Re: MY Tesla Coil:Star Wars: (fwd)

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Tesla List Moderator <mod1-at-poodle.pupman-dot-com>

This was definitely a lightning supression system.  I read an article on
it in Scientific American several years ago.
-- Chip

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 10:36:22 -0800
From: John Williams <jwilliams-at-edm-dot-net>
To: Tesla list <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Subject: Re: MY Tesla Coil:Star Wars:

Nice diagram, also nice the way the edges of the page are missing so
we can't go look up the source and find out what the article
was about or where it came from.

Like others have said, it looks much more like an experiment in
laser lightning arresting than a weapon system.

There are a couple of problems with it as a weapon system.  One
being that there is a well known problem with using a laser
to punch through anything that has any significan thickness,
like a block of stone or several miles of atmosphere.

Once you create a plasma it likes to sit there an go right on soaking
up energy.  It doesn't transmit that energy efficiently to the matter
behind it.  That is why laser mining/tunnel boring devices never
came to be.  That is also why there has never been a large scale
laser lightning suppression systems installed.  I believe the power
required to ionize a path with a single laser grows exponentially
with the length of path to be ionized.  There was a group working
to bypass this problem by using two lasers that would reach
ionization energy where the beams crossed.  The idea being to
scan a "hole" in the sky, but I haven't heard anything much about
it since the original article, and at any rate, at some point to maintain
the desired ionization energy where the beams cross you have to
jack up the power of the scanning beams to overcome atmospheric
attenuation.  At some point you reach ionization energy in the
two source beams and you are back to where you started.

The other little problem is that if your laser has enough energy to
ionize the air and you fire it passed a high voltage source, like
a really poweful tesla coil, the path to ground is not up into the
sky into an ever more insulated environment but back in the
direction of the laser system and ground plane.

I add my vote to the "Nice fantasy" crowd.

See ya...

	John

>Original poster: "Albert Hassick" <uncadoc-at-juno-dot-com>
>
> Ok, list members, A long time ago in a galaxy far away! Here is what My
>Tesla Coil is being used for.  It is one of our government projects (do
>we still have a government?), and it is a monster of a coil. Seething
>with power and channelled to a big laser and focused with a giant
>telescope lens.  Yes, it is Tesla's Needle in the Sky!  Used for
>destroying incoming warheads or whatever!  One thing for sure, and that
>is that whatever this high powered needle hits is a goner for sure! Tesla
>was wwwwaaaayyyyyy ahead of his time.  I think the feds are using Tesla's
>lost Colorado Springs notebook to help them envision how to build and use
>this weapon of defense (offense).  Is this neat or what!   Just think of
>the possibilities the next time you throw that big knife switch to
>energize your coil!    AL.
>
>http://hot-streamer-dot-com/TeslaCoils/Temp/teslapic1.jpg
>