Re: Sparkles in the arcs

["Bert Hickman" <bert.hickman-at-aquila-dot-com> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)]

Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "Ross Overstreet" <ross-o-at-mindspring-dot-com>
> 
> Hi,
> I was playing around with building fires on top of my toroid this weekend
> when I stumbled across an interesting effect.  Burning cardboard apparently
> liberates lots of carbon particles that make bright sparkles in the brush
> discharge of a TC running at low power levels.  My photo didn't turn out too
> well, but you can get a rough idea of what I was seeing in the top photo on
> my "arc pictures" page.
> http://users.better-dot-org/roverstreet/Arc_pics/arcpics.html
> 
> I bet the effect would be really spectacular if you get a lot more carbon
> (or whatever made the sparkles) into the air around the toroid.  To repeat
> this, all you have to do is light the cardboard and place it on the edge of
> the toroid.  Once it develops a small burned spot it will act as a corona
> point.  It works best on the leeward side of the toroid.  Don't burn the
> house (or woods) down.
> 
> Seeya,
> Ross-O
> http://users.better-dot-org/roverstreet/index.htm

Ross,

VERY interesting!! These look very similar to the "ball lightning" that
the Corums photographed off their system. Carbon particles are the
likely cause... and there's speculation that similar particles generated
the ball lightning that Tesla observed in his system when he had
secondary flashovers on his systems (with carbon-producing cotton or
gutta-percha (rubber) insulation). Do any of the sparkles last very
long? 

-- Bert --

-- 
Bert Hickman
Stoneridge Engineering
Email:    bert.hickman-at-aquila-dot-com
Web Site: http://www.teslamania-dot-com