Ignition coil burned?

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

Original poster: "Greg by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <wonkothesane-at-mediaone-dot-net>

Hello,
           I'm new to HV tinkering, today I hooked an ignition coil via the
dimmer
switch, capacitor, 120V AC set up. This worked fine for about 20 seconds
until a
large poof of smoke exited from the coil. The smoke smell is a combo of
burned oil
and electrical fireish stench. So my guess is that I exceeded the max
voltage for
the coil? Is this a correct guess? any feed back would be appreciated. Also I
grounded the dimmer, would this be a problem? It's different from the
setups I have
seen