"Gas burner" corona from STSG driver

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

Original poster: "Scott Hanson by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <huil888-at-surfside-dot-net>

Having built Jon Tebbs' excellent line-frequency synched TSG driver
circuit, I was playing around with it on my desk while waiting for the rain
to stop here in So California. I arranged some small pieces of heavy gage
aluminum foil so the edges were parallel, and connected them to the output
of the ignition coil. Running the system at 60 Hz produced a sheet of
beautiful corona between the foil edges, with a very different appearance
of the negative terminal (LH side of photos) and the positive terminal (RH
side). The negative side produced long, "brushy" corona from the sharp edge
of the foil, while the positive side produced a very short, compact,
"rounded" discharge. The corona created at the negative electrode is at
least five times LONGER than that produced at the positive electrode.
 
The very different character of the positive and negative discharges poses
a question. When driving a triggered spark gap in a Tesla coil application,
should the trigger electrode be connected to the negative side of the
ignition coil? It appears that the negative terminal provides a much
greater ionizing effect.
 
These photos can be viewed at:
http://surfboard.surfside-dot-net/huil888/gasjet-19s.jpg
 
http://surfboard.surfside-dot-net/huil888/gasjet-22s.jpg
 
http://surfboard.surfside-dot-net/huil888/gasjet-51s.jpg
 
Regards,
Scott Hanson