Re: static gap were run in series with a rotary gap

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

Original poster: "Terry Blake" <tb3-at-att-dot-net> 

Hi Luke,

The sparks will tend to fire across the total distance required for whatever
voltage your power level is at.
So at low powers, you will find the sparks fire at very near the perfect
alignment of the gaps.
They do not have the power to fire any further away.

But as you crank the power level up, the sparks will fire SOONER than
perfect alignment.
At 14KV I found that the sparks can cover about 3/4" of gap spacing.
So if you have two gaps to jump on your rotary, you will see that sparks
jump when you are about 3/8" prior to perfect alignment.

My experiance is that the sparks are not very eratic but very consistent and
continuous.  The spining rotor tends to blow the air around which is good,
because the remains of the last arc tend to promote a shortened electrical
path.

Here are some photos to illustrate.
http://www.tb3-dot-com/tesla/sparkgaps/sparks/index.html

Now back to your question.  I think the answer is a sortoff  YES.
If you set your static gap to cover most of the 3/4" and allow the rotary to
cover the rest, you should be able to get closer firing to perfect
alignment.

But there are some issues to consider.
1) It would only work at maximum power.  So a slow power up is not be
possible.
     (unless you are willing to adjust the static gap spacing as you crank up
the power)

2) The static gap would be introducing static air, which would introduce an
erratic behavior.
      (you'd need an air-blast or vacuum to blow away the remains of the last
spark)

I'm sure others will add to the issues.  But this sort of thing has been
done, but not to improve the firing alignment, but to improve the quenching.
Richard Hull tried such an arangment to improve quenching to get his
magnifier to operate better.  Eventually Richard settled on a rotary spark
gap with many electrodes that were hooked up in series and all aligned at
the same time.  This had the effect of pulling in the alignment and reducing
the quenching time.

I think the John Freau sync gap electrical remote phase controller is a
simple solution to this problem.  It covers other unknown parameters
allowing for live-coil remote adjustment to achieve maximum spark at any
power or spark loading.

http://hometown.aol-dot-com/futuret/page3.html


Terry Blake
Not much coiling in Chicago right now.
http://www.tb3-dot-com/tesla/tesla.html



----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2004 7:08 PM
Subject: static gap were run in series with a rotary gap


 > Original poster: "Luke" <Bluu-at-cox-dot-net>
 >
 > Has any one got input on this?
 > I was wondering if a short static gap were run in series with a rotary gap
 > would it help timing?
 > That's not exactly what I mean let me explain.
 >
 > As the rotary brings the electrode near each other they might let an arc
go
 > a little before they are in line because of the high voltage present might
 > jump the arc.  Because the air in the area is moving this distance might
be
 > somewhat erratic and thus cause the gap to fire sooner or later.
 >
 > If a small static gap were ran in series the distance of the total of the
 > gaps would be a little larger.  This might reduce the arcs from jumping to
 > the electrodes in the rotary gap before the electrodes are in line.  And
 > the electrodes in the rotary could still be kept very close to allow for a
 > more precise timing.
 >
 > Any one ever thought about that?
 > If so give me your thoughts please.
 >
 > Luke Galyan
 > Bluu-at-cox-dot-net
 >
 >
 >