Re: [TCML] Thyratron

[FutureT@xxxxxxx]

Aaron,
 
Yes, Richard Hull built a small coil using an hydrogen thyratron.
He did not use a parallel diode to pass the reverse current, so
he had to limit the on-time during each cap discharge, to a
1/4 cycle of RF.  This limited the amount of power that was
transferred to the secondary.  He used a high break rate to
sort of "compensate" in a way, although it's not a true compensation,
so "efficiency" was low.  In other words the sparks were not that  long
considering the input power.  He talked about possibly using
inverse crossed parallel thyratrons, but never actually built such
a system.  There are some special thyratrons that can handle
reverse currents at a reduced power level, but they are expensive.
Actually all hydrogen thyratrons are expensive, but Richard found
his at a hamfest.  If he could have gotten the coupling tight  enough,
the limited on-time might have been OK, but his coupling was 
probably about 0.35 or so.  The project appeared in a TCBA Newsletter,  and
also on one of Richard's VHS video tapes. 
 
John
 
In a message dated 4/24/2008 12:21:06 P.M. US Eastern Standard Time,  
jaholmes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:

Richard  Hull did this one time, I'm fairly certain. 
The experiment is not  especially well known because,
IIRC, it didn't work very well.   Perhaps somebody else
remembers to details.  I think he used a pretty  big
thyratron, too.  I've got much smaller 4C35's pouring
out my  ears, and have occasionaly wondered how one
might be used in a  coil.







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