Re: Lots of questions

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

Original poster: Harvey Norris <harvich-at-yahoo-dot-com> 


--- Tesla list <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com> wrote:
  The pole
 > pig that I am refering to by the way is a 10 KVA
 > 14.4 KV single phase pole
 > mount transformer.  Also when somebody finally gets
 > one of these I have
 > read that they are going to have to ballast it with
 > something like an arc
 > welder to limit the current.  If this is right, how
 > does one go about doing
 > that and what are the specifics involved with the
 > voltage and so
 > forth?
If you check the schematic of a tesla primary tank,
you will see that the arc gap also represents a short
on the secondary. A normal short on an unregulated
transformer secondary will cause a large surge of
amperage on the primary. The ballasting is used as a
current limiting factor on that primary. This means
you could short out the secondary, and the primary
will still be within a safe range, (supposedly). The
reactance you place on that primary is simply wired in
series. A few coilers declare that ballasting is not
needed, because when the tesla gap fires, it does so
naturally when the caps are fully charged, thus the AC
input on the primary at that specific point in time
should be at or near its zero polarity crossing point.
The LC series combination of the tesla primary
represents a predominantly capacitive reactance
current, which is 90 degrees out of phase with the
input  primary current, which is why when the cap
reaches its full charge and fires, the AC input on the
primary has gone to a near zero voltage condition.
Perhaps ballasting is just a  sensible safety factor,
where if a cap misfire were to occur, then the primary
and its source would never see these excessive current
demand factors.
HDN