Re: arc length/secondary length and magnifier questions

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

Original poster: "Brian by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <ka1bbg-at-webryders-dot-net>

Hi, well my short coil is 1/3 the length of the streamers. You are finding
out why Tesla coils are so much fun. The electricity goes where it wants to.
That is a good reason not to draw arcs to a ground rod holding it in your
hand. it might jump to you instead of ground. My first toroid is a pair of
frying pans and one is tapered on the bottom so it tends to lift the arcs up
away from the strike ring. a toroid tends to make arcs go out horizontally
most of the time. Still after all this the electricity goes where it wants
to go!. cul brian f.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Friday, August 30, 2002 9:15 PM
Subject: arc length/secondary length and magnifier questions


> Original poster: "jimmy hynes by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<chunkyboy86-at-yahoo-dot-com>
>
>
> 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
>
>