RE: [Fwd: [Fwd: Re: Variable Capacitance and Inductance]]

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

Original poster: "David Thomson by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <dave-at-volantis-dot-org>

Hi Matt,

>> Your unqualified criticism of Tesla is much like
>> Richard Hull's, it is based merely on personal opinion.

>Likewise worship of his infallibility is based "merely on personal
opinion". CSN is an excellent early work on electrical theory and
measurement.

I'm pointing out the data provided by Tesla in CSN and sharing an article
about Tesla's work.  There is no worshipping here.  If you disagree with his
data, explain why.  The responses I have seen, in Richard Hull's book and
several people on this list (Terry is the only person to provide data in his
reply,) has been opinions about Tesla's work.  I'm really beginning to
wonder why this is called a "Tesla List." It seems every time Tesla's name
comes up everybody has to doubt his work.  Did Tesla do anything right?

>However, IMO, much of the current debate is sounding more like scholastic
nit-picking over fly specks on the "Holy Scrolls" than progress on
understanding the phenomena of Tesla Coils.

You're right.  If people weren't nitpicking and claiming we should measure
the environmental factors affecting capacitance and inductance without the
environmental factors being there, we might learn something.

What's so wrong about admitting that a Tesla secondary coil's inductance has
minute variations in inductance over time?  Does that imply the entire
knowledge base of physics will fall apart or something?

Somebody was just asking on this list what the practical uses of a Tesla
coil would be.  If instead of nitpicking Tesla's article we looked at the
science behind it, we would find a use for a Tesla coil.  If the coil
responds to environmental conditions, then it can be designed to hone in on
a particular condition.

Terry is convinced that humidity is one of the strongest factors affecting
the inductance of a coil.  Why not try to perfect a hygrometer using a Tesla
secondary?  If a Tesla secondary reacts to humidity, is it possible to build
a Tesla coil that would cause the humidity to precipitate out of the air?
Tesla described such an event during one of his experiments in Colorado
Springs.  What's wrong with the folks on this list?  You say you want to
understand the phenomena of Tesla coils and then you shoot everything down
without even trying to obtain some data first.

Dave