COOL STUFF YOU CAN DO WITH YOUR COIL (author's response)

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Original poster: "Drew Murray by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <drewallmighty-at-hotmail-dot-com>

Thanks for your advice,
I would like to mention that the coil that i was using at the time when i 
performed these tricks was a low power coil. A sphere top load off of a Van 
De Graff generator was  mounted on top of the 3" diameter secondary, which 
was wrapped with 24 gauge enamel coated magnet wire.
My capacitor was a cheap 7 wine bottle in a bucket filled with brine.
It worked well enough to show that the coil does work. Believe it or not, my 
transformer was a 5kv 16ma CENCO which i found also in the storage room of 
the physics department at school. By the way, I found out that the school 
pays their science supplier nearly $700 for a small van de graff generator. 
All that's in it is a rubber band, a motor and two cotton pulleys. 
Ridiculous or what?
My spark gap consisted of an air pump and two copper wires. It barely 
worked, The two wires had to be almost touching for it to fire!
The coil was so low powered that there was no spark discharge off of the top 
load.
I noticed that the sparks really hurt if you reached over to them or if you 
drew your hand away from the coil while it was operating. If i held my 
finger about 1-2 inches from the top load, It would burn me. I have noticed, 
while holding a grounded wire by the top load, that the spark becomes bright 
and thick when i move the wire about an inch from the top load. This is 
about the point where the regular light bulb lights up.
I am currently trying to get a larger transformer from the surplus dude at 
the local power company (N.B power). I need to know what to ask for. I need 
your help on this one people.
-It has to be able to run on a regular 115v 30a line because there are no 
220 lines available at the high school within my reach. There are some in 
the shop, but i doubt that they would let me operate my coil in there.
He has sent me a list of the ones he has at the moment, Check "I need 
advice" fore more info on these Transformers.
BTW i just turned fifteen, yes i am gifted, I have been repairing computer 
monitors since the age of ten, so i am quite familiar with high voltage, low 
current systems. If anyone here has a question about computer hardware, 
software or anything electrical, don't hesitate to ask. My e-mail 
drewallmighty-at-hotmail-dot-com
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