Re: here's an interesting idea.

["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: "Garry Freemyer by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <garry-at-ndfc-dot-com>
> 
> Yeah, I had forgotten about that. The one thing that prevents me from trying
> that is the time I tried this and the wire flew off the needle and landed
> accross my caps and fried them good. I might get brave and give it another
> try tho.

	I made a Z-shaped "whirligig" when I built my first little TC about
1942. The whirligig was made out of #18 bell wire, filed for sharp ends
and flattened in the middle to take a center punch prick.  The litle 10"
by 1.5" coil had a needle sticking up out of the top plate, and would
give about 3" streamers.  (In those days I didn't even have a spherical
doorknob to put on it, and had never heard of the idea of using a
toroidal top load).  Anyhow, the gadget would spin like mad and never
had any trouble with it flying off the needle.

	Had an interesting incident with it.  Took it to high school for
"science night" and had it set up on a bench in the chem lab.  A lady
came along who exclaimed "isn't that cute" and reached out to grab it. 
She took an arc along her fingernail which set fire to the polish!!! 
Freak accident, as igniting the polish must be really hard to do. 
Anyhow, she had the presence of mind to stick her finger in her mouth,
and no permanent damage was done.  Surprisingly, the lady considered the
accident her fault and didn't complain any.  Of course, this was a tiny
coil.  Still have the (partly shorted) little NST I used and found the
whirligig a couple of years ago, but have lost the coil itself.  Too
many years and too many moves.

	In the good old days the source of NST's for poor kids in small towns
was either abandoned signs (those were in the barely post-depression
years) or working signs from which the transformers were stolen.  The
guy who ran our "neon shop" didn't have enough money to give away
anything.  My transformer came from the top of a burned out tavern, but
some of my friends were a bit less honest.

	Our coils didn't cost anything because we didn't have any money at all!

Ed