Re: Ritchie Burnett's website

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: Ritchie Burnett's website
From: FutureT-at-aol-dot-com (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)
Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2000 12:19:18 -0700
Approved: twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net
Delivered-To: fixup-tesla-at-pupman-dot-com-at-fixme

In a message dated 00-01-01 04:42:34 EST, you write:

<< 
> 1    Ritchie strongly argues for an early quench which probably demands a
> rotary spark gap.  However, the real arc to ground occurs after only 2.5 rf
> cycles, well before the first quench.  Practically, we're all after the
> longest, brightest arcs to ground so do we need rotaries and do we need to
> worry about time to quench?

Nick, all,

Rotaries don't necessarily quench too well.  The quenching seems to 
depend more on the spark loading, and coupling.  Some tests done
by list members suggest that there is not a great difference in spark
output for a 1st notch, 2nd notch or 3rd notch (beat freq) quench.

The quenching can be improved by using multiple series gaps, either
rotary or static, but this causes greater losses and tends to reduce
the spark output despite the better quenching.

I had thought that most folks are looking for longest streamers to air,
which occasional strikes to ground?
 
> 2    Before the gap quenches, there will be two output frequencies and
> nothing at the Fn, the natural frequency of both the secondary and primary
> circuits when uncoupled.

Malcolm had an interesting comment about that, he said this is true
when looked at in the frequency domain, but when looked at in the
time domain, the frequency splitting really doesn't matter, you still
get the peak output voltages that you want.  Malcolm explained it
better than I did here though.  (Apologies to Malcolm if I botched
his explanation) 

Ritchie's website is indeed awesome !!

Cheers,
John Freau
 

> Nick
  >>