Re: tesla coil

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

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

In a message dated 1/2/01 9:12:55 PM Eastern Standard Time, tesla-at-pupman-dot-com 
writes:

> How do you tap a primary?  Is that refering to moving the connecting wire a 
>  little farther down the coil?  What's the point of that? Doesn't that make 
>  all the coil above that connection rather useless?

ANT,

The great Dr. Tesla designed the Tesla coil to be a tuned system.
The resonant frequency of the secondary must match the resonant
frequency of the secondary.  By selecting the right tap or tune point
on the primary, we find that spot where the primary frequency matches
the secondary frequency, and voila.... our sparks sprout forth like a
golden headed medusa for all to be amazed and mesmerized.  This
assumes of course that there are enough primary turns to even tune
the coil.  Sometimes beginners build a coil which cannot be tuned,
there just aren't enough primary turns considering the other coil
parameters.  If the is not tuned properly, you'll get either very feeble
sparks, or even none at all.

John Freau