Re: Quenching question.

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

Original poster: Bart Anderson <classi6-at-classictesla-dot-com> 

Hi Luke,

Tesla list wrote:

>Original poster: "Luke" <Bluu-at-cox-dot-net>
><snip>
>My question is this:
>If a spark gap were made that could quench almost instantly after the arc 
>is established could it be too fast to allow the TC to give good performance?

If it were possible to quench the gap say before the first energy transfer, 
then yes, the full energy in the cap isn't released. It's also been noted 
on the TCML that 1st notch quenching may not be optimum for every coil. 
There are cases where 2nd or 3rd notch quenching have outperformed 1st 
notch quenching. This identifies other variables are involved beyond 
quenching for spark performance.

>In other words if the time the gap conducted were brought to a very short 
>time could it hinder performance of the TC?
>
>It seems that if the time were too short, current would just start to flow 
>from the capacitor to the primary coil then the gap could be made 
>to  quench when only 1/16 of the power from the capacitor has emptied into 
>the primary.  This would prevent the primary / secondary coils from seeing 
>very much of the energy in the cap.
>
>So do we want a gap that quenches real fast or do we want a gap that 
>quenches at just about the right amount of time?  We seem to go for a gap 
>that quenches very rapidly.  Could that be only because we can't get one 
>to quench fast enough yet, let alone one that quenches too fast?

Ideally - it makes sense to quench in one energy transfer as this case 
would contain the least amount of losses. But, for the probagation sparks, 
it may or may not be ideal for a particular coil. I think it's safe to say 
a coil's spark performance will be best between 1 and 3 energy  transfers.

Take care,
Bart