Re: Jacobsladder-Oscillator

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Ed Phillips <evp@xxxxxxxxxxx>

Original poster: "Kurt Schraner" <k.schraner@xxxxxxxxxxx>

Ed,

I'm fairly shure, the dominant mechanism is electrostatic attraction. 
Why? - When we first became aware of the wire-movement, I first 
thought of an effect of current and magnetic forces, as you describe. 
But then we asked "which current?", because we verified, the JL-wires 
were moving _without_ any spark (If you watch again the first 
movie-clip, you may notice, the wires are moving without any spark, 
in the beginning). So, I changed mind, and thought it would be a 
matter of the fairly strong E-field between the wires. Calculating 
the capacitance of the JL revealed about 20pF. Guessing the force 
between the wires, under 50kV, came out to about 0.41 Newton (0.093 
lbf). This value seemed plausible to me, beeing enough for starting 
the movement.

The case may be different, if there are sparks moving up the JL: 
apart from electric- and magnetic field forces, the thermal 
disturbances in the air also take part in the whole process...? - But 
this is a different case vs. the "JL-oscillator".

Kurt"

   For some reason the picture is so dark on my screen that I can't 
really be sure of the position of the rods before the arc 
starts.  I've played it carefully several times and do think I can 
see the rods moving before the arc.  I'll take your word for it of 
course because you good visibility on what's happening.  If the force 
is what you say it's certainly enough!

   I still envy your coil.  Really neat.  How much power does it 
take running at that high frequency?  You've probably told us before 
but I forget.

Ed