Re: High Voltage Question

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

Original poster: "William R. Langston by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <blangsto-at-iwvisp-dot-com>

Hello Everyone,

One of my uncles was a VP for General Electric in New York state. By his
good offices, years
ago, I visited the GE HV Lab in Schenectady, NY. Along with two very, very
big cap/diode/gap
stacks, sat on opposite ends of a very large lab -- for destructive testing
of transformers,
breakers, etc.; anyway, along with the stacks was a million-volt+, 60 Hz,
3-toroid transformer
stack. Very impressive to a teen (It helped me decide on physics and
electronics for my
vocation). Very impressive sound it made too, both arcs and 60 Hz ('cycles'
back then ;-) hum.

My point is that if one is willing to do the work and spend the cash...

Have a great evening all,
Bill Langston

Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: "Ed Phillips by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<evp-at-pacbell-dot-net>
>
> Tesla list wrote:
> >
> > Original poster: "S & J Young by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
> <youngs-at-konnections-dot-net>
> >
> > Hi Irrelative (please use a real name on this list),
> >
> > Cal Tech used to have a high voltage lab which had a million volt power
> > transformer.  I witnessed the lab technicians draw amazing arcs which would
> > flash over at about 3 feet and could be drawn out to over 20 feet!
There is
> > no voltage limit in theory, just the practical limits of breakdown of
> > insulation.  One could cascade a few transformers for several million volts
> > if one had an almost unlimited budget
> > --Steve
>
>         When I went to Caltech (1948) the Kellog High Voltage lab did indeed
> use a cascade of transformers to get HV AC.  By having the primary of
> each transformer connected across a tap on the preceding one the problem
> of primary-secondary voltage breakdown is essentially eliminated.  The
> building is still there but suspect it is being used for something else
> since power engineering isn't of much interest there these days.
>
> Ed