Re: uses for a Tesla Coil?

["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>

You are probably thinking of the work by Merle Tuve (among others) where
they built a 5MV(!) tesla coil which operated immersed in a pressurized oil
tank.

I suspect that when Robert Van deGraaff got his eponymous generators
refined, they pretty much overtook the tesla coil approach.  Nice steady DC
beats a weird not quite damped sinusoid waveform for nuclear science any day...

There are "resonance transformers" currently used in HV testing, but they
generally use a system resonant at the line frequency, or some small
multiple.  A BIG iron core inductor is used.  The advantage over, say, Marx
generator testing, is that you can measure steady state effects (partial
discharge, corona, etc.) at very high voltages.  If a flashover does occur
(and it will).. the series impedance of the inductor keeps the fault
current/energy fairly low so the Unit under test (UUT) doesn't get
destroyed. This kind of test is particularly useful for capacitive loads
(i.e. a transmission line or cable)


Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "davep by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<davep-at-quik-dot-com>
> 
>  "Ben McMillen by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
> 
> <spoonman534-at-yahoo-dot-com>
> 
> >  I would go with the originally intended use (wireless
> > power transmission) .. and possibly a demonstration (I
> > believe this is called the quarter wave test... a plate is
> > used to 'recieve' power from the coil.. correct me if I'm
> > wrong.. ;) )
> 
> > I also remember hearing that it was used as a power source
> > for particle accelerators..
> >
> 
>         It was experimented with in the 30's.  Not clear if
>         they were much used (are much used) in modern
>         applications.
> 
>         best
>         dwp