Re: Safety Gap Puzzle

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

Original poster: "Bert Hickman by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <bert.hickman-at-aquila-dot-net>

Greg,

Based upon the brilliance of the safety gap firing, you must not have any
series resistors (RC protective networks) between the main gap and safety
gaps, and I'll assume your safety gap was set to fire only at abnormally
high tank voltages. When your safety gaps did fire you had an abnormally
high tank capacitor voltage resulting in a significantly larger "bang"
size. A series of these larger bangs in rapid succession may be what gave
you the markedly stronger discharges. 

However, for this theory to apply, BOTH safety gaps would need to be firing
to complete the tank LC circuit. The fact that the discharge current passed
through electrodes that happened to be grounded should not be important.
Did you ever see this phenomenon occurring with only ONE safety gap firing?

-- Bert -- 
-- 
Bert Hickman
Stoneridge Engineering
Email:    bert.hickman-at-aquila-dot-net
Web Site: http://www.teslamania-dot-com

Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "Gregory Hunter by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <ghunter31014-at-yahoo-dot-com>
> 
> Dear List,
> 
> I shot a few minutes of video tape of my newly
> refurbished 4" x 24" 1080VA coil last night, and
> grabbed a bunch of the frames as JPG stills.  One of
> the stills revealed an interesting effect.  The shot
> happened to catch the NST supply in the background
> behind the Tesla coil with the safety gaps firing, and
> the toroid streamer is MUCH thicker & more intense.
> Marc Metlicka mentioned a similar observation to me
> some time back, but I needed to see it to appreciate
> how dramatic it is.  What is that about?  I have a
> safety gap going to ground from each HV bushing on the
> NSTs, so for an instant, the tank circuit is
> effectively shorted to ground, and it's increasing the
> streamer current!  Do I need to redesign my main spark
> gap with a grounded center electrode???
> 
> I'll attach "sparkz10.jpg" should you wish to have a
> gander.
> 
> http://hot-streamer-dot-com/temp/sparkz10.jpg
> 
> Greg
> http://hot-streamer-dot-com/greg
> 
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