Re: What do the electrodes spark to in the saftey gap?

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

Original poster: "Herwig Roscher by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <herwig.roscher-at-gmx.de>


fdgahbdfhbfdb-at-juno-dot-com wrote:

There are the two sides of the circuit, and ground. Do both just spark to
ground, or to whichever has the greatest difference in voltage?

Jon,

During the process of adjusting the distances of the safety gaps to 
their optimal values I found, that starting an arc at one gap with a 
screwdriver always resulted in an arc at the other gap too.

In order to find out wheter this unwanted behaviour was caused by 
oscillations within the secondary winding of the (custom made) 
xformer or by triggering of the other gap by ultraviolet light or ions, I 
replaced the middle electrode (connected to ground) by a 4" by 4" 
copper sheet. No unwanted arcs any more. So - in my case - it 
was not oscillations.

However I'll use horngaps and the a.m. middle-shield-electrode in 
my next system.

Regards,

Herwig