Re: Keeping up with the theory (was is Corum and Corumforbidden topic?)

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

Original poster: "Ray von Postel by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <vonpostel-at-prodigy-dot-net>

Terry and All:
Hurray, so far I agree with everyone's comments.  At the risk of starting a
controversy:

The subject of amateur radio, and it's recognition was mentioned in a recent
post. Originally, Hams designed and built there own equipment.  There were no
commercial suppliers.  Eventually they could obtained ready made transformers,
capacitors, coils, etc.

During the vacuum tube days there were two types of hams.  Those who designed
and built their own equipment and those who enjoyed having the ability to
communicate with others.  Each group enjoyed the hobby and respected the
other.  It seems to me that Tesla coilers are at the
point in history where we build our own equipment partly from commercially
available
components.  Some enjoy the design and construction process while others have a
good time
operating the coil they built from some one else's design.   Just as with
radio, both make significant contributions.  The early amateur radio equipment
designers based their work on the scientific facts established by the  late
comers such as Hertz,  The people of Tesla's era did comparatively little to
create scientific fact.  They were engineers who developed
products, hopefully profitable, based on the work of others.  Once in a while
they would
stumble onto some new science.  


1.  The advances in the construction of Tesla coils have been advancements in
engineering
and not fundamental science.  Engineering being defined as the application of
established
scientific fact to create a result, structure, or product.

2.  The major source of Tesla's funds was probably  from
companies/corporations.  He was a "Hired Gun" retained to produce a product. 
He did his job well.  He had investors who
put up the money for some of his research.  They expected a return on their
investment and
frankly, didn't get it.  He probably plowed his own money back into his work
which indicates
he had faith in his idea.  The funding of research and development has always
depended upon the profit that could be obtained from it.  There never has been
much money for "pure science".  
Witness the debacle of the Super Collider.

3.  There is a lot of time and energy being spent in the development of the
Tesla coil.  The
problem is that most of the experimental methods are not documented in such a
way that
the results can be exactly duplicated.  Therefore, they remain unproved and
suspect.
 Example: What is the standard method of measuring the inductance of a
solenoid?  What is an acceptable degree of precision and accuracy?  This
recognizes that every setup varies to some degree or an other and produces
errors in experimental results.  Good technique identifies all
errors and accounts for them in the resultant measurement.  

Taking the example on inductance one step further:  There are several equations
which
provide the inductance of a solenoid.   Most produce results in the form of
'current sheet inductance'  which is different from true inductance.  The
correction from current sheet inductance to true inductance was authored by
Rosa and published in 1908 by NBS. 
Who applies it today and why not?


How do you determine the distributed capacitance of a solenoid from its
physical dimensions?
That is a Holy Grail that has not been found.  True, Wheeler's work lets you
calculate
it within practical limits for a limited number of coils.  But, I know of no
equation that is
general in application and is provably accurate to the limits of physical
measurement.  Now there
is a problem worth working on!

The publication of information on Tesla coils is undoubtedly limited by the
fact that
there is little practical application.  Further, not much research is being
done in laboratories
because there is little that is not known about the science of tesla coils. 
There is probably a lot more to be learned about the engineering, but why study
it if there is no pay off?  If research is
done, then it will be published.

Axiom:  "You don't really know unless you can write an equation about it."

Ray

Ray

 
Tesla list wrote:

>
> Original poster: "rob by way of Terry Fritz
<mailto:twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net><twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
> <mailto:rob-at-pythonemproject-dot-com><rob-at-pythonemproject-dot-com>
> 
> I think its lack of commercial applications that keeps it from being
> mainstream.  Most academic work these days is not funded by
> universities- its by government and corporations.  There are other
> factors.  Both my brothers are or have been in academia, and they
> bitterly complain that the few large circulation science journals only
> care about the Human Genome Project, to the exclusion of anything else. 
> So if you can splice genes with a Tesla coil, then you'll get some
> attention :)   Rob.
> 
> Tesla list wrote:
>>
>> Original poster: "Paul Nicholson by way of Terry Fritz 
>
> <mailto:twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net><twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
> <mailto:paul-at-abelian.demon.co.uk><paul-at-abelian.demon.co.uk> 
>>
>