Re: Power Loss

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Jared E Dwarshuis <jdwarshui@xxxxxxxxx>

Original poster: "Lau, Gary" <Gary.Lau@xxxxxx>

Ouch!  This sounds like dangerous advice.

With the original poster's 15/60 NST, your suggested .01uF cap would be
precisely mains-resonant.  If the gap were opened for maximum spark
length, that would surely result in higher than safe voltages for the
NST.  Spark performance would be impressive, though short-lived.  A
half
inch wide gap is much too wide.

Spark performance is monotonically correlated to gap width; there is no
sweet spot.  The performance will increase as the gap is wider, until
either losses and NST Q allow no further mains resonant rise, or
something breaks down.  How do you tell when to stop closing the gap
based on performance?  It seems closing the gap would continue to
reduce
the spark performance all the way down to zero.

Gary Lau
MA, USA

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........

The sum of gap distance is around one half inch for the forced air gap
that we have used for the last two years. We use a .01uf tank
capacitor with a 15/60 NST and have had no problem. (I don't
understand the dangerous advice comment).

As far as closing the gap, you simply do so, until you observe a
slight output of power then you stop, not complicated.

There -is- a sweet spot range when tuning spark gaps. A gap that is to
large will not fire at all and a gap that is to small will not quench
properly.

If you try to make a tank circuit that operates on low voltage but
relativly high current it quickly becomes apparent that the gaps need
to be fairly close just to fire. But the high current keeps the closed
up gaps from quenching. Thus coilers use relatively high voltage and
low current to get their power. High voltage and low current allows
coilers to use an air gap system.

 Sincerely: Jared Dwarshuis