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Re: Why the primary is a flat spiral?



Original poster: "Malcolm Watts by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <m.j.watts-at-massey.ac.nz>

Hi Shaun,

On 9 Apr 2002, at 1:24, Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: "Shaun Epp by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<scepp-at-mts-dot-net>
> 
> I did a demonstration to a group of Ham Radio people I know this evening and
> it went really well.  I demostrated the spark show, burning / stripping a
> CD, tube light lite from a distance and on top of the coil.  They where all
> impressed, I even recieved  a round of applause   : ^ ) .  One woman asked
> me why the primary coil was flat and I was somewhat stumped.  I just
> explained that its used to couple the energy into the the secondary.  Now
> I'm wondering what to tell the next person, something to do with coupling?

Why not just tell them that it's a convenient arrangement to get the 
primary as far away from the business end of the resonator as 
possible? In short coils, a helix is somewhat impractical.
 
> What other stage tricks do others do?

     How about the classic ion motor, the "S" bend of wire suspended 
on a point? Easy to do.
     Another one I used to do was the home-made "neon" and 
fluorescent tube. Get some clear rigid plastic pipe 1/2" or so in 
diameter, seal one end with hot melt and have a wire poking through 
it into the tube, then run rubber hosing from the other end to a tap 
aspirator. As the pressure inside the tube decreases, a purple glow 
fills the tube (principally nitrogen) which also produces ultra-vilet 
light. Some fluorescent poster paint covering part of the tube 
completes the demo.

Regards,
malcolm