RE: Triggered spark gaps for coils

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

Original poster: "Basura, Brian by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <brian.basura-at-unistudios-dot-com>

Gary/all,

I had a discussion with Jim Lux and Kevin Ottilini last year and the
conclusion was a trigatron would probably need gas flowing through it to
quench properly at a significant break rate.  I plan to try it on a DC coil
(When I get back to my DC coiling activities and get those bugs worked
out). With a DC coil and a Trigatron I should be able to make my coil go
from single shot mode up to ??? break rate. Flowing a gas through it may
make it impractical though. Time will tell...

Preemptive response - A Trigatron is a triggered spark gap. You have two
electrodes similar to a standard spark gap then you introduce something
between the electrodes to trigger a breakdown. The trigger can be a smaller
arc, laser, etc. The ones I built use a motorcycle spark plug in the center
of one electrode as a trigger. I have some pictures posted at the following
url but they aren't directly related to Tesla Coils (although my long term
plan is to use one in a Tesla Coil application).
http://fp2.hughes-dot-net/brianb/pulse_discharge.htm

Regards,
Brian B.

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com] 
Sent:	Friday, March 16, 2001 10:22 AM
To:	tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject:	Triggered spark gaps for coils

Original poster: "Lau, Gary by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>"
<Gary.Lau-at-compaq-dot-com>

>From my recent web searches and technical paper readings, there appears to
be a large variety of commercially available 3-terminal triggered spark
gaps.  And it seems that these can easily be home-made as well.  These would
seem to be ideally suited for use as replacements for rotary spark gaps, but
I've not been able to find any reference to this obvious application.  The
only reference I've seen towards "amateur" applications is in can and
quarter shrinkers.  While RSG's do have relative simplicity on their side,
it seems as though there ought to be some worthwhile benefits to using a
triggered static gap.  Has anyone attempted this?  Or am I attempting to
invent a square wheel?

Gary Lau
Waltham, MA USA