Re: Old tesla coil - First light

["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:

 > What is the history of this coil?  It certainly is tall and thin.  Must be
 > an 8:1 or 10:1 h vs w ratio.  It looks like it is wound with very small
 > diameter wire.  Looks like thousands of turns.

This coil was used in medical treatments in my university, somewhen
between the 1920's and 1940's. Those ideas about killing microorganisms
with high-frequency currents, before the invention of antibiotics.
Apparently it was used to power a big solenoidal coil, that would be
mounted around a patient.
It has a label saying "Lutz-Ferrando". There is a store in Rio with
this name, that sells medical equipment. Some day I will see if they
know something about it.
The wire is quite thick, 1 mm (#18). I didn't count the turns, but
they are about 1000 or a bit less. The secondary resonates at 500 kHz.
In the original setup, it was operated with much more power than I
used in the tests. I have the original bank of glass capacitors,
and a big induction coil with a mercury turbine interruptor used
to charge it.

Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz