Re: REALLY COOL (weird observations and big improvement)

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

Original poster: "Terry Fritz" <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>

Hi David,

NEAT!!  Using John's formula, 3600 watts should give 8.5 to 9 foot arcs.
Since you were just barely getting racing arcs, the coupling was perfect.
There may be some advantage to having primaries such as yours rather than
the typical spirals since the coupling can be more easily controlled.  You
will want to try and get the same coupling when you make the real primary
coil.  A rotary gap would allow you to use like 112nF for the primary which
will really get it going.  I would think that would give you another 2.5
feet of arc.  You are obviously doing everything right!!

The cold weather may have made the air more "still" so the arcs could go
further without being blow around.  The chart below suggests that the arcs
my get 10% longer for every 30 degrees of temperature drop but I am not
sure how this would apply to streamers.

http://hot-streamer-dot-com/TeslaCoils/Misc/SGapVolt.jpg

The frost patterns may have been do to residual static charges but I would
check to be sure there is no contamination or oil film in those areas.
Other than that, I would agree that it really is weird :-))

Cheers,

	Terry



At 09:05 PM 2/25/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>Although last saturday wasn't the first time I ran my coil, it really wowed 
>me because the lightning it made was huge compared to the last time I ran 
>it.
>
>Origionally it was set up with three nst's for 15Kv and 180mA.  The primary 
>is 3/8" tubing w/ 3/8" spacing tapped around 12 turns with a 8" by 26" 
>secondary with 900 turns of 22 AWG, 7" X 30" torroid, new .05uF mmc LTR cap 
>(never even got warm:) ), 5 gap copper pipe static gap with a reverse vaccum 
>motor blower. Because the coil was far from done (hey, it still is), the 
>tank circuit was wired mostly with 12 AWG solid wire. The coil was operated 
>in the summer, and arcs were around four feet long, and not to mention 
>uncontrollable racing arcs from top to bottom of the secondary-- which is 
>another story... The results were neither impressive nor dissapointing for 
>one of the first higher power runs.
>
>Saturdays setup was basically the same except that the supply line which at 
>first was a single extension cord used with 240V was upgraded to two 
>extension cords, the tank wiring was replaced with 10AWG stranded, the 
>primary was tapped at 10 1/2 turns, and a corona suppression ring was put on 
>the top of the secondary below the torroid. Other things like multiple 
>switches and a 30 amp relay were also very helpful. It was also COLD and 
>snow covered out this time because I live in MA.
>
>Anyways, streamers were consistently at least 5 1/2 feet long, striking 
>nearby objects (chairs, transformers etc.) that is a foot and a half 
>increase! And the arcs looked hotter as well. Only a few racing arcs during 
>the tuning process occurred. Boy was I excited since I hadn't even ran my 
>coil for months.
>
>The REAL arcs though, were when I blew out one transformer and added two 
>more. I think it may have been the lack of a strike rail that blew my nst, 
>but you never know cause nsts are pieces of junk when used for tesla 
>service. So I then had four 15/60's and a quick strike rail set up, and 
>another capacitor panel for a total of .067uF LTR. I initially moved the tap 
>in 1 turn and finally tuned to 9 1/16 turns and WHOA, what d'ya know, my TC 
>is throwing beautiful 7 1/2, 8 foot arcs!!! They occasionally hit the snow 
>and were radiating from both sides of the torroid.
>
>So that's about 3600 watts with 8 foot arcs with a blower gap and Stranded 
>10AWG wire that's not even copper for the tank circuit, that made me happy! 
>Especially considering that I still have many improvements, just to name a 
>few: rotary gap, heavy duty capacitor and tank bus wiring, and MORE POWER :) 
>(hey, I have to use my .1uF worth of mmcs for something)
>
>I can't wait ;-)
>
>Do you think the bitter cold (and probably dry) air played a significant 
>role in the HUGE perfomance increase? Or was it mostly because of the extra 
>900 watts? I would like to get similar results in the summer as well.
>
>Oh yeah, I said weird effects in the description. Well, when I brought my 
>secondary inside, it got all frosty. We all know that the natural thing to 
>do on a frosty, shiny surface is to draw all over it with your fingers, so 
>that's what I was doing. It was then I noticed these spiderwebby crackly 
>looking lines running up and down my secondary. HEY, they were the exact 
>paths my racing arcs took in very FINE detail. They could be formed and 
>reformed again by simply wiping and refrosting the secondary with my breath. 
>It was very interesting to see the trends that the arcs followed in such 
>fine detail and certainty.
>
>Well, good luck to you all!
>David W
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