Re: Superconductivity

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

Original poster: "Jim Lux by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>



Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "Terry Fritz" <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>
> 
> Hi Nele,
> 
> The losses in a TC are mostly due to streamers and the spark gap.  After
> those two, the resistve losses in the primary coil, wiring, and caps is a
> big factor.  If one could could make those parts super conductors there may
> be some advantage.  Of course, just getting another neon transformer could
> make up for those losses too, so the super conductor stuff would have to be
> fairly easy to make it worthwhile for the average person to try.
> 
> If you could make the spark gap (which can waste up to 50% of a coil's
> power!) more effecient, then you would realy have something!

And, of course, the losses in the spark gap are due to the same as the
losses in the streamers... resistivity of ionized air.

I don't know that resistive losses in the conductive components are really
a significant factor in most tesla coils...

Reducing gap losses might fall in the following areas: 
reduce the cathode drop - primarily affected by the kind of metal.. low
work functions have lower voltage drops, of course, they also have low
melting points (e.g. aluminum, potassium)..

reduce the ohmic loss in the arc - more current, shorter arcs, etc.  high
pressure gas in the gap might help here.. shorter distance, more candidate
molecules in the gas to ionize when the breakdown avalanche starts and once
it's ionized higher conductivity.  Quenching might be an issue, though...
high pressure blown gas gap using hydrogen?

For a disruptive coil, some scheme to get the power quickly into the
secondary might be useful.  The fewer passes (from each oscillation) the
power makes through the primary circut and the gap, the better.  Although,
this starts to look like an impulse transformer...


> 
> Cheers,
> 
>         Terry
> 
> At 06:45 PM 6/28/2001 +0200, you wrote:
> >73
> >After some time reading the people`s comments on the list, I realize that
> >there is still one big problem in increasing the coils efficiency: everyone
> >have to realize that the basic design of the coil didn`t change for a really
> >long time(don`t want to mention how long). I heard about problems with the
> >top loads, conductors, primary power...... we have to move a bit further
> >from where we are I think. After some researching I realize that we could
> >build a whole new area of research in the field of Tesla coils. How? By
> >using the superconductivity. With no looses at all!!!
> >Recently, I have build some machines based on the principles of
> >superconductivity, that works more than great, and are a scientific proof of
> >what could be done with TC, if we use superconductors as a new technology.
> >This field is very problematic, and it needs some argumented polemics. So,
> >if anyone else on the list had some experiences with this, and want to open
> >a new area of research, he is more then welcome.
> >
> >Kind regards to all,
> >Nele!
> >