Re: Resonance, and now magnifiers

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

Original poster: Bert Pool <bert.tx-at-prodigy-dot-net> 

At 09:08 PM 7/20/2004 -0600, you wrote:
>Original poster: DRIEBEN-at-midsouth.rr-dot-com
>Bert,
>
>I think I've seen your magnifier on your webpage and noticed the
>12" wide aluminum flashing transmission line. It seems that you
>would have trouble with corona losses along the edges of the
>flashing, considering the thinness of it. I was just wondering
>you delt with this or if corona was even a problem?
>
>David Rieben

David,

There is absolutely no corona.  Photographs with exposure lengths of 
several seconds should show any corona and they show none.  What is 
interesting is that you would expect corona loss on a transmission line to 
seriously affect spark length.  At our last Teslathon, we used  the 
aluminum flashing in one test, followed by a two inch diameter aluminum 
pipe, and finally a 24 gauge wire as a transmission line in a third 
test.  The small diameter wire had about a 2 inch diameter corona down it's 
full length, but in no case did we ever see a measurable or visible 
difference in spark output.  It's almost as if the corona down the wire 
forms its own conductive plasma channel.  Considering the high voltage at 
the top of the secondary, I/R the losses down a moderately resistive plasma 
channel would be insignificant, yes?

Bert