Re: Capacitor value not clear yet.

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

Original poster: Esondrmn-at-aol-dot-com 

In a message dated 1/12/04 11:46:00 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes:


>Hi Again,
>
>I should point out why one should never short across a primary cap (or put
>a spark gap directly across the primary cap).  If you have a straight piece
>of wire that you short that cap with, there is very little
>inductance.  Then Z may only be say one ohm (mostly in the big bright arc!).
>
>20000 volts / 1 ohm = 20000 amps!!!
>
>That can destroy a cap!!!  Best to use bleeder resistors IMHO.  Or, get a
>big power resistor of about 1000 ohms and put it on a long insulated
>plastic stick.
>
>Check out Bert's site about using giant super high current caps to crush
>quarters:
>
>http://205.243.100.155/frames/shrinkergallery.html
>
>A little over 1,000,000 amps there ;-))
>
>Cheers,
>
>          Terry


I agree.  To discharge the primary cap, if the primary transformer hasn't 
already done so, just short out the primary spark gap.  Then all the 
current is dumped into the primary.

Ed Sonderman