Re: Pic's of Biggg Coil

[FutureT-at-xxxxxxx (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-xxxxxxxxxx>)]

In a message dated 11/2/00 2:16:21 PM Eastern Standard Time, tesla-at-pupman-dot-com 
writes:

> 
>  What a picture, 24 feet is an awesome accomplishment.
>  
>  I am still pondering the issue of high sec. turns vs standard sec turns and
>  wanted to ask your thoughts, as I remember your 8" coil seemed to perform
>  very well
>  with ~2300 sec. turns.
>  
>  How would you compare it to this Biggg coils performance as far as arc
>  brightness/color with
>  fewer turns in the sec.
>  
>  Also would you mind recapping the final specs. on your Biggg Coil for all 
of
>  us on the list?
>  
>  Rick L. Kirby

Rick,

Yes, Kevin's coil is a great accomplishment.  It's pretty hard
to compare the brightness of 8 foot sparks with 24 foot sparks
regardless of wire thickness.  But in direct comparisons I did
using 1600 turns of 28 awg wire and 660 turns of 20 awg wire,
the sparks using the 1600 turns of thinner wire were much 
stronger, and brighter, and more active, like a different coil.
Richie B found the same thing when he went from 1000 turns
of a thicker wire, to 1500 turns of a thinner wire, with everything
else unchanged.  The key is the reduced gap losses from 
using more primary turns which results when using more 
secondary turns. 

The only way Kevin's coil could be compared is to build a new
secondary with 1600 turns of a thinner wire, and a new primary
with more turns to permit tuning... and see how it performs.

John Freau