Re: Early TC's w/o topload

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Qndre Qndre" <qndre_encrypt@xxxxxxxxxxx>

Hey, people.

I can think of another possibile reason for calling it "topload". You 
can see it as a capacitor which is "driven" by the secondary coil. So 
the capacitor is the "load reactance" of the coil or simply the 
"load" of the coil and the coil acts as a "supply" for the "load". 
And since the capacitor is on top of the coil, it's called a "topload". ;)

Regards, Q.

----Original Message Follows----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Early TC's w/o topload
Date: Wed, 04 Jan 2006 13:42:10 -0700


Original poster: Steve Conner <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxx>


> Nowadays, everyone uses a "toroid" as a "topload" on their coil(s).  I
> believe the term "topload" is credited to the good folks on this Tesla
> List.

I don't know "who" first called it a "topload" but I believe I know 
the reason for using that name. In radio engineering you often see 
reference to "top-loaded" antennas. These have a plate or network of 
wires attached to the top of the mast to add capacitance and allow a 
shorter antenna mast to be used. The top-loading capacitor is 
sometimes referred to as a topload. Some antennas also have a loading 
inductor at the bottom or in the middle.

Now, the analogy to a Tesla coil seems pretty obvious to me. A Tesla 
coil is just a short vertical antenna with a loading inductor at the 
bottom and a loading capacitance on top, and the antenna mast in 
between is then made shorter and shorter until it's completely gone. 
It is now near useless as an antenna and radiates practically 
nothing. Instead the input power piles up in the resonator before 
bursting out in the form of enormous voltages and colossal discharges.

If you think of the coil as a modified radio antenna, "topload" is 
the natural name for whatever you place on top.

Steve Conner
http://www.scopeboy.com/