Re: Tesla coil lightning cannons? (was: Parallel and Series LCRCircuit Q)

["Bill Lemieux" <gomez-at-netherworld-dot-com> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)]

On that fateful day 8/11/00 6:30 PM, thus spake Tesla list:

> Original poster: Tesla729-at-cs-dot-com
> 
> In a message dated 8/11/00 12:03:44 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
> tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes:
> 
> << Interestingly, nobody is quite sure why long sparks, lightning, etc. form
> forked and erratic channels, unless it is just a random thing and one
> direction is as good as the other at each step in the leader formation. >>
> 
> 
> I hope this is not getting too much off the subject, but this has
> got me to thinking if there could possibly be a way to contain
> the plasma channel (possibly magnetically?) to force the arc
> into a straight linear path instead of the familiar forked channel.

It is possible to redirect lightning (and therefore presumably Tesla coil
streamers) over an ionized air channel created by a UV laser.  The power
level required is non-trivial, and most UV lasers are horribly inefficient.

 Fortunately, although the power level is quite high (on the order of
gigawatts), the total joule energy required is relatively low (on the order
of 10 joules or less.
 
 Unfortunately, the required pulse times are ridiculously short (on the
order of femtoseconds), which is a non-trivial accomplishment, probably not
achievable by even the wealthiest amateur.

  Lasers which have any reasonable efficiency are excimers and chemical
lasers, both of which tend to be expensive and involve nasty gases.  The
most common home-built UV laser is a mirrorless, superfluorescent nitrogen
laser.  But N2 lasers haven't got 1/1000 of the power required to redirect
lightning...

    http://www.spie-dot-org/web/oer/july/jul99/laserlight.html
    http://www.acms.arizona.edu/research/plasma-indc.html
    http://www.enpower-dot-org/products/arch9806b.html#lightning

> I'm sure this would have significant weapons potential (no pun
> intended).

 For weapons, you would need to deposit a very significant amount of energy
into the target.  Given that the energy available from the top toroid of
even the largest Tesla coils is probably less than 100 joules, I think it is
safe to forget about Tesla coils as weapons.

 However, the idea is not entirely without merit, as it is certainly
possible to run much higher currents (at lower voltages) down a projected
wire (which vaporizes in the process), ala Greg Leyh's "Taser cannon":
http://www.lod-dot-org/otherdevices.html

- Gomez

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