Re: Racing sparks

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

Original poster: "Harold Weiss" <hweiss-at-new.rr-dot-com> 

Hi All,

Sounds similar to Tesla's description of how his ball lightning was
triggered.  A stray high frequency causing a the secondary to dump it's
energy rapidly, and forming a ball from the side of the coil.

David E Weiss



 >
 > Hi Bart,
 >            I've been waiting for a post like this to come along as
 > I've had an idea sparked by a TV program I watched on "freak waves"
 > in the ocean. Freak waves, to briefly explain, are waves which,
 > almost beyond the realms of possibility, surge up out of nowhere to
 > heights reaching 30 metres or so. They were long held to be a
 > mariner's tall tale by skeptics until some recent occurrences, one of
 > which was captured by camera on an oil rig in the North Sea and
 > others which seriously damaged and nearly sank different ships in
 > different parts of the major oceans. Please bear with me:
 >
 > On 4 Feb 2004, at 8:15, Tesla list wrote:
 >
 >  > Original poster: Bart Anderson <classi6-at-classictesla-dot-com>
 >  >
 >  > Hi Tom, Gerry,
 >  >
 >  > I don't completely understand each mechanism either, but I view the
 >  > racing sparks incident due a couple situations:
 >  >
 >  > 1) The voltage stress somewhere along the length of the coil is high
 >  > enough to breakout before the charge on the top terminal is capable.
 >  >
 >  > 2) There must be node(s) or areas along the length of the secondary
 >  > which are pronounced enough to cause the initial breakout a direct
 >  > path down the secondary. And with that, the further the arc creeps
 >  > down the secondary, the greater the difference in potential becomes.
 >  > This why I think most racing sparks will typically run the full the
 >  > length of the coil. However, I don't think this will occur each and
 >  > everytime. The arc may make an abrubt turn outward part way down.
 >  >
 >  > I believe "any situation" which might cause stresses in unwanted areas
 >  > of the coil are capable of producing the same affect. Tuning,
 >  > coupling, and topload affects on current distribution along the length
 >  > of the coil are three areas of adjustment to reduce these stresses in
 >  > both 1 and 2 above.
 >  >
 >  > Someone else may have a better theory.
 >  > Take care,
 >  > Bart
 >
 > To continue; the theory used to model ocean waves (I personally think
 > of it as a predicting rather than modelling theory) was used as a
 > design guideline for hull design. Based on what I saw, it was not
 > much more than a Gaussian curve which predicted that a freak wave
 > such as I've described might occur once in 10,000 years. The fact
 > that it was recently discovered that they happen far more often led
 > to an in-depth investigation. It was found that the right combination
 > of ocean currents coupled with opposing waves and seabed topology
 > near the bottom of the African continent led to such waves occurring.
 > However, this did not explain what was later seen by satellite
 > imaging; that such waves occurred far more frequently than predicted
 > in mid-ocean.
 >
 >       A physicist-engineer who was familiar with quantum mechanics got
 > on the case and discovered that the profile of a freak wave matched
 > waves thought to be a theoretical curiosity which sprung from
 > Schroedinger's Wave Equation. The one tall wave basically "sucked"
 > the energy from waves either side it seemed. The program concluded
 > with the postulation that there co-exists two basic wave patterns in
 > the ocean - the ones normally seen and whose height vs frequency of
 > occurence is predicted by the classic bell-curve, and another whose
 > profile is predicted by the quantum-mechanical wave equation.
 >
 > How this *might* relate to Tesla Coils: Wave phenomena are present in
 > Tesla Coils, of that there is no doubt. They occupy physical space in
 > a medium which places a speed limit on the transmission of a
 > disturbance. It occurred to me that it might be possible that racing
 > sparks are in fact a form of freak wave whose occurrence is induced
 > by presenting the necessary conditions for it to occur. Should that
 > be the case, it should be possible to predictably produce designs
 > whose energy is sufficient to allow this to happen vs designs running
 > at the same energy levels which do not allow it to occur (physical
 > parameters for the most part being equal). There are both
 > similarities and differences between the ocean as a transmission
 > medium and a resonator as a transmission medium. Just for starters,
 > both are high Q. The TC resonator is much more bounded than the ocean
 > - a major difference. However, that is at its fundamental and closely
 > related wavelengths, not something considerably higher.
 >
 > Enough handwaving - I have to ask the math experts, what do you
 > think? Might there be something in this? I admit to being lazy in not
 > pursuing this myself.
 >
 > Malcolm
 >
 >
 >