RE: Dual top loads

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

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

The construction of the toroids has no bearing on whether 1 or 2 are
needed.  I think that finding the optimum top load size is done strictly
by trial and error, and we almost always initially err on the small
side, so the next step is to add more - another on top.  If one is
fortunate enough to afford a nice spun toroid, aesthetics take over.
Who wants to have a first-rate toroid sitting below a larger, dented-up
corrugated toroid, even if it does perform better ;-)  Alternately,
maybe by the time we shell out the big bucks for the spun toroid, we'd
have already done all the cut-and-try work with duct toroids.

But also, there is a potential benefit in using two toroids regardless
of construction.  A small one at the top of the secondary to prevent
corona, and the main, larger one, mounted some distance above that, will
help reduce the possibility of primary strikes by moving the top load
further away from the base while still shielding the secondary top.  I
think that this will also reduce the tendency to have racing sparks, but
I can't swear to that.

Regards, Gary Lau
MA, USA

> Original poster: "Todd Reeve" <todd.reeve@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> While checking out pictures of coils different sites on the Tesla
> Coil Ring, I noticed that some of the coils that use flexible
> aluminum ducting for a toroid sometimes have 2 stacked toroids while
> the coils that have a spun aluminum toroid have only one.  I surmise
> that this is to increase the capacitance of the top load.  Is this
> needed when using ducting since the wall thickness of ducting is thin
> compared with a spun toroid?
>