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Re: Tesla book



>>From gowin-at-epic-1.nwscc.sea06.navy.milFri Nov  1 21:43:39 1996
>Date: Fri, 01 Nov 1996 08:55:46 -0500
>From: Dan Gowin <gowin-at-epic-1.nwscc.sea06.navy.mil>
>To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
>Subject: Re: Tesla book

>Tesla List wrote:
> 
> >From paul-at-geeky1.ebtech-dot-netThu Oct 31 21:36:25 1996
> Date: Thu, 31 Oct 1996 01:09:20 -0500 (EST)
> From: Paul Anderson <paul-at-geeky1.ebtech-dot-net>
> To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> Subject: Tesla book
> 
> I have plans on writing a tesla coil book.  Anyone have any
> recommendations for topics which other books have only lightly skimmed or
> not even touched, or anything that would basically make it an excellent
> tesla coil book?  TTYL!
> 
> ---
> Paul Anderson
> Author of Star Spek(a tongue in cheek pun on Star trek)
> e-mail: starspek-request-at-lowdown-dot-com with subscribe as the subject
> I hear it's hilarious.
> Maintainer of the Tips-HOWTO.
> http://www-dot-netcom-dot-com/~tonyh3/speck.html
>Yes,
>	Experimenting with different types of discharge terminals.
>To date I've only seen a Ball(s), Torus, and steel spikes used as
>discharge terminals on Tesla coils. Why not use a cone with a rounded
>bottom and point it straight up in the air (Tear drop). And you could
>provide some e-field modeling graphics to demonstrate how effective 
>each shape is. For that matter you could provide a simplistic model 
>of a human on an insulated surface in an e-field. 
>	I suppose there are a number of geometric shapes that could
>be used on tesla coils with varying results.
>
>Any replies from the megacoilers is welcome.
>
>A wanna be Megacoiler (soon to be, give me 6 months)
>D. Gowin

Dan,

I have indeed built and tried an aluminum skinned cone with rounded bottom
and rounded top point.  Radius of curvature was about 6 inches.  Large diameter 
at bottom about 40 inches.  Height about 20 inches.  This thing 
looked like a flying saucer!  I used it on a large #8 AWG secondary measuring  30
inches in diameter and about 5 feet long.  It turned out to be the most effective 
shape one could come up with I think that throws streamers either 
straight down or into the base of your coil. : (  

On the other hand, if you take such a shape and invert it (like a funnel), and 
slightly dome the top (the large end), you will effect field control to throw 
the streamers upwards and away from your mega-coil.  The small end of 
your inverted cone will not provide adequate field  protection of the 
top turn of your secondary (the same drawback as in using a ball 
topload).  To solve this problem you may use a small cross section 
(2-3 inch cross section) toroid located several inches above the top 
turn of the secondary who's radius is just a few inches 
larger than the secondary O.D.  This 'control' torus can be a shorted 
turn.  The cone discharger terminal then mounts above the plane of the control 
torus.  The spacing between the inverted cone and the control torus 
should be played with experimentally to give the best 'throw' effect.

This tip is worth money!  Cash, checks or M.O.'s accepted with thanks.

rw (trying to be a mega-coiler too) stephens