RE: Cyclotron effect

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

Original poster: "Lau, Gary by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Gary.Lau-at-compaq-dot-com>

Perhaps a pulsed streamer (not CW), and hence pulsed airflow is needed, and
the duty cycle of disruptive coils is too brief to achieve the effect?  If
I were to put on special goggles that allowed me to see ionized vs.
un-ionized air, I would see regions of ionized air moving along the axis of
the streamers.  When the next on-time occurs, the ionized region will have
moved further down the streamer.  If the airflow is also spiraling, this
could affect the streamer in a corkscrew manor.

I think the larger question is, why is it that VTTC & solid state coils,
pulsed or CW, will generate straight streamers?  It may have to do with the
nature of the airflow generated by the streamers, probably duty-cycle
and/or envelope related.

Gary Lau
MA, USA

Original poster: "Bert Hickman by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<bert.hickman-at-aquila-dot-net>

Gary,

You may be onto something. I have had streamers come within a foot of my
face on occasion from my disruptive coil - under these conditions, there
was a definite sensation of air flow coming from the streamer tips. 

But why would spiral vortices seem to be only associated with pulsed
VTTC and Solid State systems? Maybe a because we get a hot,
longer-lived, discharge from follow through power once we achieve
breakout and it's this combination?? 

However, I don't remember ever seeing this happening on a true DC
powered CW coil...  very curious!

Best regards,

-- Bert -- 
-- 
Bert Hickman
Stoneridge Engineering
Coins Shrunk Electromagnetically!
http://www.teslamania-dot-com

Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "Lau, Gary by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<Gary.Lau-at-compaq-dot-com>
> 
> IMHO, the mechanisms under discussion for the observed spiral streamers may
> be making this way more complex than what is likely.
> 
> Consider the classic ion motor - an S-shaped wire atop the top load that
> produces airflow, hence thrust, from the point of discharge.  Any detached
> streamers will also generate such airflow.  The streamer is quite likely to
> be affected and moved by such airflow.  In most cases such movement will be
> random and chaotic, and the thrust produced will also be chaotic.
> Occasionally we have seen stable, vertical streamers, and the thrust would
> be unidirectional.  Aerodynamic vortices are produced in the wake of planes
> and cars.  I would be surprised if a similar effect does not occur as a
> result of ionic thrust, and such vortices could displace streamers into the
> observed shapes.
> 
> Gary Lau
> MA, USA
> 
> Original poster: "Paul Nicholson by way of Terry Fritz
> <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <paul-at-abelian.demon.co.uk>
> 
> If a beam of charged particles was launched upwards from the center
> of the toroid, they would continue straight up, unaffected by
> the B field (since beam v x B is zero).
> 
> But at any angle from the vertical they would form themselves into
> a spiral (ish) path since v x B is now generally non-zero. If they
> emerged horizontally from the toroid, they would curve either
> upwards or downwards depending on the sign of their charge and the
> B field polarity (assuming here that E is roughly radial from the
> topload).
> 
> Could this cyclotron mechanism also affect the path over which a
> streamer forms?  Do the electrons in the leaders see a sufficient
> v x B force to make a noticeable difference to their path?
> 
> Can this account for the observed spiral discharges?
> 
> <snip>