RE: Thoraited Tungsten Rods

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Lau, Gary" <Gary.Lau@xxxxxx>

I'm not sure I can see any reason to use any sort of tungsten in a
safety gap.  The point of a safety gap is to only fire in the event of
something gone wrong, hopefully not too often.  The point of using
tungsten is that it doesn't erode (ablate) following extended arcing.
Nothing wrong with using tungsten of course - just not necessary.  Brass
acorn nuts and drawer pulls are widely available and perfectly suitable
for safety electrodes..

Gary Lau
MA, USA

> Original poster: "Harold Weiss" <hweiss@xxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Hi,
>
> The thoriated rods produce ionization in the air around the
> rod.  This will cause the spark to jump easier.  I have them on my
> Terry filter and rotory. On the Terry filter, I have to open the gap
> to around 3/8" compared to half that or less with pure
> tungsten.  With thr rotory, it will definitely fire at presentation
> unless the phase is off.

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