Re: magnets for gap quenching?

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

Original poster: "Ed Phillips by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <evp-at-pacbell-dot-net>

Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "Michael by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>"
<Mfraylich-at-btinternet-dot-com>
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2001 3:03 PM
> Subject: Re: magnets for gap quenching?
> 
> Why are you using a electromagnet, you can pinch some niodymium magnets out
> of an old hard drive they have 80lbs of pulling force so they will cool a
> spark gap well. They are the kidney bean shaped things used to clean the
> heads on the hard drive and are held apart by a piece of aluminium. They
> require no power to run and they are easily available.

	All depends on the required flux density.  Two permanent magnets which
give a very high pulling force when in contact may still not produce
enough flux density when separated. With the electromagnet it is
possible to up the current to the limit set by heating and thereby up
the magnetizing force.  In either case the use of a proper magnetic
structure made of CRS or equivalent would be quite important - the old
arc "converters" used very large pieces of iron along with the
windings.  As for power, the power required would probably be hundreds
of watts at a minimum, and a simple full-wave rectifier working from the
AC mains would be the cheapest and best way to go.

Ed

Ed