Re: static sparks on secondary

["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>

> After running the coil outside one night, I wanted to

> put it in the garage.


> I got a jolt when trying to pick it up.

	Others have reported this.

> Even after grounding the base of my secondary coil I got shocks.

	Indications are that the charge is stored in the
	core material and/or the insulation not he wire,
	rather than on the wire itself.

> I ran it a few more minutes and turned it off.  While running

> my palm up and down the coil -seperated from it by a couple of

> mm's, I could see millions of tiny sparks between the coil and my
> hand.

	It is well documented physics that insulators
	can store charge charge, quasi permanently, tho
	mostly it leaks away.  cf 'electret' and
	'electrophorus'.  A DC field seperates charges, which,
	if the insulator is Really Good (or warmed, to improve
	mobility) get 'stuck' in separated state and take
	time, sometime slots, to recombine.

	While the operating output of a Tesla System is more
	or less AC, there is ALSO a well documented effect
	called (among other things) Field Ion Rectification.
	(Also, IIR, Corona Rectification.)
	This results from differing 'mobilities' of
	positive and negative charge carriers, and from
	different fields around different electrode shapes.

	Thus, incidentally, Tesla systems, provide
	(inefficient) rectification, and charge storage
	(core, insulation).

	Some discussion in list archives, eg Strange Sparks
	and other threads...

	best
	dwp

...the net of a million lies...
	Vernor Vinge
There are Many Web Sites which Say Many Things.
	-me