Re: 'true" spark length was Re: Desktop Bipolar Coil

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

Original poster: "jimmy hynes by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <chunkyboy86-at-yahoo-dot-com>

Hi,

I wouldn't have thought that the streamer growth would
have made that much of a difference, at such a low
break rate, and such a small coil. If I remember
correctly, Steve's mini OLTC didn't show streamer
growth until around 400 bps. Do you have any idea why
there is such a big difference in break rate needed?
Could you give some more specs on the coil you're
referring to?
--- Tesla list <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com> wrote:
 > Original poster: "Malcolm Watts by way of Terry
 > Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>"
 > <m.j.watts-at-massey.ac.nz>
 >
 > Hi Jim,
 >
 > On 2 Jul 2003, at 19:18, Tesla list wrote:
 >
 >  > Original poster: "Jim Lux by way of Terry Fritz
 > <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>"
 > <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>
 >  >
 >  >  > system or, to put it another way, a rather low
 > output voltage/energy
 >  >  > storage ratio in the secondary. I dare say the
 > result was also
 >  >  > dependent to a degree on the humidity content
 > of the air at the time
 >  >  > (I recall it as being rather low).
 >  >  >
 >  >
 >  >  >From a purely theoretical standpoint, I
 > wouldn't expect humidity to have a
 >  > huge effect.  Humidity has a big effect on static
 > electricity machines where
 >  > you depend on a very high surface resistivity
 > because the charging current
 >  > is so low.  On a TC, though, you've got energy to
 > burn, and corona is
 >  > probably a bigger loss source than leakage.
 >
 > I should have been more explicit. Humidity had
 > little if anything to
 > do with the result of upping the breakrate - only
 > with the actual
 > sparklength attained which I never mentioned. In
 > SShot mode it was
 > about 7" attached, increasing to about 13" at 2 -
 > 3BPS from memory.
 > Sorry for injecting noise and confusion.
 >
 > Malcolm
 >
 >


=====
Jimmy

_