Re: arc length/secondary length and magnifier questions

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

Original poster: "Jim Lux by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>

Essentially the same basic reason that the spark in a jacob's ladder is
longer than the gap at the bottom of the "v".

The field around the top is highly nonuniform, so the "preferred direction"
for the spark to grow isn't necessarily towards the ground.  Also, the spark
is hot, so it tends to rise.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Friday, August 30, 2002 6:15 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
>
>