Re: Good Idea!!: Monster Coil Fund

["Jim Lux" <jimlux-at-jpl.nasa.gov> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)]

It's been done.. It's called a "resonant test set" and is used for HV
testing.  Typically, an adjustable inductor and a cap is excited from the
power line.  The inductor is tuned so that with the "device under test" in
the circuit, the voltage is maximized.  Then, the excitation voltage is
raised until the DUT breaks down, flashes over, or whatever.  The idea is
that the stored energy is fairly low, and once it breaks down, the voltage
drops (because the circuit is no longer resonant, and because the Q is
killed by the arc).

Check out the Haefely web page... It keeps changing every time I look at
it, but if you search for Haefely and resonant you'll probably find the one
you want.  They make these test sets, and had a fairly good application
note describing the use.

As a practical matter, you've got to build an adjustable inductor
(typically iron cored so the inductance is high enough so that the resonant
frequency is low) that can hold off the whole test voltage... Building an
industrial component to withstand 1MV is no trivial feat.

----------
> From: Tesla list <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> Subject: Re: Good Idea!!: Monster Coil Fund
> Date: Thursday, October 05, 2000 7:34 PM
> 
> Original poster: "Luc" <ludev-at-videotron.ca> 
> 
> Hi all
> 
> The other day I look at the power transmission line near my place I know
some
> are at 365000 volts, ? amp . I don't know how to calculated this but I
know you
> could design a coil with a top load with a resonance frequency of 60
cycles ,
> I'm sure it should be huge ( one of you have the knowledge to calculate
that
> for fun ? ) . If we can build that we could feed this coil directly with
power
> line without cap and gap.
> 
> Luc Benard
> 
> Tesla list wrote:
> 
> > Original poster: "Alex Madsen" <alexmadsen-at-netzero-dot-net>
> >
> > With all this talk of large coils lately, I was thinking. Has any one
> > thought of starting a monster coil fund, for a coil with 40 maybe even
up to
> > 100 ft discharge.  Save up donations for 5 maybe 10 years and get some
> > corporations to  sponsor it. Many corps. are making so much money in
this
> > economy they don't know what to do with it all. I think power companies
> > would love a tax brake in there old transformers and such. Then after
there
> > is enough money make a huge coil some where in the middle of the
country.
> > Comments any one?
> >
> > Alex Madsen
> > qp  aka MAD Max  qp
> >
> > PS I won't be able to do this myself, at least not until I am out of
collage
> > (4-6 years) .
> >
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