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Re: Ball Lightning.
Tesla List wrote:
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> > > My largest coils secondary is wound on a 4.5" PVC pipe sealed
> > > in Polyurethane. Originally I built two for redundency, so both
> > > have the same characteristics. I once attached my backup secondaries
> > > base to the top of my main secondary just to try and grasp the idea
> > > of a magnafier. Well, the sparks from the backup coils discharge
> > > terminal
> > > where pretty wimpy.
> > > Suddenly, during the experiment, the alligator clip
> > > attached to the base of the backup coil exploded. And the result was
> > > about 5-6 golf ball sized fire things danced around on my concrete
> > > floor for maybe 20 seconds. A word of caution though, I may be
> > > exaggerating
> > > as to the size and duration of the event because it scared the hell out
> > > of me, but the phenomena is real enough. Why it occured is a mystery to
> > > me.
> > > I don't think I'll try using a magnifier again until I understand
> > > the concept thoroughly.
> > >
> > > D. Gowin
> >
> > Dan,
> >
> > Veeerrrry Interesting...!
> > Could you tell what actually failed around the alligator clip? Some
> > inexpensive ones merely clamp the wire-lead to the clip and use a
> > cheapie version of an insulation displacement connection which typically
> > has high resistance and a poor connection. Could you tell if this was
> > the point of failure or did the alligator clip's connection to the
> > secondary base wire fail? If the latter, what type of wire insulation
> > are you using on your secondaries? Was there any evidence of residue on
> > the floor where the balls extinguished, was there any sound associated
> > with them either during their movement or when they extinguished, and
> > what was their color? Any idea what power level you were running at?
> >
> > I've had a poor base connection fail during high power operation on a
> > 10" 2-coil system - the resulting arc was brilliant, hot blue-white,
> > much like a welders' arc. If you had a poor connection, which then
> > started arcing, you may have seen oxidizing metal or plastic fragments
> > that may have also had a very high electrical charge.
> >
> > Sounds like something to try again - as long as you're not getting any
> > flashovers on your driving coil, you shouldn't do any damage to your
> > system...
> > Thanks for sharing your experience with us!
> >
> > Safe possible ball lighnin' generation to ya!
> >
> > -- Bert --
>
> Bert,
> When I mean explode, I'm serious. The base wire of my backup
> secondary coil was melted. The wire attached to the alligator clip was
> soldered on and its melted. And parts of the alligator clip where
> melted. The fire balls where green (I assume burning copper) and left
> a white scorch mark on my concrete. I did not see a visible arc and
> I don't seem to suffer alot of corona effects I've seen in other
> coils.
> My coils are all heavily sealed with polyurethane. Including
> my primary, with the 3/8" copper having 10 coats. And is also covered
> with a flat peice of plexyglass. I don't want any strikes on my
> primary circuit. The fire balls sizzled like a steak and I was running
> two 9KV 120 Ma neons wide open at 2KW. The secondary coils are 4.5" dia.
> PVC pipe Scedule 40. With 940 approx turns of AWG 24 magnet wire for
> an inductance of 19.88988 mH. I have not grid dipped the two coils
> attached to each other to find my resonate freq. The magnet wire is
> copper of course. And the wire attached to the two coils was a peice
> of 40 KV wire from C&H supplies (steels core), with alligator clips
> on both ends. I was running a .04 uF capacitor bank.
>
> D. Gowin
Dan,
Thanks for the additional info! Sounds like you certainly had an
interesting experience. From what you've described, it sounds like the
fireballs contained copper, and my guess is that somehow you had a poor
connection that overheated, starting an RF arc, which then vaporized a
quantity of insulation and copper. Its not clear that the current levels
alone from the bottom coil would ever be great enough to cause a 24 AWG
wire to melt... Very odd!! However, if you were only getting "wimpy"
sparks, the 2KW was being dissipated _somewhere_, and you may have also
been out of tune.
Was your second secondary fairly distant from the first coil, and did
either coil have a discharger on top? Any idea what primary frequency
you were running at the time? Do you know the natural frequency of your
unloaded coils? This _really_ sounds like an interesting experiment to
try duplicating with a fire extinguisher nice and handy! <|:?)
Anyone else have any ideas about what might have happenned??
Safe, but mysterious, coilin to ya!
-- Bert --