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A figure of merit
I think Mike Nolley has the better point here: Any one figure of merit
is not as good as an overall description, encompassing spark length,
spark appearance, primary voltage, source volt-amps and so forth. So
merely reporting, "Wow!...I just produced an 87 ft. spark & it only took
10 KW!!" without at the same time noting that it required 440 V 3 phase,
a half ton of hardware, a 12 KV primary source and the forbearance of
one's neighbors for 1/4 mile around is not quite enough.
Ruud de Graaf's point as to mm/W and Malcolm Watts' as to primary energy
are well taken but I still push for low primary voltage being a "good"
feature--as well as purity of excitation (so to speak).
And there's no reason at all why some other coil shouldn't do better than
mine! As I've said, seems to me that primary amperes x primary turns is
all that the secondary "sees"--with the resultant magnetic field
well-coupled or not-so-well coupled to the secondary. Someone else with
more N x I and/or a better coupling configuration is going to "beat" me.
But someone else who requires one hand on the variac, one eye (suitably
protected) on the spark gap, the other hand well away from that 12 KV and
one ear out for the irate neighbor who wants to watch "Jeopardy" may not
be doing as well as me.
Ken Herrick
(How did I get into this, anyway? I'm not really a competitor!)
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