BLOWER GAP EXPERIMENT

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Krohns" <2halice@xxxxxxx>

I decided to keep it simple while building my first Tesla coil, so I 
built myself a sucker gap.  After reading Gary Lau's sucker gap page, 
I thought that I'd test the gap as a blower instead of a 
sucker.  (Sounds like Spaceballs.)  I got some interesting results; I 
had arcs that were straight across the gap, others that took a 
parabolic path and still others that went all over the place.  If you 
would like to see video of this weirdness, click on the link 
below.  I would love some feedback from someone who can explain what 
is happening.

<http://www.halice.com/physics/blower_gap_II.mpg>http://www.halice.com/physics/blower_gap_II.mpg

The gap width is 0.36".  The tranformer array is 15KV @ 90mA.  The 
variac is 140 volt @ 15 amps.  The "blow" is supplied by my handy 
dandy shop vac, running at 40-120 volts.  AND the video is 12 megs in size.

Looking forward to hearing from someone who knows a whole lot more than I.

Hal