Re: Electrum waveforms, was: Then what's the topload FOR?

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

Original poster: "Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <acmq-at-compuland-dot-com.br>

Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "Peter Lawrence by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Peter.Lawrence-at-Sun-dot-com>

> and why are there these HF oscillations only on the positive(?) excursions
>  of the current into the topload - do TC sparks only break out on one
polarity
>  of the resonant oscillation (that would explain how the coil form gets a
>  net elecrete charge sometimes).
> 
> and why are there hugh negative current swings in this graph, that would
>  indicate that during streamer formation / leader growth that current is
>  oscillating???

Some ideas: 
The oscillograms show continuous AC current flowing the
the streamers. This is consistent with the idea that they are
attached to the terminal and continue to exist for many cycles
of the RF oscillation of the secondary system.
The negative current seems larger and more continuous. This
means that electrons move out of the terminal into the streamers
quite easily. It's well known that negative electricity breaks
out of conductors more easily.
The positive swings show series of peaks. I imagine that this
may be caused by packets of negative charge (negative leaders at
the tips of the streamers) that become detached
from the streamers, returning to them when the streamer voltage
is high enough to cause reionization of the air between the
streamer and the detached leaders. This is similar to what
happens with lightning, where a "positive discharge"
completes the lightning channel when the negative leaders
are close enough to ground. This same discharge can be seen
close to the terminal of a DC positive corona plume in an
electrostatic generator.

Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz