Re: Circular Marx generator with rotary gap?

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

Original poster: "Stephen Conner by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <steve-at-scopeboy-dot-com>

At 16:49 21/05/03 -0600, you wrote:
>Original poster: "Ramon van der Hilst by way of Terry Fritz 
><teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <enqrypzion-at-yahoo-dot-com>
>
>
>How about making a marx generator, with all the stages in the same 
>electrical configuration, but with all the stages bent towards eachother 
>in a circle.

This is a clever idea, but unfortunately the output from a Marx generator 
tends to arc a fair distance. If it didn't, we wouldn't be interested in 
building them :D If you made one in a circle, the high-voltage end would 
probably just arc over to the grounded end which would be immediately next 
to it. You could overcome this by making it in a semicircle, but then the 
size advantages over a straight tower (with gaps operated by a pushrod) 
would be less.

To give you an idea of what this means in practical terms, Mike Harrison's 
home-made Marx generator produces 500kV and arcs 25" 
http://www.electricstuff.co.uk/marxthree.html So the HV output of this 
would need to be at least 25" away from the other end. Unless you immersed 
it in oil in which case it might be about 6" (?)

Steve C.