Re: 20 joules at 100 bps vs 4 joules at 500 bps - any difference?

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: FutureT@xxxxxxx 

In a message dated 7/18/05 10:52:16 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
tesla@xxxxxxxxxx writes:


> The coalescence thing is interesting. I found that on my DRSSTC (Man's best
> friend) I could get long sparks even at the lowest break rates. The best I
> have done is a 22" strike to ground with a single 5 joule bang.
>
> The sparks do look different at high break rates- they tend to bunch
> together into a thick tree-like structure- but they really don't get that
> much longer. The most I have ever seen from the coil is about 35" going
> flat out with 200 5-joule bangs per second.
>
> I think this is because the resonator is so small (13" overall height) and
> the solenoid primary eats into the available space for E-field even
> further. It just never develops enough of a field over a large volume of
> space to grow long straight sparks. Adding power just causes strike rail
> hits and flashovers.


Steve,

I suppose this may indeed be the reason why certain coils
don't benefit much from higher breakrates.  The toroid field may
be too small to support longer sparks as power is added via
higher breakrates.  What evidence is there that the field of
the coil itself rather than the toroid dia can limit the spark
length? (Ignoring coil breakdown issues.)
I remember there were some postings about this
a few weeks ago but I wasn't following it too closely.

John


> With my spark gap coil I get the "Gas burner" effect and then the sparks
> lengthen dramatically as the rotary gap motor is cranked up.
>
> Steve Conner