Re: secondary question

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

Original poster: "Malcolm Watts" <m.j.watts-at-massey.ac.nz> 

On 7 Mar 2004, at 8:58, Tesla list wrote:

 > Original poster: "Steve Zeitler" <zeitler-at-verizon-dot-net>
 >
 > I have seen plenty of coils in person and pictures that produce arcs
 > much longer than the length of the secondary coil. What prevents to
 > voltage from the secondary from just arcing down it's own length? Its
 > the shortest path.
 >                                    Steve Z


Prepare to be "shocked" - the voltage isn't actually high enough to
allow it to do that. It most certainly does happen if the voltage
gets high enough, an easy matter to arrange (just up the primary
energy sufficiently and it will happen). Long streamers are the
result of repetitive growth along a hot and possibly partially
ionized channel of air.

Malcolm