Re: Spark-gap sparks vs. solid-state sparks

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

Original poster: "Kennan C Herrick by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <kcha1-at-juno-dot-com>

>From Ken Herrick:

On Fri, 20 Apr 2001 08:09:59 -0600 "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
writes:
> Original poster: "Jim Lux by way of Terry Fritz 
> <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>
> 

[snipped]
> > I see now that the challenge for s.s. designers such as myself 
> lies in
> > attempting to emulate, to a degree at least, the rate-of-rise 
> capability
> > of the common, garden-variety 19th-century spark-gap.  One has to 
> chase
> > that spark and well-overtake it, so to speak.
> 
> That spark gap is not such a bad switch.... hence the popularity of 
> various
> and sundry forms of spark gap switches in modern equipment, ranging 
> from
> welders (HF arc stabilizers) to plasma physics experiments (Z 
> machine).  I
> once had a discussion with Jim Corum about the inefficiency (my 
> words) of
> the spark gap in a TC.  After thrashing out all the various factors, 
> a spark
>  doesn't compare all that bad to  most tube or SS circuits, 
> considered
> for wall plug watts in to RF out.  OTOH, if you are trying to 
> produce a
> narrow band or modulated signal, then the VT or SS approach wins, 
> hands
> down.

Or...implementing a self-tuned driving scheme such as mine.  In such a
scheme, one will ideally want to hit a 2-3 turn untuned primary with a
dozen cycles or so of perhaps 5KV at the secondary's exact and
instantaneous Fr.  Not a trivial task with transistors (though I have
done it, but for that pesky 5KV) and impossible, I venture to say, with
tubes or spark-gaps.

Ken Herrick
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