Re: Interesting residual charge

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "davep by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <davep-at-quik-dot-com>

Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: "Garry Freemyer by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <Garry-at-NDFC-dot-com>
 
> Ok, here's a stab at it from an angle I haven't seen anyone stab at it from
> before ....
 
> Take an alternating current source of say a million volts with little
> current. The voltage as I understand it, raises to +1M volts, and then drops
> through zero to Negative 1M volts.
 
> So, the charge on the secondary and anything coupled to it, take on this
> alternating positive and negative charge.
 
> Since time the charge spends at zero, is very miniscule, it is likely that
> when the tesla coil is turned off, the secondary and your friend is also
> charged positively or negatively at some voltage at that point.

	Tend to agree.
	The 'spark' to the person is discontinous, despite apprearances.
	It conducts when it goes high enough, then _ceases_ conducting
	as the voltage falls.  Roughly at thger resonant rate of the
	primary/secondary system.  It will eave anything sparked to
	at an elevated voltage.  Over time, this charge will leak off.
	A plastic milk crate makes a dandy insulator...

	best
	dwp
  
> Now you've turned off the power, and your friend is still charged because he
> is standing on an insulator.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
> Sent: Thursday, December 21, 2000 11:28 AM
> To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> Subject: Interesting residual charge
> 
> Original poster: "Christopher Telford by way of Terry Fritz
> <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <christophertelford-at-yahoo-dot-com>
> 
> Hello All,
> 
> I know the topic of residual charges in the coils
> ended a while back, but i have had an interesting
> experience today. Me and my friend john where
> experimenting (ok, playing) with my tesla coil. He was
> standing on the insulated plastic box taking arcs to a
> metal object in his hand whilst i manned the switch. I
> know this is a bit of a stupid thing to do, but it is
> only a low powered coil with a 450W input. After i
> switched the coil off, i reached up to take the metal
> object from his hand and got a shock from it. Is this
> normal? The AC from the coil should not leave a
> changre like this. My coil is a very normal spark gap
> style thing.
> If anyone has any thoughts on this i would be
> interested to hear them.
> Oh, yeah, and we got several shocks from the
> secondaries when we were packing them away.

	From the _secondaries_ or from the _forms_?
	There has been extended discussion on charging of the
	coil forms (which may, indeed, discharge from the toiroid).

	cf electrophorus and 'electret'.

	best.

	dwp