Re: Quenching question.

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

Original poster: "Christoph Bohr" <cb-at-luebke-lands.de> 

Hello Luke. Long question short ( not neccessarily complete ) answer:

 > This cooling is variable and can be turned up or down to achieve optimum
 > output.

This somehow is the case with blown air gaps with variable air volume....

 > 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?

You want quenching when the voltage envelope of the ringdown  reaches zero
for the first time, this can take some µS
If you interrupt the ark before complete ringdown has finished, some energy
remains untransferred, or in other words lost.

 > In other words if the time the gap conducted were brought to a very short
 > time could it hinder performance of the TC?

yes, see above

 > to  quench when only 1/16 of the power from the capacitor has emptied into
 > the primary.
This could be very hard to do, but when the voltage ( not the ringdown
voltage envelope ) but the cap voltage first crosses zero.
Maybe one could even quench faster with a very spacial RSG or something,
this would be of no use, only counterproductive.

 > 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?

The latter one. Ideally a first notch quench. I can not mention Richy
Burnetts website too often, there are very good explanations about this.
Quenching at later notches is not neccessarily bad with a normal TC but
increases losses. With magnifiers you usually want a first notch quench as
the "ringing" of the several circuits is a bit different here and the energy
transfer is much faster.

 >  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?

If you use an ordinary 3000RPM SRSG and use a rather large disk you could
already be in a range where it quenches too fast.

I am sure the experts in the list can still give you some more detailed
advice.

Best regards

Christoph Bohr