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Question



For 30 years I have been building Tesla Coils with the secondary attached to 
the inside turn of the primary.  Never tryed connecting the secondary to 
ground until I heard about it here.  I have built some Van DeGraffs and know 
that the cabnet that houses the motor and drive roller is metal and charges 
with a charge equal and opposite to the sphere.  The TC secondary attached to 
ground acts like the cabnet of the Van DeGraff and also acts like half of the 
capacitor in the secondary LC circuit while the toroid is the other half of 
the capacitor in the secondary circuit.  I have not tried this but it seems 
to me that if you were to build a TC with a metal cabnet for the power supply 
and connect the lower end of the secondary to the metal cabnet and not to 
earth ground and not to the primary it would serve the same purpose and works 
on the same principle.  Probably a piece of sheet metal on the floor under 
the tesla coil would work and maybe better because the metal would build up a 
better charge than ground.  The metal cabnet or metal plate on the floor 
would have to be capable of holding a charge equal to the toroid.  Has anyone 
tryed a metal cabnet or metal plate? 

Gary Weaver