Re: more newbie questions

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

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

In a message dated 1/3/03 10:21:36 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes:



>Original poster: "james brady by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" 
><james_brady10-at-hotmail-dot-com>
>
>Why did Tesla make a coil in the first place? I wonder how he figured out
>how to do all of this stuff in the 1800's, he must have been really
>freaking smart. What was it that he was trying to accomplish? Other than
>just the fun of making one, is there any pracitical purpose?


Tesla was studying the behavior/effects/uses of high-frequency, high 
voltage power transmission. After creating the first polyphase AC 
transmission system and the first AC hydroelectric system, the induction 
motor, the first radio-controlled ship, and several dozen types of motors, 
meters and other devices, his ultimate dream was to provide worldwide 
electrical power, "so abundantly and cheaply that it wouldn't be worth 
metering." Unfortunately, his financial backers, principally J.P.Morgan, 
were not interested in the business of giving away energy that they had 
already invested millions in generating for profit and pulled the plug on 
this research.
        Because of his personality quirks and his later tendency to go to 
the Press with ideas which had gone from concept to patent office without a 
stop at physical reality, he became, and still is a darling of the quack 
medicine, free/purple energy, UFO sighters, and conspiracy theorists.


>I was wandering if I could make a capacitor using 1 gallon glass pickle
>jars. Since my wife is pregnant, I have a lot of them laying around and I
>have been trying to find a use for them. If I can use them, how do you
>figure out the capacitance?


Yes. Every electrical pioneer from Ben Franklin and some of his 
contemporaries to Nikola Tesla did it. It is called a Leyden Jar. The 
capacitance of a jar is much easier to measure than to calculate:-( . 
Everything from beer and wine bottles to plastic buckets have been used. 
They tend to fail after a while in TC service, but your price is right. ;-)


>Why do I have to use a neon sighn transformer? How come you can't use a
>transformer from something else?


Any transformer with a 100-240 v input and a 4kV to 20kV output can be 
used. A neon sign transformer is USUALLY the most readily available, 
self-ballasted, plug_and_play type in this range. With certain 
modifications and external limiting circuitry, pole transformers, banks 
(farms) of microwave oven transformers, transformers from BIG radio 
transmitters, X-ray machines, or "roll your own" types can be used. Word of 
caution, the newer, HF electronic NSTs are not suitable, but the old style 
are available, often as scrap and/or surplus. Oil-burner ignition 
transformers have also been used on small coils (~200 Watts). Small coils 
have also been made using TV flyback transformers, heavy-duty ignition 
coils, and "bug-zappers" as the primary power source.


>Also, I noticed that in Spencer's, that they sell something that likes like
>a Telsa coil with a glass globe covering the whole thing. I am sure that
>people know what I am talking about. So, is this a Tesla coil?
>
>
>My background:
>
>majored in psycology, ba in 1994.

With a minor in spelling??  ;-))))) Don't worry, you are not alone. Most 
people on the list, for whom English is their first/only language, have a 
disdain/contempt/loathing for spell-checking or proof-reading.

>then decided to do something for real, so I decided to get into the
>computer field. Actually, I had been doing computers since 1983/84. My
>first computer was a TI-49a. I thought that was the best thing that there
>ever was.


My first home computers were an OSI-C3, an Altair, a Vic-20, an Atari 800, 
and a Commodore-64/128. First work one was an IBM 7090/7094.

>Anyway, I have been a network admin for several years and the
>current company that I am working for sells pagers and cell phones, so I
>have to do component level repairs. We use a frequency generator to tune
>pager oscillators to the correct frequency. I have my MCSE,CCNA,CNA,NET+,A+
>and a bunch of other junk certifications. I noticed that most people in the
>computer field know little about electronics, myself included.
>
>james brady
>richmond, va

"Q: How many network admins does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: None! That's a hardware problem!"

For further reading in addition to great references already mentioned by 
others:
        Biography, History, and Science:
"Tesla- Man Out of Time" by Margaret Cheney
"My Inventions" by Nikola Tesla
"The Complete Patents of Nikola Tesla" ed. by Jim Glenn
"The Fantastic Inventions of Nikola Tesla" N. Tesla
"Nikola Tesla - Lectures" ed. by Vojin Popovic
"Nikola Tesla - Articles" ed. by Vojin Popovic, Radoslav Horvat et.al.
"Nikola Tesla - Colorado Springs Notes 1899-1900" ed. A. Marincic & V. Popovic
"Tesla Coil Secrets" by R. A. Ford
"The Tesla High Frequency Coil" by Haller & Cunningham

        Close-to, and Over-the-edge Stuff loosely based on Tesla's work/claims:
"Son of Tesla Coil" by G. Trinkaus
"The Waves That Heal" by Mark Clement
"The Lakhovsky Multiwave Oscillator" by Bob Beck
"How to Construct the Philadelphia Experiment" Int'l Guild of Adv. Sciences

Matt D.