RE: Static gap......The Fellowship of the Ringup

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

Original poster: "Luke" <Bluu-at-cox-dot-net> 

Thanx for the input

Also when you mention the TCBOR gap that is the same as the RQ gap
correct?
Ran across some postings talking about where it came from.

You mention a gap performing if all the conditions are met.
What conditions are those?
The ones I am thinking of are:
1.	cooling the electrode mass
2.	cooling the air between electrodes
3.	dissipate excess ions in the discharge area

And another question
There were some posts but I cant seem to find the ones I saw
before.......
Some say that multiple gaps in series add to gap losses.  Any opinions /
tests done on this?

Luke Galyan
Bluu-at-cox-dot-net
http://members.cox-dot-net/bluu

-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
Sent: Saturday, February 21, 2004 2:28 PM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: RE: Static gap......The Fellowship of the Ringup

Original poster: Brett Miller <brmtesla2-at-yahoo-dot-com>

--- Tesla list <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com> wrote:
  > Original poster: "Luke" <Bluu-at-cox-dot-net>
  >
  > May I ask why a single pipe gap would not perform as
  > well as the sucker
  > gap if there were adequate airflow to cool / quench
  > the single pipe set
  > up?
  >
  > Luke Galyan
  > Bluu-at-cox-dot-net
  > http://members.cox-dot-net/bluu

<SNIP>

Luke,

I'm sure it would [perform as well] provided the
proper conditions were met.  I think static gap design
is a still a highly speculative field for
experimentation and varies wildly with coil design
parameters.  Especially as power levels go up and
create a situation where quenching becomes rapidly
more significant.  I have a fan that came out of an
old air hocky table that I sometimes use to suck air
through the slits in my modified TCBOR (slits cut in
the PVC right between the cu pipes...a la Ross
Overstreet's method) gap.

Since I've used only 60ma in the tank circuit on my 6"
system, I've found that quenching occurs naturally in
my specific gap, and for runs up to a 2 or 3 minutes,
I don't even need the fan.  I use it only for extended
runs.  Recently, I built a sucker/blast gap to try out
in place of the TCBOR.  It has not been tested at all
yet.

Folks have successfully used various methods (besides
suction) of quenching a single static gap many times
in the past...ample precidents have been set.
Examples include the magnetic quenching that was
mentioned on the list recently and several times in
the past...Marc Metlicka's 120bps triggered gap (which
was all the rage on the list a couple years ago) which
is basically a two electrode spark gap with a third
electrode placed in the middle to ionize the air 120
times per sec.  The Metlicka TSG plans (the .pdf
should still be available...I have it on my HDD if you
are interested) if I remember correctly recommend
using a muffin fan to cool/quench the triggered
electrode assembly.  That's one of those things I
still want to build sometime.

I tried a "Terry" linear static gap shipped to me by
Mr. Fritz for comparitive analysis purposes.  The
results were interesting.  First of all, the base was
made of unfinished wood.  This is fine for Terry's
climate, where things are high and dry.  But here in
the south where humidity is between 70-90% for over
half the year I had a *very* difficult time getting
the gap to fire reliably.  Most of the time the gap
would just sizzle, covered with corona, as the arc
took a short cut through the damp wood.  But some days
I got it to fire somewhat reliably, at least enough to
perform tests.  I got out the Tek 922R and it showed
generally 1st or 2nd notch quenching for the Terry gap
compared to a 3rd or 4th notch quench for the TCBOR.
In spite of this arcs were much longer with the TCBOR
in place tapped for 4 gaps (vs 22 gaps between smaller
pipe -- 1/2 inch dia copper in the Fritz gap).
Another thing you might find interesting, Luke, is
that when I tried that gap Terry gave me with an LTR
cap it apparently introduced some sort of tuning
anomaly that both Terry and myself were at a loss to
explain.
Racing sparks occured, even though I moved the primary
tap to where it tunes perfectly with the same cap and
the TCBOR in the tank.

Very fun stuff.

Well, I'll wrap it up before people get mad, but I
guess I'm not sorry it was so long.  I think this is
the real good stuff, once you get your fill of big
sparks (I never really will).  To me, component
analysis is what its all about.

I wanted to say also, that I think you've come a long
way in the last few weeks and it has made me eat a few
snide comments.  You are on the path toward finding
the answers.  One that will provide a lot of
enlightenment and entertainment along the way.

Strive for technical excellence.

-Brett