Re: getting started

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

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

Hi Matt and Godfrey,

>Hi Godfrey, All, 
>I Believe that I have found the origin of the so-called "quarter-wavelength 
>myth." It was Nicola Tesla himself. cf Pat. No. 645,576 20 March 1900, lines 
>287 through 314. I guess nobody's infallible, but I'd be reluctant to ignore 
>all his advice. :) 
>
>Matt D.
>

Tesla did indeed start the quarter wave thing.  His Colorado Spring notes
and much of his early work is filled with wire length and quarter wave
stuff.  At the time, he really didn't have anything better to go by.  He
designed his coils by using quarter wave wire lengths and then adjusting
them to resonate from there.  It seems he was a bit perplexed that the
numbers did not always work out, but then he obviously realized that
distributed capacitance was playing a big part in tuning.  So he basically
understood the factors at work but did not have the math tools then to
accurately predict resonant frequency.  Although, he became very good at
making educated guesses that were close enough.  Only in the last few years
have we learned to predict and truly understand what is going on in
secondary coils.

Cheers,

	Terry