Re: Wendover Coil Vs USAF lightning TesT?

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Ben McMillen <spoonman534@xxxxxxxxx>

Ed,
   I'll agree that it's a 'comic book'.. I haven't been
very impressed with it, and I hardly read it. What caught
my eye was the volumetric display article featured on the
cover. Interesting idea, but the article was rather dry. I
also enjoyed the one about B Reactor (the photography was
excellent).

   We have a Ti-Sapphire laser here in the lab, but at the
moment, we don't have a laser head with enough power to
pump it properly. It used to be driven with the Argon
laser, but the tube's so old (and the optics are scratched
a bit) that the output barely gets to 4 watts. The
Ti-Sapphire laser needs at least 5. If I can find a source
with enough power, I'd like to give some triggered gaps a
try. We may possibly be getting a lasr capable of
fempto-second pulses at up to 1 Joule optical output, so
that might also be something to try.

If I had terawatts at my disposal, I'd be doing more than
just a simple triggered gap.. ;)

Coiling In Pittsburgh
Ben McMillen

--- Tesla list <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Original poster: Ed Phillips <evp@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> "Original poster: Ben McMillen <spoonman534@xxxxxxxxx>
>
> Hi all,
>      Along the lines of lightning tests..
>
> Has anyone here in the US that's an IEEE member read the
> article in this month's issue titled "Stealing Celestial
> Fire" ? It looks to be along the lines of the 'N2 laser
> triggered spark gap' thread we had awhile back..
>
> For those of you who haven't read it..
>
> They're using a Teramobile (titanium sapphire) laser to
> create a plasma channel between a charged electrode and a
> grond point. The laser is capable of 100 fempto-second
> pulses with a max power of 5 terawatts. Rips the
> electrons
> right form the air, creating what they're calling a
> 'filament'. From the pictures it looks like one heck of a
> triggered gap. The idea is to scale it up a bit to reduce
> lightning strikes at airports.
>
> Someday I'll have a job like this.. ;)
>
> Coiling In Pittsburgh
> Ben McMillen"
>
> 	What IEEE journal are you referring to?  The IEEE comic
> book
> (Spectrum)?  I seldom bother to read it but think my wife
> hasn't thrown
> away the latest issue so I'll look for this article;
> sounds vaguely
> familiar.  The analogy to a triggered gap sounds like a
> prety good one,
> although I doubt anyone who had such a monster system
> being interested
> in the tiny little 30 kVA TC's guys on this list build!
>
> Ed
>
>
>