RE: air ionization and also balancing chokes

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

Original poster: "McQuay, Michael by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Michael.McQuay-at-wcg-dot-com>

> 
 I'm sure the coil is adding extra ions to the air inside the  
>garage which is causing a noticably lower breakdown voltage 
>for the Jacob's ladder at its 7.5" minimum clearance. Yep, that's 
>right, 7 1/2" is the MINIMUM spacing of my Jacob's ladder rails 
>so that's easily in excess of 100 kV just to get the thing started. 
>That's what you can do with a decent-sized x-ray tranny, heh 


I'd love to see this Jacob's ladder with a 7.5 in. min. spacing.

Do you have a website with pics?



-----Original Message-----

From: Tesla list

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com

Sent: 2/12/2002 9:30 PM

Subject: air ionization and also balancing chokes



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

<Tesla729-at-cs-dot-com>



Hey all,



I just wanted to share an observation that I have recently made 

that I'm sure is nothing new, but I thought that I would throw it 

out for comments :-) I've noticed after running my "big pig" coil

system in my garage that my x-ray tranny powered Jacob's 

ladder will self start at a somewhat lower setting on the control 

variac. I'm sure the coil is adding extra ions to the air inside the 

garage which is causing a noticably lower breakdown voltage

for the Jacob's ladder at its 7.5" minimum clearance. Yep, that's

right, 7 1/2" is the MINIMUM spacing of my Jacob's ladder rails

so that's easily in excess of 100 kV just to get the thing started.

That's what you can do with a decent-sized x-ray tranny, heh

Duck? ;-)

Anyway, I have two GE 280 volt, 30 amp variacs paralleled to 

control this x-ray tranny beast and they work good but I now

need to build a paralleling choke to keep from shorting the 

variacs. I don't have any problems with this unless I turn the 

variac(s) all the way to one side or the other (minimum or max-

imum voltage output). Then the brushes and/or the pig tails that

connect to the brushes start smoking :-O Anyway, I know dis-

cussions on how to make a homemade paralleling choke has 

been covered on this list before, but at this time, I can't seem

to locate any of them :-( If anyone could point me in the right di-

rection to obtain this info, I would most appreciate it :-)



Sparking in Memphis,

David Rieben