Re: Tesla's big coil. Was; What about test equipment and stuff?

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

Original poster: "Daniel Hess by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <dhess1-at-us.ibm-dot-com>





Tesla's big coil drew enough power to meltdown the generators at CS? I
understand that's an urban myth! (As the 135 foot discharges, too) The
story I heard is that Tesla was operating his coil at a frequency that was
a multiple harmonic of the resonate frequency of the coils in the
generator. The generator windings resonated sympathetically, causing a
voltage rise sufficient to form an arc across the commutator rings, drawing
many times the current the thing was designed and literally burnt itself
out. Too bad Tesla didn't have Terry's line filters!  ;-O

Tesla may have been responsible for this (and probably was) but not from
drawing a gazillion watts. The breakers would have tripped long before this
could be possible, but they wouldn't trip from resonate rise, hehe!

I read this story on this very list several years ago but cannot recall who
authored it. It's probably still in the archives.

Daniel

"Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com> on 02/06/2003 03:22:40 PM

To:    tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
cc:
Subject:    Re: What about test equipment and stuff?



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

In a message dated 2/6/03 1:18:02 PM Eastern Standard Time,
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes:



 >I stand corrected. But, doesn't he still hold the record for the most
 >powerful TC? And considering the materials that he had to work with and
the
 >fact that he couldn't buy o-scopes and stuff at that time. I would think
 >that with the technology that he had to work with at that time period;
what
 >he accomplished was totally awesome.  I am fascinated by all of it.


What he accomplished WAS totally awesome. Nowadays, anyone with access to
their own power sub-station and $50M (2003 dollars) could probably do the
same. ;-) Unfortunately, people with open-ended access to that kind of
power and money are not usually devoting it to a non-profit hobby, so the
existing records will probably stand. :-((  IIRC Tesla's "Big Coil" drew
enough power to melt down one of the main generators at the Colorado
Springs power plant.
( He had to send some of his crew to help repair the damage).

Matt D.