Re: Streamer Noise ? ? ? What causes the noise???

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

Original poster: The MCP <ejkeever-at-comcast-dot-net> 

In a spark gap TC, the input only fires a few hundred times per second at
most, while the actual step-up of the coil occurs in a few tens of
microseconds. A rough comparison is dropping a ball, and then waiting for
half an hour to an hour before dropping another. Although the firing seems
continuous on our timescale, to a TC 1/120 or 1/240 of a second is an
eternity. Every time the coil actually generates an arc, it creates a new
plasma "conduit," and a new bang.

A SSTC turns the current on and off at the resonant frequency, so it's like
dribbling the ball. The plasma "conduits" are held open by an unbroken high
voltage. If they don't collapse, the coil doesn't need to generate a new one,
so no bang.

On Tuesday 30 September 2003 08:56 pm, Tesla list wrote:
 > Original poster: dhmccauley-at-spacecatlighting-dot-com
 >
 > Sure, we know that electric arc noise is caused by the rapid increase in
 > temperature of surrounding air and the inherent shock waves created by this
 > expansion, but what is it about spark gap type
 > coils that makes the streamers so loud, whereas arcs from a VTTC or SSTC
 > can be completely silent?    (I'm not talking about the spark gap either.
 > Lets assume the spark gap is completely sound
 > insulated)  Is is the transient - intermittent peak power nature of the
 > spark gap coils???  Does that mean a continous streamer would be comletely
 > silent???
 >
 > The Captain