Re: Streamer Behavior

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

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <FutureT-at-aol-dot-com>

In a message dated 12/20/01 9:22:29 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes:

Steve, all,

I should probably clarify, when I refer to the gas burner effect,
I mean sparks that are very short, weak, and numerous.  For
example if the normal sparks from the coil are 3 or 4 feet long,
the gas burner type sparks may be only 1 foot long or so, and
they will be very thin and dim, and very numerous.... there may
be 20 or more of these fine streamers.  They don't look like
normal sparks.  Another characteristic of the gas burner effect
is that the sparks are usually shorter than the major diameter of the
toroid.  For example with a 20" toroid, the gas burner sparks
may be only 12" long or so.  Greg Leyh's old large coil gave
gas burner sparks about 3 feet long at very low bps, but his
toroid is about 63" diameter.  The normal spark length was
26 feet or so.

If in the normal operation of a coil, the power is increased so
the streamers become more numerous, but remain long I don't
consider that the gas burner effect.  For example suppose a
coil produces one 42" spark from a 13" toroid.  Then the power
is increased, so the coil produces 4 or 5 strong streamers that are
42" long or longer, I don't consider that the gas burner effect.  

Cheers,
John