RE: [TCML] Spark gaps, Solid state switches and diodes

["Gary Peterson" <g.peterson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I see the word 'disruptive' pertaining more to the spark gap than the
condenser. 

You are correct.  In writing about the breaking down of a dielectric
separating two conducting bodies by means of an electrical spark discharge I
was referring to the operation of the spark-gap circuit controller located
in the primary circuit.  When Tesla said "DISRUPTIVELY discharging a
condenser through the primary" he was talking about the operation of the
primary spark gap.

> The spark gap would be the disruptive part of the coil, seeing as, without
it, the capacitor wouldn't reach its full potential. 

This is not correct.  With the especially designed RF alternator the
capacitor does reach its full potential.  

The objective is simply to have as high a rate of change in the current
applied to the primary as possible.  

As Tesla says, "It is merely the electrical analogue of a pile driver or a
hammer.  You accumulate energy through a long distance and then you deliver
it with a tremendous suddenness.  The distance through which the mass moves
is small - the pressure immense."  

This can be accomplished with a spark-gap discharger as Tesla describes; 

"I charged the condenser with 40,000 volts.  When it was charged full, I
discharged it suddenly, through a short circuit which gave me a very rapid
rate of oscillation."  

A high rate of change can also be accomplished with an especially designed
RF alternator.  

"I used it for years and years; used it until recently.  That machine must
still be in existence, but with the only difference that I have reduced the
number of poles.  IT WAS TO DO AWAY WITH THE SPARK GAP.  That was an idea
that I conceived sometime in 1892, but it dragged on until a later period.
My idea was to construct a machine with a certain small number of poles,
rotate it at an enormous speed, and thus generate sudden impulses which
would produce the same effect as the arc discharge in my so-called "Tesla
transformer."  Originally, this machine had 64 poles.  Then I reduced them
to 32, and finally to 16, and in that form I have produced with it any
oscillations, continuous trains or undamped oscillations of any frequency I
desired. . . . 

I reduced the number of poles, I think, in 1901.  But then I reduced it for
the purpose of generating currents of higher frequency.  If I had a great
number of poles, I could not realize my idea, because these poles would come
in quick succession and not produce a rate of change comparable to the rate
of change which is obtainable by the discharge of a condenser owing to a
sudden break of the dielectric.  That is to say, a blow.  It has to be a
blow, you see.  I had to place my poles comparatively far apart, then run
them at excessive speed and generate comparatively few impulses, but each of
those impulses are of such tremendous intensity that the dynamo is
practically short-circuited. . . . 

I agree with Dr. Resonance, the only true disruptive discharge Tesla coil is
one with a capacitor and a non-solid state spark-gap circuit controller in
the primary circuit.

I'm still interested in seeing a hybrid SISG Tesla coil that incorporates a
classic quenched spark gap to switch the circuit controller off midway
through the first capacitor discharge cycle (based upon resonator
frequency).

G.P.



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