Re: Sword-like VTTC spark pix at my website

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

Original poster: "David Trimmell by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <davidt-at-pond-dot-net>

Hello,

I have seen the "corkscrew" effect on spark coils I have built in the past. 
It definitely seems to be a thermal air current type thing.

Regards,

David Trimmell

At 04:27 PM 2/7/01, you wrote:
>Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" 
><FutureT-at-aol-dot-com>
>
>In a message dated 2/7/01 1:43:33 PM Eastern Standard Time, tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
>writes:
>
> > >  Is this correct, and if so can the effect
> >  >  be duplicated with a "conventional" coil.  If I place a breakout point
>on
> >  >  the top of my small coil with a spherical topload, I get something
> > similar,
> >  >  but the arc usually branches a few times and waves around.  I estimate
> > the
> >  >  breakrate of my static gap to be about 400.  Thanks for sharing that
>with
> >  >  the group.
> >
>
>Hans,
>
>A coiler named John Kent has built a spark gap coil which ran at a moderate
>bps, and gave a most unusual straight-ish spark from the top of
>a sherical top load.  This spark, which was similar to my sword like
>VTTC spark, actually rotated like a corkscrew or vortex.  He called this type
>of spark a "sprite".  I've never heard of this type of spark from anyone
>else.  It was a rather remarkable thing to see.  As the coil ran, this
>condition would occasionally disappear, and a normal type of spark
>would form.  Then at some point, one could see the corkscrew effect
>starting to form again.  It was very interesting, and it would be
>interesting to experiment with such effects.   I realize that spherical
>toploads often form a straight spark, but this was somewhat different
>than other cases I've seen.
>
>JOhn Freau