RE: Ignition coil burned?

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

Original poster: "Loudner, Godfrey by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <gloudner-at-SINTE.EDU>

If you are referring to an automobile ignition coil, then the input is 12
volt. This takes me back to my childhood when I just loved to play with
those ignition coils. In my early teen years, I managed to collect many
NSTs, five pole pigs, three huge potential transformers, three x-ray
transformers, big industrial inductors, a large industrial powerstat, and
much more. A special find was an induction coil that was three feet long
with coils one foot in diameter, and it would shoot white sparks over a foot
long. Another special find was a 1000 lb 150,000V/1000MA transformer. The
porcelain terminals of this beast ended in big brass balls. I would ballast
the beast with one of my big inductors. To the terminals I would connect a
transmission line of two 50 foot wires separated about three feet. At night,
I would slowly bring up the primary voltage with a variac. The transmission
wires would hiss and glow with a blue color. The wires would sway back and
forth. Finally an arc would form and race down the length of the
transmission line in few seconds. There was a continuous racing of arcs
along the line--a sort of horizontal Jacob's ladder with very fast moving
arcs. It would drive the neighbors crazy. 

Godfrey Loudner

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Tesla list [SMTP:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
> Sent:	Wednesday, May 16, 2001 7:36 PM
> To:	tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> Subject:	Ignition coil burned?
> 
> 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
> 
>