Re: OLTC update

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

Original poster: "Terry Fritz" <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>

Hi Matt,

At 01:18 PM 8/21/2002 -0400, you wrote: 
>Hi Terry, All,
>       The recent developments in new types of coil systems brings up what 
>may be (at least to me) an interesting philosophical question. At what point 
>in evolution is a Tesla Coil no longer a Tesla coil? Just as we do not see 
>the names Fleming or de Forest credited with cermolox transmitting tubes, or 
>the name Shockley associated with modern solid state chips, I see little in 
>the OLTC except for the idea of an air-core resonant transformer that can be 
>attributed to Tesla. The OLTC uses materials, devices and concepts totally 
>unheard of, or even guessed at, in Tesla's day.  IMO the OLTC it has more 
>differences from a Tesla coil than an "Oudin" coil has. 
>  Perhaps we are witnessing the birth of the OLFC (Off-Line Fritz Coil) or 
>at very least the "Off-Line Fritz-Tesla System"? 
>
>For two cents plain,
>
>Matt D.
>


Tesla invented these machines, there is no doubt about that ;-)  He would
recognize every part today, as he would have 100 years ago.  Primary,
secondary, spark gap....  They are all right there and serve the same
function now, as then.  The fancy poly caps are far advanced from his wine
bottles, but we sell wine in polypropylene bags now too.  I guess the
technology works both ways!! :o))  Hey!! I bet those wine poly bags make
great caps too!! :-)))  Oh! Another "terry" invention... Hahaha!!  

The IGBT gap is just a spark gap with very modern components.  The function
is identical to Tesla's gaps.  Tesla used high voltage transformers and
such to force primary currents.  Today, we can force the same currents at
much lower (even line) voltages with more modern components.  Basically,
nothing has changed.  We are just getting "better" at making "Tesla's" machine.

"I" look at this like MMC's and E-Tesla...  "I" may have gotten the ball
rolling, but contributions from countless others made it "work".  The very
advanced C++ version of E-Tesla is something "I" could have never made.
The work of many "others" made it "really work"...  

MMCs...  Well, we just soldered "good" caps together there.  The designer's
of those caps spent years making them work...  We just listened to them and
followed their instructions for our application.  We had a darn nasty
application :-))  But the real designers were "right" and they met are
needs ;-))

"I" have a lot of time and money to "blow" on this hobby of Tesla coiling.
I guess "fate" as defined that as "my" niche...  I am certainly not working
in any vacuum.  Garry Freemyer contributed a tremendous amount of time and
effort to his skills at being able to kill any Tesla coil cap just by
"looking" at it.   When we could make an MMC that "Garry" could not break,
we "had" something :-)))

So, today, it is impossible to attribute anything to any one person in this
area of Tesla coiling.  As a Tesla list "group", we "all" are the inventors
and innovators.  Terry may sometimes put on the "cheerleaders" uniform and
chant the "raw raw chish boom bah, OLTCs are HOT now!, boom bah" thing...
But it is really all the work of others that make it work...

Our greatest advantage over Tesla is that we don't have to impress any J.P.
Morgan for funds.  Tesla had a great obligation to "find" money to support
his efforts.  Today, we can draw off modern technologies "dirt cheap"...

So, none of this can be blamed on "me".

Cheers,

	terry