Small number of turns in primary

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

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <fsimms-at-ghg-dot-net>

One advantage of having a low inductance with a few turns in the primary is 
that you get to use a larger cap. The larger the cap the more energy you can 
store in the cap to be discharged into the coil. This would take a very 
expensive capacitor though.  Finkelstein showed with a .6 coupling that the 
entire energy of the cap can be put into the coil in 3/4 of a cycle. This 
creates a monstrous bolt of energy. Jay did this with a coil he built which
had 
a 120 turn 3 ft high secondary and a 4 turn primary. His secondary was about a 
foot in diameter. He generated single shot sparks that were as long as his arm 
and as thick. He used litz wire on his secondary to get the resistance down.  
His coil was set up to generate just a single shot. Jay used a static 
pressurized gap with Argon and sodium hexifluride gas. This gap is self 
quenching. He used carbon ball electrodes. Jay had 12 neon transformers
driving 
a .06 uF 60kv cap that he had built for him.

Bob