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RE: [TCML] Kinraide Coil Reproduction - Near Completion. Near exhausted.
Gary,
"Effluve" is the funny word used to describe the ionisation of the air without sparking. I think "corona" is the modern word, but maybe not as specific.
I am looking through this phenomena in this photo:
http://www.electrotherapymuseum.com/2008/JeffEffluve/DSC00583.JPG
Some coils make it just fine, and others just won't do it. Normally if you separate the dischargers beyond the sparking capacity of the coil, you'll get it, as in this photo accompanying the "brush" discharge:
http://www.electrotherapymuseum.com/2008/KinraideCoilNearingCompletion/11InA.jpg
Its always purplish, and can easily be deflected by outside objects. Normally by drawing an arc (espescially a hot arc) from the terminal, any form of effluve will cease immediately. If you have a brush discharge, and then put some object (of large capacity, normally, but it can also be a sharp point out of sparking distance) towards the brush, the effluve will form in the approximate area the spark will form if the electrodes were closer together.
I mention phantom streamers a lot, and the lack of being able to photograph them. They are similar to effluves in appearance, but are more of a pale white in color. They tend to form radiating perpendicular to the surface of the electrodes in all directions, and aren't effected by outside capaicities in the same way. These tend to strobe inward or outward, where the effluve is more of stationary discharge, like ionising air in a vacuum tube. Unlike effluves, the phantoms do not cease their activity when sparks are drawn from the same terminal...they seem to "do their own thing".
Producing them is experimental at best. I don't know of any rules, exactly, other than fiddling around with capacity and spark gap settings, and input reactance or resistance of the power transformer. I keep coils here at the house specifically for showing off these phenomena in hopes one day to have them documented professionally. They are interesting to see up close, though not that good for eyes, nose, or throat. Some coils produce them no matter what, and others simply just want to arc and spark and nothing more.
Back in the early part of the century, everyone heard of "Oudin Resonators". These were simply Tesla Coils designed by a frenchman to produce these "effluves" as opposed to sparks. That bit of the puzzle normally gets lost in the definition, but normally the coils were larger diameter (10 - 12"), shorter aspect ratio (2 - 3 foot tall), and space wound with heavy wire (something like 12 - 16 gauge wire, 1/8" or 1/10" inch between windings. (few turns of wire in the secondary, maybe 50 - 150) - Primaries normally cylindrical, wound on the same form as the secondary, with a tap to adjust the turns - Large metal crowns with nails were used as toploads.
People would stand under them in this "effluve" (on an insulated stool), and the space of 12 - 24" of air would become completely ionised around (and up to) them from the crown. (Call it a germicidal replacement for soap and water...)
The same coil (if made "properly", [well, for this purpose anyway!]) would have not made a spark more than 3 or 4", and if it did you wouldn't want anywhere near it (serious RF burns, hot and nasty). The coils were powered by a pair of leyden jars and used 12 - 16" induction coils in place of high voltage transformers for the tank circuit. (This is getting serious! $$$$) The spark gaps were only set to 1 - 2" or so, but the fast charging caps and high frequencies resulted in the unusual displays that attracted a lot of attention, espescially with quacks, and the occasional skin doctor that wanted unusually large amounts of UV for treating lupus.
The cost of such an elaborate setup (though the Tesla coil itself was really simple and crude) was well beyond most, even showmen of the time. (Scheidel Western even made a bipolar Oudin Resonator that was powered from a 24" induction coil...I mean, who could have afforded that?! Mercury turbine interrupter, 20 odd miles of wire, geez!)
A good small experiment is just to start with any coil and placing a metal plate or another torroid floating parallel to it above the coil and out of sparking distance. If you gradually lower it, you might see the whole of the air turn purple. If not, and lower it until the only thing that happens is a spark jumping between them, you have one of the stubborn coils that won't do it. You might be able to adjust the primary tap or spark gap and get it to happen in that case...
If I can manage to video some of it, I'll put it on You Tube.
Jeff
> From: Gary.Lau@xxxxxx> To: tesla@xxxxxxxxxx> Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:28:04 +0000> Subject: RE: [TCML] Kinraide Coil Reproduction - Near Completion. Near exhausted.> CC: > > Hi Jeff,> > Please define " effluve"? And how can I get some for my coil ;-)> > Thanks, Gary>
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