Re: secondaries

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

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Hollmike-at-aol-dot-com>

 The most impressive coil I have seen in action to date was 'Big Bertha'.  This
coil was demonstrated every Saturday at the Tesla museum in Colorado Springs. 
I kick myself for not gleaning the specs on this coil, but I will try to
describe it.   
   I am sure this coil was designed and built in the old quarter wave days.  It
was powered by a pole pig, but I don't know a thing about the input power.  The
secondary was about 3 feet in diameter and maybe four feet tall.  I don't think
it was made with magnet wire.  It may have actually had the cloth or silk
insulation.  The topload was a mere 6 inch sphere with two sharpened rods for
break-out points. 
   The entire room this coil was demonstrated in was a faraday cage.  The walls
were lined with sheet copper.   
    What was impressive is that this coil produced power arcs of at least 10 -
12 feet in length, but were nothing like any coil I have seen since.  They were
very thick, white-hot arcs like nothing I've seen since.  The arcs seemed much
'thicker' than any I have seen since.   
    Now this coil may not compare with Bill Wysock's, but then again,  it
might. I should have made an attempt to buy it when the museum went
bankruupt.   
    I guess what I am trying to convey is that this coil was designed and built
many years before the list came to be.  Bill might know more about it since he
was a member of the International Tesla Society as well and gave lectures or
demos in those days.