Tesla list wrote:
Original poster: "Gerry Reynolds" <gerryreynolds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Hi Boris,
At the risk of misinterpreting what has been said, consider a
toroid that has been charged to the breakout point and at the
instant breakout begins, imagine the secondary coil being totally
removed. A streamer begins and lets say it still connects to
ground. It seems the circuit is the capacitance of the toroid (to
ground), the streamer impedance, and the return path carries the
displacement current. The impedance mentioned below would now be
infinite and yet the streamer and power arc would still occur. It
seems that with the secondary in place, the impedance Z (below)
would help with the recharging of the toroid and the sustainability of the arc.
To say that the circuit element connecting the toroid to ground is
its capacitance, and to say that the return path is by displacement
current are exactly the same thing. What exists in series with the
streamer is a charged capacitor, with the secondary coil in -parallel-
with it. If at the instant of the discharge there is no significant
energy stored in other parts of the system than the terminal capacitance,
the presence of the secondary coil would -reduce- the streamer current, by
providing an alternative (although high-impedance) path to the current
coming from the capacitor, instead of contributing to it.
Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz