Multi gazing balls as a top load was Re: Al duct vs Chicken Wire

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Original poster: "Bob (R.A.) Jones" <a1accounting@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Hi David,

I thought of several stainless steel gazing balls as a top load too. Their
cheap (compared to a spun toroid) and I think they would look neat. My idea
was to rotate the gazing balls via a glass fiber rod from the base of the
coil.  Allowing my imagination to run you could create a sphere or what ever
of gazing balls all moving relative to one an other via a complicated
gearing thing in the middle. Perhaps that's a project for the kinetic artist
that posted recently or for one Dr R's serious exhibits.

I am reasonable confident that a ring of balls, provided they are solidly
connected together, would act like an other top load if they have the same
capacitance and break out voltage.The last clause of the previous statement
is not necessarily achievable. I am guessing but if you imagine a toroid
replaced by a circle of gazing balls with say 50% more diameter than the
minor diameter of the toroid then the gazing balls would have a similar
capacitance. But the break out voltage may be very different because of the
curvature in both x and y is different than the toroid.   Apparently their
is no simple way of estimating the break out voltage of most shapes except
for a isolated sphere and some other special cases.  Perhaps the break out
voltage could be guesstimated by saying it is some where between the break
out voltage of an isolated sphere and a toroid of the same minor diameter as
the gazing balls.

Robert (R. A.) Jones
A1 Accounting, Inc., Fl
407 649 6400
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, January 09, 2006 10:18 PM
Subject: RE: Al duct vs Chicken Wire


> Original poster: "david baehr" <dfb25@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>
>
> ...if a person used several  round gazing balls, placed in a circle
> pattern (like a toroid ) would the coil see this as one continuous
> toroid, or ?????  I thought I saw a pic of this somewere, but maybe I
> was dreamin'   .............
>
>
> From:  "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
> To:  tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
> Subject:  RE: Al duct vs Chicken Wire
> Date:  Mon, 09 Jan 2006 19:14:59 -0700
>  >Original poster: "Lau, Gary" <Gary.Lau@xxxxxx>
>  >
>  >It is true that to achieve a single long streamer one must minimize
>  >surface irregularities, but even more important, the toroid must be
>  >the
>  >correct size.  And the only way to know what size that is is to make
>  >an
>  >educated guess, based on the experience of others, build it, and see
>  >how
>  >it performs.  If it's smooth and you still get multiple streamers,
>  >you
>  >need a bigger top load.  Luckily one can stack multiple toroids.
>  >
>  >Regards, Gary Lau
>  >MA, USA
>  >
>  > > Original poster: Just Justin <rocketfuel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>  > >
>  > > I'll probably build a chicken wire toroid anyway,
>  > > but I wanted to ask for opinions on the performance
>  > > of a chicken wire-based topload vs Aluminum ducting.
>  > >
>  > > I currently have a 4" inner diameter Al duct as my
>  > > topload and I get about streamers breaking out of
>  > > about 5-6 places simultaneously.  Is is true that
>  > > with a perfectly smooth toroid there tends to be
>  > > one large streamer instead of many smaller ones?
>  > >
>  > > Thanks!
>  > >
>  > > Justin in Austin
>  > >
>  >
>  >
>
>
>