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Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 15:46:55 +0100
From: Tom Trevethan <t.trevethan@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Tesla list <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>

Hi all,

I've been 'lurking' on the list for a while now - soaking up lots of useful
information. Now I have a question to ask: how critical to performance are the
materials that make the tank circuit? I've read that steel is best avoided (due
to it being ferromagnetic) - but it is dificult and expensive to construct the
circuit entirely out of copper and tungsten. In my coil I use thick copper
cable (8 awg) with copper pipe lugs and I've tried to use brass bolts where
possible (but I use steel nuts and bolts in some places). My primary tap is
made of steel and I also recently found out that the 'brass' bolts I am using
for stationary electrodes in my rotaty gap are actually brass plated steel. Am
I likely to see significant improvements in performance if I go to the effort
of replacing these parts? After all, it seems overkill when the wires leaving
the capacitors of my (and everybody elses) MMC are made of (thin) steel.

Thanks in adavance for any advice.

Tom