All pain no gain

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

Original poster: "Nathan Morris by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <themfam-at-home-dot-com>

I need some help figuring out why my TC is not breaking out.  After months of
planning and building I am afraid that this thing is a lemon.  Ground is ground
right? Isn't earth ground the same as an RF ground?  Shouldn't I be able to tie
the bottom of my secondary to ground via an extension cord and wall outlet? 
How close to tuned (number of turns) does the primary tap have to be before I
will see breakout.  Maybe I was in the wrong neighborhood.  My primary is 23
turns.  I will add another 2 turns. How often should the safety gap across the
cap fire?  I adjusted the gap distance from loud blue light to none at all. 
This had no effect.
 
--Nate