Re: triggered gap quench at high power, was home brew tachometer

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

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <FutureT-at-aol-dot-com>

In a message dated 8/9/01 10:51:08 AM Eastern Daylight Time, tesla-at-pupman-dot-com 
writes:

> But I thought triggered gaps were supposed to replace sync RSG's......just 
>  kidding. The day you run 15kVA through a triggered gap is the day I throw 
>  (smash, hurl, burn) the rotary away. Rotaries are a major pain (pg-13 
here) 
>  if you don't have access to a machine shop.
>  
>  So BTW, what IS the maximum power anyone has ever put through a triggered 
>  static gap? Couple of kVA? I wonder at what point it's unable to quench. 
(I 
>  bet a powerful vacuum triggered gap would work well) 

Justin,

I don't know how much folks have put through a triggered
gap at the max, but I do know that about 100kW has been
put through a single static gap, and quenched with a supersonic
air blast, on an old large TC.  I forget offhand if it was 100kW,
or 66kW, but it was something in that ballpark.
The coil gave 9 meter sparks I seem to remember, and it
was rather inefficient overall.  I don't see any reason why
such a gap couldn't be triggered.  It's probably better to
use pressure rather than vacuum for cooling and quenching,
since this permits the use of a shorter gap path, and therefore
lower losses.

I guess to trigger a gap at higher than 120 bps, a different kind of 
timer circuit would be needed other than the lamp dimmer.
Some sort of 555 timer based circuit should work well.

John Freau