Re: more newbie questions

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

Original poster: "Jonathon Reinhart by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <tc_jonathon-at-hotmail-dot-com>

Comments interspersed...



>From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
>To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
>Subject: more newbie questions
>Date: Fri, 03 Jan 2003 08:15:34 -0700
>
>Original poster: "james brady by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" 
><james_brady10-at-hotmail-dot-com>
>
>Why did Tesla make a coil in the first place? I wonder how he figured out 
>how to do all of this stuff in the 1800's, he must have been really 
>freaking smart. What was it that he was trying to accomplish? Other than 
>just the fun of making one, is there any pracitical purpose?

People always thought he was ahead of his time... Others thought he was a 
cult leader :-\

His goals were for transmitting electricity wirelessly.  If you take a 
running tesla coil, and hold a flourescent tube *near* it (not touching or 
sparks hitting it even) the tube will light up.  I have run my coil in my 
flourescent-lit shed, and it lights up all the bulbs...  Some people have 
built two coils, one that transmits the power, and another coil that 
recieves the electricity, and actually converts it back down to around home 
voltage/frequency...

>I was wandering if I could make a capacitor using 1 gallon glass pickle 
>jars. Since my wife is pregnant, I have a lot of them laying around and I 
>have been trying to find a use for them. If I can use them, how do you 
>figure out the capacitance?
>
Sounds OK to me, not sure how you would figure the C ...

>Why do I have to use a neon sighn transformer? How come you can't use a 
>transformer from something else?
Neon sign trannies are 120 V (std. house voltage) input, and around 10 - 15 
kV (thousand volts) output. They are step-up transformers.  Most other 
trannies around the home are step-down; they take 120 V in, and step it 
down to 5,9,12,24 volts for low-voltage appliances. If you have a large 
step-up transformer around the house it my be usable, but you probably do not.

Some people ask about turning the transformer around, and putting 120 V 
into the low voltage part and getting HV (high-voltage) out the other end. 
The problem here lies in insulation. The winding is only made to take ~120 
V, not ~10,000 V...


>Also, I noticed that in Spencer's, that they sell something that likes 
>like a Telsa coil with a glass globe covering the whole thing. I am sure 
>that people know what I am talking about. So, is this a Tesla coil?
Plasma Globe... I believe they are a type of tesla coil the makes the 
sparks... Its probably actually a flyback-type transformer like those in 
TVs and Monitors.

>My background:
>
>majored in psycology, ba in 1994.
>
>then decided to do something for real, so I decided to get into the 
>computer field. Actually, I had been doing computers since 1983/84. My 
>first computer was a TI-49a. I thought that was the best thing that there 
>ever was. Anyway, I have been a network admin for several years and the 
>current company that I am working for sells pagers and cell phones, so I 
>have to do component level repairs. We use a frequency generator to tune 
>pager oscillators to the correct frequency. I have my 
>MCSE,CCNA,CNA,NET+,A+ and a bunch of other junk certifications. I noticed 
>that most people in the computer field know little about electronics, 
>myself included.
>
>james brady
>richmond, va

-------------------------
Jonathon Reinhart
hot-streamer-dot-com/jonathon