Re: Spark gaps

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

Original poster: "Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <acmq-at-compuland-dot-com.br>

Tesla list wrote:

 > Original poster: "John by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" 
<fireba8104-at-yahoo-dot-com>

 > 1.) I was wording if static gap efficiency could be improved by adding a
 > resistor of small value between the Tank and primary to add more resistance
 > than that of the reactance of the tank cap and primary in order to "force"
 > the AC though the spark gap.

This resistor already exists. The resistance of the wire of the primary
coil
and of the other wiring. It has no effect in forcing any current through
the gap. Any resistance only adds losses, without any positive factor.

 > It has been noted ,by many a coiler, that
 > static gap coils with high inductance primaries have better gap performance
 > than those with low inductance primaries.

Because they operate at higher impedance levels, with lower currents,
due to higher inductance and smaller capacitance in the primary, that
make the effect of resistances, inclusive of the gap effective
resistance, less significant.
But this is a question of properly dimensioning the gap.

 > Also the added resistance will
 > most likely cause the damping affect to occur faster allowing for more
 > energy from the "T1" transformer to be transfered to the secondary. Hence
 > improving efficiency. As soon as I can I'll try this out on my coil. (and
 > maybe a new filter.)

Will only waste more energy...

 > 2.) I also came up with the idea of using cap voltage to trigger a
 > triggered spark gap by using my favorite semi-conductor,the varistor, and a
 > variable resistor. It's set up in that, a lead coming off of the triggered
 > gap is connected to a varistor, and that in series is with the variable
 > resistor, and finally the loose end of the variable resistor is connected
 > in between the cap and primary. Note: If using idea 1 with this between cap
 > and R1.

May work, but this is a fancy version of a static gap. Replace the
cap voltage by a sample of the line voltage and you have the more
usual version, that replaces a synchronous gap.

 > 3.) Inquiry: If cap value affects the power deviled by a sync gap as
 > pointed out by Richie, why isn't there a sync gap with multi-bps?

Perfectly possible, but as the line voltage has a definite period and
is sinusoidal, a synchronous gap providing equal bang size with more
than two bangs per cycle of the power line becomes dependent on a
careful arrangement of transformer inductance, primary capacitance,
and position of the gap electrodes. This has been done, with four
bangs per cycle, if I remember correctly. More than this, with equal
bang size, doesn't seem to be possible (6 bangs, maybe?).

Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz