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

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz" <acmdq@xxxxxxxxxx>

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

> 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.

The capacitance of an assembly of balls in the same plane can probably
be calculated exactly. There are some examples even in Maxwell's book.
Otherwise it is a quite complicated numerical problem. You probably don't
have to increase the diameter of the balls much to have the the same
capacitance of a toroid with the same "tube" diameter, as capacitance
is essentially a function of the outer dimensions of an object (there
was an old capacitive device called "Winter ring" that is just a thin
toroid, that has great part of the capacitance of a solid sphere with
the same diameter).
I agree about the breakout voltage.

Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz