Re: magnifier vs two coil system

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

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

Brad,

It seems that the magnifier does not offer any noticeable
efficiency advantage over a normal two coil system.  The operation
of both types of coil are basically the same, except for some
extra resonances in the magnifier coils.  Some have chosen
the magnifier design for novelty or for space constraints,
convenience of setting up, etc. 

Antonio has worked out a special mathematical relationship
for the coils which promises to give a slight magnifier advantage,
but this may be very difficult to achieve in practice, due to 
difficulties with quenching, exact tuning, loading, etc.

It had been believed by some, that a magnifier offered faster energy
transfer due to the tight driver coupling.  It turns out that this
is not the case.  The important thing is the overall or
effective system coupling, which tends to be the same as
that of a normal two coil system.  A magnifier seems to work
most "efficiently" with a low breakrate, and tolerates a normal
rotary gap, all the same as a two coil system does.

Cheers,
John