CAPS IN SERIES, benefit?

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

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

Hello all,
I have been taking the leap between SW caps and poly caps. I am now fully 
Salt water free, and proud of it! I had been using my sw caps and my 
experimental zip lock bag cap together in parallel, but i noticed that there 
wasn't much of a difference in my coils performance when i disconnected my 
sw caps. So i am now only using my poly cap. My coil config is as so; 1kva 
PT -at- 10500v, 8" x 26" secondary with 24 AWG magnet wire, Al flexi duct 
covered with al tape toroid, rotary spark gap with carbon brush DC motor and 
wood screws for electrodes, zip lock bag cap(actual capacitance is unknown) 
which is about 2 inches thick when compacted and has around 25 al plates, 
Archimedes spiral pancake primary, and all of the other good stuff. My 
longest sparks were around 1 1/2 feet long and they were thin purple wiggly 
things.
      My big question today is, what is the advantage of putting many caps 
with a high capacitance together in a series to bring the voltage rating up 
and lower the capacitance to the right size. Is it better than only making 
one cap with the right voltage rating and capacitance?
And most importantly, will it make my coil throw streamers longer than 1 1/2 
feet long, which is not very impressive looking to me.
                                                      Sincerely
                                                    Drew Murray
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