Re: caps and JL

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

Original poster: "Troy Peterson by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <tpeterso-at-home-dot-com>

Hi,

On Jonathon's original post:
If you put a cap in parallel with an NST for a Jaccob's Ladder it will 
produce a nice, very bright, and very loud arc. Other than that it will 
generally function normally. I never had a problem doing this except the UV 
from the arc can cause 'arc eye' with very little exposure.
see more below...


>Hi Jonathon,
>
>Never put a cap larger than about 2nF in parallel with an NST by itself.  It
>could resonant the voltage super high and blow the NST.  That is why we use
>safety gaps and all that with Tesla coils.  Putting caps in parallel with NSTs
>is a tricky business.  It is very easy to blow the NST.  It may be very bright
>for a moment but then it may go dark permanently...
>
>Cheers,
>
>         Terry

Yup, Heed Terry's warnings... He knows more than me. About the resonance 
thing, I only used a single (and poorly built) bottle cap so no worries 
about going over 2nf. I would not risk an NST for it. It is no more 
rewarding really than starring into the spark gap on a running coil, about 
as loud and bright as a single static gap in a coil. If you want something 
else cool to do to a JL try dipping the rails in salt water (for an orange 
fire-like arc) or various other chemicals containing metals.

Regards,
Troy Peterson (VE7SOK)

> >
> > i was thinking, the spark of a JL is dim purple, but the spark of a TC 
> SG is
> > bright purple or white.  When i get my MMC put together, could i 
> paralell it
> > to the JL? would that work? or would that be a bit too bright?  8-D ...
> >