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Re: Mark's Big Coil

You wrote: 

>Mark,
>I am also very curious about this MONSTER coil.
>How do you maintain a 50KVA fuse ????

We use circuit breakers.

>Can you explain the gap system in more detail?

The gap was a hair-brained scheme of mine which consisted of two 
interrupters in series.  One interrupter had a 16" fiberglass wheel 
with many electrodes and ran at 3300rpm.  It also had 4 stationary 
electrode sets which were wired in series.  This was dubbed the 
"quenching interrupter".  The other interrupter ran at variable speed 
and had only 4 electrodes in the wheel.  The stationary electrodes 
covered a significant arc of the wheel so you were guaranteed some 
period of simultaneity with a high speed electrode coming into line.  
This was the "timing interrupter" and set the break rate.  So we had 
the best of all possible worlds, a variable break rate interrupter that 
always ran at top speed!

>Were the gap electrodes tungsten when you talk of "melting metal" ?

They were 1/2 inch solid copper.  I've seen too many people, including 
Bill Wysock, melt down tungsten and I had no desire to pay for that 
during experimentation.  Also, it has been my experience that copper 
lasts nearly as long!  A spark gap operates at the boiling point of 
whatever metal is used.  Therefore, tungsten gaps run MUCH HOTTER, and 
I thought that was not good for quenching either.

>How many series gaps were there? 

We eventually abandoned the high speed wheel and went with the timing 
wheel and 6 series gaps, but these were rather hokey and I'd rather not 
talk about it.

>
>How do you controll the current of such a coil?
>

Since the coil ran on DC, we could control the power by the break rate 
and by raising and lowering the core into and out of the charging 
inductor.

>Sorry about all the questions.

No problem at all.  Pictures soon.

>If you used the tank for a magnifier, theoretically you could get  
>allmost 100 foot of arc in a highly tuned system! Though Ive been told
>that Bill Wysock(a well known coiler) may have fallen short of this
>with 40-60 foot arcs! Still big sparks allright. 
>Though I believe you could still get 40-60 footers with that
>kind a' juice going in.
>

If Bill got 40-60ft, I haven't heard about it yet, but would love to 
see it.  His system runs on 100KVA.

Zap,
Mark