RE: 1 gap rotary spark gap (fwd)

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 08 Jul 2007 01:38:21 +0000
From: Jeff Behary <jeff_behary@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: 1 gap rotary spark gap (fwd)

Hey Scott,

I have tried this too with limited success as the others.  But Tesla did use 
the concept successfully with a mercury based gap (interrupter) in Patent 
609, 248:

CAD:
http://www.electrotherapymuseum.com/2006/MercuryBreak609248/index.htm
created based on patent:
http://www.electrotherapymuseum.com/TeslaArchive/609248/index.htm

I attempted to make this 3D.  Tesla used a fan of glass, mica, or refractory 
materials that spun from the centrifugal force of mercury being spun around 
in a cast iron cylinder.  (like the liquid in blender that rises on the 
outside of the container - if you spin the container instead the same thing 
will happen).  In Tesla's design a tube was placed internally on bearings 
that was held by in place by gravity using a large iron weight while 
container spinning caused the mercury to rise and spin on the internal walls 
of the container - causing the insulating fan to revolve rapidly and the 
mercury to rise upward and get channeled to flow through the tube creating a 
liquid mercury jet that would make contact with the mercury layer rising on 
the internal wall of the cast iron container to "make" the circuit (liquid 
to liquid contact), the insulating fan blocking the stream from hitting the 
container to "break" the circuit.

His patent describes it much better than me.  Hopefully the color photos 
will aid with his description!

The original "circuit controller" would have been used with a self-induction 
coil (large electromagnet) instead of a transformer...likely powered from 
110 or 220V.  They typically could interrupt 5 or 10 amps continuously 
without any problems...however Tesla's later designs could handle much more 
current, with break rates as high as 10,000 BPS or more.  For these later 
designs the insulating disc was removed and the merucry-mercury "makes" were 
made by multiple converging jets rather than a jet to the container wall.

I didn't get a chance to finish these  later designs in Solidworks, but I 
still may post some of them unfinished for interest.  The designs were 
brilliant!  Tesla was over a century ahead of his time in developing high 
speed high current switching devices.  Imagine interrupting 220V at 20 amps+ 
10,000 times a second with back-emfs reaching 1000 - 4000V or more...all 
with something about the size of a 50 pk spindle of CDs!

Jeff Behary, c/o
The Turn Of The Century Electrotherapy Museum
http://www.electrotherapymuseum.com

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