First tesla coil question

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Ryan Miller" <pballjunkie@xxxxxxx>

Hi All,
   I've been a subscriber to this email service for a bit of time 
now but this is my first ever contribution to it...or at least use of 
it beyond reading material.  I am attempting to build my first tesla 
coil and want to make certain everything goes as well as possible.  I 
have designed multiple spark gaps each of which appears to work but I 
am stuck on a simple question.  How do I know when it is 
"working"  and not just producing an electrical arc  but instead a 
fully charged shot with my entire capacitor behind it.  I do not have 
any tools beyond a physics textbook, paper, pens, and a 10 dollar 
voltmeter.  The best simple observations I can gather to show that it 
would be working is when it produces the exceptionally loud crack 
with each firing and that it shoots nice clean blue shots across as 
opposed to the fuzzy orange common of electrical arcing.  Is there a 
better way to know or is that all I have to work with without an 
oscilloscope or more tools. I've done all the calculations to find my 
gap spacing on a few models and made a few by trial and 
error.  Thanks for your help.

Ryan Miller
19 years old - CA

.-= Miller =-.

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