Re: TC presented by Lord Kelvin, streamer shape

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

Original poster: "Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <acmq-at-compuland-dot-com.br>

Tesla list wrote:
 >
 > Original poster: "robert heidlebaugh by way of Terry Fritz 
<twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <rheidlebaugh-at-desertgate-dot-com>
 >
 > Joyon: Your obsorvation is correct if viewed as DC. To 1/4 wave AC the two
 > wires are 180o out of phase placing the full secondary voltage between the
 > wires and causing the wires to arc to each other with high voltage much like
 > a Jacobs ladder. The chopper contacts of the induction coil should be near
 > o.5.-1 Kc. The secondary and internal capacitance feeds the spark gap at the
 > secondary terminals. If the secondary frequency and the chopper are adjusted
 > to be harmonics of eachother the output could well be tuned to the wire
 > length quarter wave and generate arcs. Tuning,& SG, would be critical.

At a typical frequency of less than 1 MHz, the wires would have to be
very
long (1/4 wave at 1 MHz is 75 meters) to do not behave as
short-circuits.
The wires in the picture are really not forming loops, as was already
observed. This is a nice experiment, that can be made even with a small
coil that can't produce long streamers. I don't remember seing any
picture
of similar setups with modern Tesla coils.
Something similar can be made with long coils of wire instead of simple
wires, an in this case there are clearly observable nodes and maxima:
http://www.coe.ufrj.br/~acmq/mk95939.jpg

Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz