RE: new coil

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Malcolm Watts" <m.j.watts@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

Hi Gary,

On 17 Dec 2004, at 14:58, Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: "Lau, Gary" <gary.lau@xxxxxx>
>
> My thinking is that the filter is there to protect the NST, and the
> 3-ball gap is an absolute voltage limiter applied across the thing
> we're trying to protect.  Having the safety gap in parallel with the
> main gap seems redundant, since the lower voltage gap will always fire
> first.
>
> Why then wouldn't the main gap be an equally effective voltage
> limiter, making the safety gap redundant?  Good question and I don't
> have an excellent answer.  It has been suggested that mechanisms exist
> that can generate high voltage transients across the wires between the
> main gap and the NST if they're at all long-ish, so that the NST might
> see a voltage higher than the main gap.  I personally haven't measured
> or studied this, but it's enough for me to realize that I want a clamp
> as close as possible to the thing I wish to protect.

I've seen it occur numerous times when long leads are used between
the transformer and primary circuit. The discharges are low energy.

Malcolm
<snip>