Re: Vac. gap. questions

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

Original poster: "Kelly & Phillipa Williams by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <kellyw-at-ihug.co.nz>


Hi All!

>
> However, I have tried the perpendicular arrangement
> using 1" Cu pipe with smooth pipe caps as the arc
> electrodes. Air blast is directed by a 1" PVC nozzle
> right through the arc, and the gap is shrouded so that
> the air stream can't sneak around it--most of the air
> must pass through. Cooling is not as effective as with
> the two-horned sucker arrangement, and the gap, robust
> as it is, will be restricted to NST-only duty so that
> my pig won't burn it up.
>
> For sucker -vs- perpendicular, sucker is better.
>

I built a static gap using a piece of PVC pipe just under 1" diameter. The
electrodes are tungsten rod 2.5 millimetres/ 0.09 inches diameter and they
stick into the tube through holes cut in either side -

  vacuum cleaner (actually two in parallel)
                      |              |
                      |              |
                      |     air     |
                      |              |
electrode      |              |        electrode
                      |              |
__________|_  arc _|____________
                      |              |
                      |              |
                      |              |
                      |              |

the gap is about 0.5-0.6 inches in diameter.
It lights up the PVC pipe dull red along a foot of the pipe in the dark!

I works great, if the vacuum cleaner is not on the coil fires intermittently
(powerarcing)
and emits wimpy little purple sparks. If the vacuum cleaners are turned on,
it starts buzzing loudly and the coil emits writhing 2 m/ 78 inch streamers.

BTW my power supply is 15kV at 120mA NST farm.

Regards,

Alan Williams