Re: arc length/secondary length and magnifier questions

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

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

Jimmy,

Part of the answer is that the sparks grow in the air over time.  Whatever
direction they start out in, they tend to follow.  The toroid and
the fields around the coil also tend to direct the sparks sideways, outward
from the toroid.  The streamers then grow over successive gap
firings, and the sparks lengthen in the general direction they are
already going.  Sometimes a streamer does follow the field and
arc downward and strike the primary, but that's after it curves back
inward, after first going outwards sideways away from the toroid.

The spark starts out very short in length...  too short to reach the 
primary.  Since the spark is heading sideways, it follows that path.  
The electric or electrostatic fields around the coil play
a big part too in keeping the sparks from zapping straight down
to the primary.

Regarding a limit for resonator vs spark length, the resonator
will most likely break down before sparks hit the strike rail, 
except for occasional strike rail hits which occur in many coil.

John


>
> how can a tesla coil make an arc that is longer than the distance between the
> toroid and strike rail? i read that the coil nemesis could make 14 foot arcs
> with a 48" tall secondary. i also saw that richard hulls magnifier could make
> 10 foot arcs when the extra coil is only 3"x12". i realize in the magnifier
> the
> extra coil doesnt see all the voltage. if, as i've read, the overall coupling
> is the same then it should see most of the voltage, so how can the extra coil
> be so small and make such big arcs? what keeps the arc from taking the
> shorter
> path to the strike rail? what limits how big of arcs you could get from a
> given
> resonator? is it break down of the resonator or does it start arcing to the
> strike rail?
>
>
> JImmy
>
>