Re: Getting brave.

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "David Rieben" <drieben@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Hey all,

While we're on this subject, I may as well open myself up
for some "flaming". I was recently inspired by Cameron
Prince's VTTC, based upon Steve Ward's design. Came-
ron's 3 ft. swords just got the best of me and I just had to
build one myself ;^) Anyway, one thing that I have disco-
vered about VTTCs is that the output sparks of these type
of coils truly has virtually no sensation to the skin if the sparks
are allowed to strike a metal object that's held in the hand.
Even if the sparks are allowed to strike the skin directly,
there's only a mild burning "pin-prick" sensation at the
point of contact. This is very unlike spark gap driven coils
in that the ouput sparks from SG driven coils is indeed
painful (I know this from first hand experience).

I'm sure that the general consensus among the list would
still be to not let the VTTC sparks hit you either even
though they are virtually painless to the touch. I've heard
of people having a deep, dull soreness in the muscles and
joints days after exposing theirselves to the "painless" out-
put sparks of vacuum tube or solid state coils. I have not
noticed this but I have noticed that if I do let the sparks
hit the skin of my hands directly, I can smell burnt flesh
on the part of my hand that I allow the sparks to hit for
a little while afterwards. Of course, this isn't an issue if I
draw the sparks to a metal rod held in my hand and do
not allow the sparks to strike my hand directly. In this
case, there is almost no sensation whatsoever and I do
not smell burnt flesh on my hands afterwards. BTW,
I'm drawing 20 amps at 120 volt input, so there is
plenty of power.

What's the experience of others out there regarding
the output of solid state or solid state coils and taking the
output into their hands?

David Rieben


----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2006 5:47 PM
Subject: Re: Getting brave.


> Original poster: BunnyKiller <bunnikillr@xxxxxxx>
>
> do you plan to hold the tube or mount it to something??   If you plan
> to hold it be prepared to get nailed!!  My coil will burn holes thru
> the glass tube at the ground connect point   imagine what it would do
> to your hand....
>
> Scot D
>
>
>
> Tesla list wrote:
>
> >Original poster: "Glen McGowan" <glen.mcgowan@xxxxxxxxx>
> >
> >Letting the 900W coil arc to a florescent light bulb (tube)?  Do's?
> >Don'ts?   I'd rather not be the shortest distance to ground.
> >
> >
>
>
>
>