Re: Keeping up with the theory (was is Corum and Corum forbidden topic?)

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

Original poster: "davep by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <davep-at-quik-dot-com>


> It surprises me that the field of Tesla coiling is so poorly 
> developed.  In its journey down history the Tesla coil just doesn't
> seem to have acquired a normal body of engineering knowledge behind
> it, in the same way that other branches of electrical engineering
> have.  Instead it's collected a huge tangle of modern superstitions -
> a ragbag assortment of notions that don't make sense and don't work.


	What practical application does it have?
	Research (except for hobby) goes where the applications
	are.
	In the '30s there were some attempts to tame Tesla Coils
	for driving accelerators (cf Tuve, et al) van de Graff
	was found more practical.

	(This is all documented in old papers on accelerator
	design.)


> Anyway, why is it left to us amateurs to figure out for ourselves
> what the currents and voltages are doing in a secondary?


	cf above.  What gets tackled is what has an application.

> Why haven't the professionals sorted all this stuff out

>decades ago?


	To what purpose?
	(and some of it IS tucked away in odd corners,
	where the amateurs don't find it...)

> Is the pseudoscience keeping the experts away, or have the

>cranks simply moved in to fill a vacuum?  Maybe it's just not

>that important?


	I'd say 'all of the above'.

 
>>Of course, 90% of Tesla coilers have never heard of the Tesla list.

> As many as that?.  Is it because they just don't get onto the Net, or
> that they don't think to do a search for Tesla?   How does everybody
> else share news and information?  If someone wanted to publish a
> technical article about TCs in a reputable place that would reach
> some majority of coilers, where would they go?
 
> I suspect that the infrastructure - the peer reviewed journals, 
> necessary to support the development of a normal body of engineering
> knowledge on TCs just aren't out there.
 
> Jim wrote:

>>The other thought was that you could set up some form of peer
>>reviewed journal on "tesla coil theory", but, who would would the
>>reviewers be?

> I just don't know who, or how that would work.  Peer review systems
> are normally supported by an established institution of sufficient
> quorum to achieve stability, although even that doesn't guarantee
> rationality (eg Homeopathy).  We don't have such a foundation. Those
> that existed in the past encouraged pseudoscience, eg ITS, TCBA. 
> Where is the ARRL or RSGB of coiling?  


	This Is It.
	Peer review sometimes happens before publication,
	sometimes after.

	best
	dwp