Medusa hits 125"

[Tesla729-at-xxxxxx (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-xxxxxxxxxx>)]

Hi all,

I thought I would share with you all the latest spark length
I achieved with my 10 kVA Medusa Tesla coil. I was firing  
her some this afternoon when I happened to catch a nice 
long spark striking the Faraday cage in front of me to my left. 
I shut her down, went and got the wife to hold one end of the  
tape measure, and measured out a 125" point-to-point path 
from the toroid discharge protrusion. And this occurred with the
voltage control variac at about 75% of the 0-280 volt range (~7
to 8 kVA). I believe I could obtain sparks up to the 11 to 12 ft. 
range if I had more clearance around my coil (I am operating
in a claustrophobic 12' X 20' shop building with 8 ft high ceiling
joist studs). The overhead roll-up door stills a lot of the streamers
from the opposite side of the coil from my viewpoint and the max
toroid clearance that I can get from the walls and the metal overhead 
door is about 52". I operate the coil with the sparks aimed towards 
me via the discharge protrusion on the opposite side of the shop 
from the coil, lengthwise. The Faraday cage screen is about 10
ft. from the coil in front of me ( I stand about 13 ft. away at the 
control panel.) Of course the Faraday cage screen is between 
me and the coil! BTW, the sparks are constantly knocking off near
tooth-pick sized splinters of wood from a couple of the ceiling 
joist directly above and in front of the coil when I turn up the pow-
er past 60% or so. I suppose I will eventually have to replace these.

Keeping 'em Sparkin' in Memphis,
David Rieben