Re: Capacitor "tap" in Primary?

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

Original poster: "Alan Sharp by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <AlanSharp-at-compuserve-dot-com>


>Spark gap losses can be reduced considerably by connecting a .002 cap
>directly across the spark gap.  This, discovered in the 1930's, is know as
>the Poulson Principle.  It was a neat trick used by early radio spark gap
>pioneers.

I'ld like to more about this ie:

How does it work?
Does it help queching?
Does it increase the arc  length?
Does if matter is the gap is across the transformer or 
across the primary cap?
What are the demands on the capacitor?

All the best,

Alan Sharp