electrophile.8m-dot-com
http://www.insani-co.8m-dot-com

On Mon, 28 Feb 2000 18:49:54 -0700 Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com> writes:
> Original Poster: "Gregory R. Hunter" <ghunter-at-accucomm-dot-net> 
> 
> Dear List,
> 
> I've made an observation of very unusual spark behavior.  Recently I 
> found
> an old 12 inch diameter globe of the Earth at a junk sale for $1.25. 
>  In
> typical coiler fashion, I instantly thought of an application for 
> it.  Back
> at my garage, I peeled back a bit of the cardboard map covering to 
> see if
> the thing was a metal sphere--no luck.  Undeterred, I covered the 
> globe
> with heavy duty aluminum foil stuck in place with spray glue.  I 
> covered
> some of the foil seams with Al tape and rubbed the whole thing down 
> with
> the back of a spoon.  I eventually achieved a very smooth, almost
> chrome-like surface.  Cool.
> 
> I popped off my 3" x 14" toroid and put the sphere in it's place on 
> my 4" x
> 24" 1KW coil.  After retuning, I got 1 to 3 branching sparks up to 
> maybe 24
> inches long--about the same as the toroid.  However, after 20 
> seconds or so
> something bizarre happened.  The frantic, multi-branched sparks all 
> slowly
> coalesced into a single, un-branched, fat, fuzzy, tendril reaching 
> straight
> upward.  It grew slowly toward the ceiling while waving gently, like 
> a
> cobra under the spell of a snake charmer.  This was a bit alarming, 
> as I
> only have an 8' foot ceiling with some electrical wiring up there.  
> After a
> few seconds, the long, glowing tendril collapsed back into chaotic,
> multi-branched sparks again.  I was treated to a repeat performance 
> of the
> "light serpent" effect of a few seconds duration every 30 seconds or 
> so.
> 
> This is pretty weird business folks.  I am going to try to capture 
> this
> stunning visual effect on film and video tape.  It's the coolest 
> thing I've
> ever seen a Tesla coil do.  Anyone else ever observed this sort of 
> peculiar
> behavior?
> 
> Best Regards,
> 
> Greg Hunter
> Cochran, Georgia
> 
> 

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