Re: the cure for racing sparks

["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: "marc metlicka by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <mystuffs-at-orwell-dot-net>
> 
> I totally agree here, I Have tried some of the "BARGAIN BASEMENT, ON
> SALE NOW" brands of spray poly. With BAD results!!! In fact it was with
> one of these secondary that i experienced my first "secondary, "mystery
> shock""??
> Or after shock?
>  I truly do believe that some finishing materials used by many coilers,
> have a very high static charge (building and holding) characteristics!
>  I also believe this static build-up along the film along the operating
> coil, will, and does, contribute to many a coilers dilemmas! Those
> "thick" poly coatings may look "soooo priity", But if it kills even one
> watt of output from one of my coils, "Not for me"!

This only indicates that the material has very high resistivity, and so
can retain static charges for long time. This is, in principle, a good
thing. But I have wondered if charges accumulated over the insulation
of the secondary may be one of the reasons of "racing sparks". These
charges can be easily moved, and could be moved by the RF electric
fields
along the coil, producing the mysterious sparks.

> I have found that by using a finer wire gauge, with more turns, In the
> primary construction to achieve the required inductance,, Helps in the
> energy transfer from primary to secondary, AND secondary back to
> primary!
>  I have tried too explain this in the past, many times, but have met
> only resistance? I will state here that in the oscillations of an
> operating TC, not only must the tank energy be transferred to the
> secondary, BUT It must also be transferred back to the tank circuit
> "via" the primary coil.
> 
>  It has been argued by me and several renowned coiling theorists, That
> though the coupling magnetic field from primary to secondary forms may
> be a very efficient transfer, When the secondary tries to reverse this
> charge, There is simply far too little windings! This is why i feel that
> a thinner wire, wider primary form works far more efficiently.

This is not true. The Tesla transformer is linear and reciprocal, and
the coupling coefficient measured in both directions is exactly the
same, no matter how the coils are built. It has been proposed that
primaries with higher impedance are less lossy, due to smaller currents
in the gap, however.

Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz