Re: A challenge

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

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

My wife worries about coming home from work and finding the house
surrounded by yellow tape and guys in bunny suits because one of the
neighbors (or the homeowner's association) has called the hazmat crew out.
She also (reasonably) requests that I not work with HV alone when nobody
else is home.

you could always use a variant the old "daddy I need a horse approach": 

14 yr old daughter: Daddy, my instructor says I need my own horse. 

Parent: I don't know if we can afford that.

daughter: That's ok, I can just give up riding, and go hang out at the mall
with my new friends.  By the way, what's a "bong"?

Parent: What kind of horse did you want?


There are all manner of HV related hobbies that have hideously more danger
potential than tesla coiling:
tabletop nuclear fusion (quite practical, and comparable in complexity to
building a big TC, except you have to deal with vacuum pumps and go get a
tank of Deuterium, and learn all about measuring neutrons)
high energy pulsed power (>10-20 kJ/shot)
anything combining vacuum and HV (when you start pricing lead bricks,
she'll really start to worry)

Then, there are the immensely more common, but probably, in her eyes, less
desirable, alternate hobbies:
drag racing (particularly fuel motorcycles..  you've always wanted to go
180 mi/hr in 1/8th mile, and have a drum of nitromethane in the garage, right?)
shooting (this one gets expensive in a hurry.. all those reloading
supplies, and you can never have too many guns)
high power amateur rocketry


But seriously... starting small (tabletop coil, running off a 12-15 kV 30
mA NST) is a great way to get her used to the HV concept (and to show that
you truly are safety oriented and aware)...

At this size, they're also not TOO noisy (although my wife thinks that they
are... that "braappp" sound tends to echo through a quiet subdivision...
but nothing compared to a 10 kJ quartershrinking shot...)



> On Tue, 09 Jul 2002 13:17:26 -0600 "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> writes:
> > Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
> > <dan.gallagher-at-pulsartech-dot-com>
> >
> > Hey folks,
> > I am so glad to be a part of this list. You all are valuable
> > resources and
> > I greatly appreciate it.
> >
> > On that note, I have a problem that may be solved with your
> > expertise/experience.
> >
> > My wife is scared to death of Tesla coils. She makes a face and nags
> > (for