Re: Are Monster Toploads Really Needed?

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <acmq-at-compuland-dot-com.br>

Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>"
<uncadoc-at-juno-dot-com>
> 
> Hi all, Is it not possible that a tank circuit with an appropriately
> wound coil could work without a monster toriod topload and give equally
> devastating arcs?  I still stand by my statement that our coil can
> produce an equal arc when tuned with a toroid, sphere, or no topload at
> all.  The arc length remains the same as long as the primary is tuned for
> optimum coupling.    Al.

The formation of bright sparks/streamers needs large amounts of charge
immediately available. A coil without top terminal keeps most of the
charge stored on its self-capacitance insulated from the top of the
coil by it's inductance, and not immediately available. The voltage
at the top can be very high, but there is no energy available for 
long, bright sparks. All that is obtained are relatively faint corona
plumes, with the current limited to the value of the relatively small
RF secondary current. No tuning can improve this.

Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz