Original poster: Terry Fritz <teslalist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Hi Dave,
Terry, All,
I think this is an area that could really use some clarity.
None of the images of Bill Wysock's 13M show sparks 55 feet long. If you take a ruler and scale the spark lengths from the photos on Bill's website, using the system dimensions which he has published, you arrive at 30-35 feet as an absolute max, making every allowance for the viewing angle, lens distortion etc. Given that the toroid of the system is only 20 feet off the ground does it really seem likely that it could arc 55 feet? Very few Tesla coils can manage sparks twice their own height, let alone 3 times.
Check the picture at the bottom of:
http://www.ttr.com/model13ma.html
I think the all time biggest, with proof, is Greg Leyh's Electrum. Although it is not publicly viewable, it's location, Alan Gibb's private sculpture park at Kakanui Point in New Zealand, is well known. Prior to shipment it was exhibited for an extended period of time at the Hunter's Point shipyard, and seen there by many coilers (Bill Wysock and D.C. Cox among them). It's design and construction are well documented, as is it's performance.
Bob Golka's system is actuallly quite well documented if you know where to look, one of the TCBOR report tapes has an extended segment detailing it's construction and performance. The sparks were certainly big, but probably not larger than Electrum.
Sparks always grow in the telling, without good stills or video it just doesn't count.
There is the Biggg coil too at 26.5 feet:
http://www.ttr.com/model13ma.html
I see Greg's site mentions 50 feet for the Electrum...
http://www.lod.org/Status/CD2Specs.htm
Cheers,
Terry
Objective Coiling,
Dave Larkin
Original poster: Terry Fritz <teslalist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Hi,
Yep! The details of Bill's big coil are widely known and it has been seen by tens of thousands of people. The details are well known:
http://www.ttr.com/model13m.html
http://www.ttr.com/model13.html
Greg's coil also has excellent observations:
http://www.lod.org/Projects/electrum/index.htm
The locations and final destination of Greg's coil are secret too, but no doubt it is out there!
Bob Golka's coil is also way way up there, but the details are far less known. Just can't pin down how big the sparks really were. I don't think he ever did a "point to point record attempt" thing. He apparently was not really interested in length or spark records at the time. But it does appear to be the most "powerful" Tesla coil ever built! It is commonly believed he pushed more than a megawatt into it!!! I have talked to many people with first hand knowledge of the thing and it certainly was a giant super power machine in any case! It actually makes the Model 13 seems very small!!
DC's big coil has been "reported" but the details are far less than the above (almost none), but we will note it. Maybe someday after the contracts fade into history the details will come out. I think it will be hard to hide ;-)) "I" have heard there is another big coil out there, so maybe that is his. Sort of like the F117 20 years ago... something is out there...
Cheers,
Terry
At 09:47 AM 12/3/2004, you wrote:Verification is key. There are lots of claims out there, and when those people are asked for verification or proof, its always : "Well, its proprietary", or "We're under contract so we can release any specifics", or "We're under privacy or disclosure agreement" or whatever.
But, regardless of all these proprietary, contract, or disclosure agreements, they are always readily available to brag about how big the arc is or how much power it draws.
If it was truly proprietary, that information would be a secret as well.
Do i sense some BS here on the list recently????
Dan