Re: Coil Experiments / Old Tesla plans

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

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <MaverickIce00-at-aol-dot-com>

In a message dated 1/27/01 10:43:06 PM Mountain Standard Time, 
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes: 


>
> However, it has other quite interesting 
> and pretty looking experiments. Namely, "a 12 in. length of small nichrome 
> or steel piano wire attached to the terminal [no topload those days], at the 
> center of the wire, gives two blasting lavender coloured rings of electrical 
> fireworks."



Hi Simon, 

Although I don't have an operational Tesla Coil (yet), I have attempted this 
experiment with a 7.5/30 NST and small diameter (18 gauge) galvanized steel 
wire. I just form the wire so that one terminal is directly below the other 
and draw out the arc to about 1.5" (3.81 cm). After a while the arc takes on 
a nice deep orange color and the upper terminal glows brightly then emits a 
continuous shower of sparks, similar to the "sparklers" sold at fireworks 
stands. This is a pretty difficult task however, because slight air currents 
will cause the arc to jump to a different point on the wire and it will cool 
down. After the shower of sparks, also, the wire melts and becomes a nice 
little ball hanging off the end of the wire, which has to be removed or the 
sparks won't resume. I have always stopped this little experiment before the 
sparks become a fire hazard (when they become too numerous or jump too close 
to flammable stuff), but I think it would be interesting what effect the 
sparks would have if it were allowed to go on for longer. I'll try to rig up 
some fire-proof area in my garage or outside on the RV pad and try this 
little experiment, It just snowed though, so i'll most likely just do it in 
the garage. I believe the "electrical pinwheel" you refer to is called an Ion 
Motor, and a video of one can be found at Sam Barros' Powerlabs in the 
Flyback Transformer section -at- 

http://www.powerlabs-dot-org/ 

Regards, 

Josh Hunsaker 
---------------------- 
Denver, Colorado 
MaverickIce00-at-aol-dot-com (Changing to Arc Starter 3-at-aol-dot-com soon...) 

PS - Sorry to hear about all the problems you've been having with your TC, I 
hope it works out for you.