Re: (probally really stupid) bug zapper

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

Original poster: "Terry Fritz" <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>

Hi Adam,

At 09:09 PM 5/24/2002 -0400, you wrote: 
>could you (in theory) take a woden rod with a nail on the tip, and hook it 
>up via wire to the top of your tesla coil and zap ants with it? 

I think there are better ways but....  Tuning may be a little tricky but
even a very missed tuned coil will have enough voltage to take out an ant
;-)  Tesla coils are known for being pretty good bug zappers ;-)  The UV
from the arcs tends to attract flying insects.  One a warm summer night,
they can really make a mess on the coil...  Big bugs can cause shorts and
the secondary that can damage the windings.  Bugs have a lot of water and
carbon in them that is bad for high voltage machines.

>Also, how 
>many turns (in general) would be considered excessive?

More than 30 turns on the primary and more than 2500 on the secondary would
be getting out of the "norm".

Cheers,

	Terry

>Thanks
>Adam