Re: Undesired "effect" with saltwater caps

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

Original poster: "Metlicka Marc by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <mystuffs-at-orwell-dot-net>



Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <acmq-at-compuland-dot-com.br>
> 
> Tesla list wrote:
> >
> > Original poster: "Chris by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
> <chris-at-atomic-pc-dot-com>
> 
> > What's happening is, now that I've switched to a series of copper tube
> > sections as my spark gap (8 tube segments in series, ca. 1 mm apart),
> > I'm getting big, loud (!) sparks inside the Snapple box which appear to
> > be going from one bottle cap to the neighboring outside plate of the
> > next bottle (this is several inches' distance).  Close examination of
> > the bottles (after disconnecting, of course :-0 ) reveals myriad
> > pinhole-sized burns through the aluminum foil on the outsides of the
> > bottles, although the glass is intact and they do not appear to leak.
>> The secondary will throw about 6 inches of spark if I experiment with 

One nice thing i found was that instead of using aluminum foil on the
outside of bottles for caps, use aluminum foil tape (like for toroids).
My first swc's used wide mouth gallon jugs coated outside with foil
tape, burnished smooth with a sanded rounded edged popsicle stick and
sharpie marker, and sw inside. each jug gave me 5nf each, so three gets
into most starter coil ranges. very clean, very simple.
Take care,
Marc M.