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What IS special about a Tesla coil?
Dear Terry and Bob,
Following your e-conversations is a great educational experience for a novice
coiler, but it's like sneaking into a lecture on tensor calculus when you've
only just completed algebra one! I want to assure you that I, at least one of
your gallant fellow coilers here on the list, am not an electrical (nor any
other) engineer - and if I did have a functional Tek scope at this stage of my
coiling - oh, coiling were Paradise enow! (Pardon my inexcusable literary
allusion - it's my poor defense against the swarming masses of you-all
engineering geniuses). But a central and pivotal question jumped out at me in
the most recent cited interchange; I think Bob asks: "WHAT IS SPECIAL ABOUT A
TESLA COIL?" Yes! Isn't that what all coiling is about, after you get through
the cow manure, the horse manure, and the rabbit tracks through it? [Credit for
that colorful reference to an old desert rat (who died several years later
searching for the Lost Dutchman gold mine - his life's dream; some search for
lost gold mines, others dream of building the perfect coil!) with whom I was
lucky enough to share a campfire and some beans in the high desert country
outside of San Berdoo many (many!) years ago.] But, a parenthetical digression
is as annoying as any other, so let me continue: And since the question is put
so succinctly now, what is the answer - in the broadest terms? I make the
following proposal, introducing a new acronym into the already bewildering maze
of abbreviations, initials, jargon, and other shorthand that I have read here
on the site. The acronym was born out of Bob's question and a small flight of
fancy. I imagine myself sitting in a lecture hall, all dark brown wood and
uncomfortable pews, the afternoon sun lighting motes of dust that glint,
hovering like tiny diamonds in the air. (I know you engineers need some of this
- so read on!) At the chalkboard in the front of the room is a dark-eyed.
fierce man, furiously scrawling symbols and equations, stirring up even more
clouds of dust. The swirling white lines and bizarre symbols he creates on the
board are dazzling, but their meanings are, to my unlearned mind, recondite,
occult, overwhelming. I impulsively raise my hand - and now it is too late to
withdraw it back to comfortable anonymity - the movement has already caught the
lecturer's eye! He stops, and with obvious pique, curtly nods his head at my
raised, now almost trembling, hand as he puts down his chalk and takes two,
slow, measured steps to the edge of the podium. He is not a large man, but he
looms over me, a giant. He is terrifying. But his face changes, becomes
gentle, concerned. He actually smiles. He speaks, a soft, well-modulated
baritone, "Yes?" This one simple word projects interest, compassion, focus. I
swallow hard and try to avoid looking directly into the bright intelligence
that streams from his eyes. Again I swallow once, twice, and then manage to
croak, "Dr. Tesla, what is SPECIAL about a Tesla coil?"
My acronym: WWTS - What Would Tesla Say?
Well, guys, please help me here, what WOULD he say? WWTS?
Your non-Ngineer fellow coiler (you guys hang around with some strange
people), ;.)> Noah
P.S. My better half says that if I don't learn to behave, you guys are going to
kick me off the list! Maybe Tesla would have kicked me out of his lecture!
WWTS?