Re: Racing Spark Prediction

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: dest <dest@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Hallo John.

> Original poster: FutureT@xxxxxxx
> Deema  ( I understand this is a nickname for your name),

then "dima", coz "deema" sounds like "ees" instead of "is" : )

>>another post about the racing sparks at lower than normal voltage:
>>http://www.pupman.com/listarchives/1998/July/msg00132.html
>>and your explanation of this:
>>http://www.pupman.com/listarchives/1998/July/msg00163.html

> Yes, I liked my own explanation that you refered me to.

i remember something - it seems that Gary had used breakpoint, at
least with his big sphere, so looks like your explanation may be
inapplicable in that case.

> On many coils when the quenching fails for whatever reason, the
> output sparks get weaker but no racing sparks occur.  On some coils,
> racing sparks result.

we may call them "under-" or "overraced" % )

> Certainly the quenching would have been very poor though with such
> hot gaps.  But the question is how poor?  Did it quench on the 6th
> notch, the 10th notch, etc. It seems to me there wouldn't be much
> energy left by then. Usually by the 3rd or 4th notch there's not
> much energy left in the system.  Is there enough energy left to
> create racing sparks?

probably not only the quantity of energy is important, but the speed
at which it is transfered (specific for each particular resonator)?

> continued energy swaps, and continued interactions of
> the primary and secondary causing the sideband frequencies
> which may lead to the racing sparks.  It would be interesting
> if someone who has the ability could calculate the energy
> and voltages that might appear under such conditions and
> see if they are indeed great enough to form racing sparks.

i think it`s not so easy to calculate this - we don`t know exactly
what the racing sparks are. are they just a consequence of a voltage
gradient along the coil, produced by secondary itself only? or they`re
result of sec electrostatic field distortions caused by proximity of
primary also?

> One time I built a coil and ran it with a rotary gap.  There
> were no racing sparks.  Then I removed the rotary and installed
> a static gap.  Now there were racing sparks everywhere on
> the secondary.  I had to raise the secondary by 3 inches to
> stop the racing sparks.  The streamers were the same
> length in either case.

it`s strange - 3" is too much to not to reduce the sparks lenght,
since your coils are usually small sized. heck - we need more
controlled experiment data % )