Another (at least theoretical) advantage of using pressure for
the gap is that the gap spark length is shorter in higher pressure air
than in lower pressure air for a given voltage. Short sparks have
lower losses so a stronger spark output streamer length should
result. I'm not sure how much difference it makes in the
real world. I think Gary Lau used this approach when he
switched from his vacuum gap to his vortex gap. It's interesting
to note that whereas Gary obtained around 63" sparks from his
vacuum and vortex static gaps, he obtained around 80" or 90"
sparks using a sync rotary spark gap, using the same NST power supply
transformer.
I don't think all that much work and research has been done in
this area (high powered air blast quenching for Tesla coils), so it's
worth
more experimentation.
An useful approach might be to add an electronic trigger electrode
for stable 120 bps operation. This adds complexity, but not of
the mechanical machining type.
John
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