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RE: Magnetic Field in a Flat Spiral



Original poster: "David Thomson by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <dave-at-volantis-dot-org>

Hi Ed,

> Just looked at your picture.  Where'd you get those neat binding posts?
Look like something out of the distant past, but really useful.

They came out of old military low voltage test sets.  Yes, they are very
useful.

> You haven't describee the rest of your system or the before and after
magnetic field gap performance; please do.

It's pretty subjective.  Before using the magnets the spark gap worked, but
after using the magnets the spark gap sounded about 3 times louder.  The
spark output increased noticeably, but I didn't measure it.  I just wanted
something that worked well.

> By the way, I think the magnetic field in the gap would be stronger if you
used a closed magnetic circuit (C-shaped iron or steel rod or bunch of
sheets, with magnets along one leg and the gap between the open ends of the
C.

I fully agree.  I've got my eyes open for such triangular pieces of soft
iron.  When I find it, I'll apply it to the gap.  I'm just fortunate that
the magnets are super strong as they are.  I'll bet the efficiency will
double when I get the iron to close the magnetic circuit.  It's conceivable
that too much magnetic force will prevent the spark gap from firing.

The magnets I'm using on this gap are 1 1/2" in diameter.  They are so
strong that I nearly broke the bones in my fingers when I accidentally
brought them about 8" from each other.  It took about 2 minutes before I
could find something to pry them off of my fingers.  And then as they
slipped past my fingers they pinched the skin pretty bad.  The only way I
can get these separated is to put them in a vise and slide them as far as I
can and then apply all my strength to pry them apart.  I now apply as much
caution to working with NIB magnets as I do to working with a 15KV
transformer.

Dave