PrimaryWierdEffects

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

Original poster: "cd by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <vbprg1-at-hotmail-dot-com>

The first primary I built had 20 turns and was only tapped at 9
I had some people ask me to cut it but I couldn't 
after repeatedly running through the math I think its just large
enough to drive a 8" secondary with my meager power supply 

so I built a new 12 turn pancake spiral
and much to my suprise it lit a florescent bulb at about 7 feet 
a few feet further than my old primary... 
so thinking that it may have something to do with the flat pancake design 
not getting as much energy into the secondary
I turned the pancake spiral into a conical spiral
A lot of inclination. Real nice cone....just under 12 turns 1/4 copper 
same inner diameter as my other primary 10 inch 

Some how Im not sure how moving it back gradually ....
we got a florescent lamp to light up at 12 feet
it only worked once but it worked on video tape. :)
It was really wierd.....12 feet
My other primary with 20 turns seemed to only light up a florescent bulb
at 4 feet.
Im not sure what to think here
The coil seemed to work better with the conical shape
I was getting multiple 2 foot sparks again 
not quite the output of the larger primary...

some other variables that may have effected the bulb
I put the spark gap and capacitor in the same enclosed box
This shielded the noise and light associated with the spark gap
and made the output the prominent effect.
Neat! but
my safety gap would not stop firing, 

and It seemed to corespond to a 3rd outbreak from the torus
sometimes it would grow a bit then pow the saftey would fire 
and the 3rd outbreak would disapear....video....

I designed a safety gap that sounds like a 
small fire cracker when it goes off, 
nice for corelation when only the outbreak is visible in video..

and I am back to the same old problem
I turn up the power 
it starts makeing sparks and then 
the gap starts fireing I have to turn down the power 
or let the gap fire....
but it only seems to affect that 3rd breakout...

At a loss here, I know my approach isnt very scientific 
but this is some wierd stuff....
my next run will be with the caps in the box shielded from the spark gap...

Chris