Ground ring experiment

["John Morawa" <morawaj-at-interaccess-dot-com> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)]

Hello

I did a little experiment two nights ago.  To some of you this might be
common knowledge but it was new to me and rather interesting.  On my
coil (http://communities.msn-dot-com/WeaselsTeslaCoil/) I use a stock 15/30
NST with almost 15 turns of 1/4" refrigeration tubing and a 5/8" split
grounded ring a few inches above the primary.  I don't run for any
extended periods of time.  Under 1 minute runs though maybe 1 minute on
20 seconds of 1 minute on again, etc.  The primary stays cool as a
cucumber and my caps just start to feel slightly warm to the touch.
Anyhow I digress.  After I completed the coil I sent Terry a scanned
picture of it and he had asked if the ground ring was split since that
area was blocked in the picture by the secondary.  He said if it isn't
it would affect the coil.  As I said it is split but my curiosity
finally got to me.  I decided to take one of those 12" or so jumper
wires with alligator clips on each end that are maybe #22awg stranded
wire or something to reconnect the split ends of the ground ring.
Normally I get pretty steady 34" sparks into free air.  After shorting
the ring I lost about 2" - 3" of arc length.  I did not try retuning
anything.  I just didn't expect that to increase the ouput length.  Any
how after about 90 - 120 seconds of total run time I took off the jumper
wire and it was VERY hot.  I didn't expect that much current to flow though
it.  Last night i connected a 40 watt incadescent bulb in between these
bulbs and had it lit dimly.  Just some interesting (at least to me)
observations I thought I would share with the group.

Happy experimenting!
John M.