Re: plating xmas balls

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

Original poster: "Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz" <acmq-at-compuland-dot-com.br> 

Tesla list wrote:

 > Could streamers knock loose gold atoms and eventually eat it off?
 > The layer might be as thin as a few atoms, if the surface were smooth 
enough.

Surely. Marks in aluminum terminals are clearly observable. I have
read reports of nickel plating being destroyed in high-power Tesla
coil terminals.

 > For what it's worth (perhaps 0; perhaps < 0 for muddying the water):
 > in DC welding it's taught:
 >
 >      the material on the side *receiving* the arc (i.e. the electrons
 >      impinge upon it) gets 2/3 of the heat; the side emitting the
 >      electrons gets the other 1/3.
 >
 > That is, one side gets twice as hot as the other!
 > You choose polarity accordingly.

I have never heard about this. Since it's the air that gets hot, and
the currents in the terminals are identical, why would one of the
terminals get hotter? DC sparks are assymmetrical in appearance, but
the current looks very uniform.

Anyway, Tesla coil streamers are almost purely AC.

Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz