Re: Spark Gap Distances for Marx Generator

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

Original poster: "Malcolm Watts by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <m.j.watts-at-massey.ac.nz>

Hi Dan,

On 5 May 2003, at 7:04, Tesla list wrote:

 > Original poster: "Mccauley, Daniel H by way of Terry Fritz 
<teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <daniel.h.mccauley-at-lmco-dot-com>
 >
 >
 > Regarding spark gap distances for a marx generator, I am seeing two schools
 > of thought.  One school seems to make all
 > spark gaps the same identical distance while another seems to make the
 > primary gap closer together than the other gaps.
 > I so far have opted to space all my gaps identically.  With the 1Meg
 > charging resistors between each capacitor, I figure there will be enough
 > voltage drop up the chain on each one to prevent another gap other than
 > primary spark gap to fire first.
 >
 > What are your experiences and thoughts?

In the two I built, all gaps were set to the same distance. None were
triggered. It didn't matter which one fired first. Again, I used
inductors as the charging elements to speed charge time and eliminate
power supply losses (I charged mine using HF flyback supplies).

Malcolm