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TC Handbook



Original poster: "Gary Johnson by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <gjohnson-at-ksu.edu>

I agree that we need a textbook/handbook on Tesla coils that is easier to
deal with than the archives. When I found this listserv several years ago, I
started keeping the most interesting emails in folders like caps, chokes,
gaps, etc. I now have 15 floppies on my desk with these folders. I rarely
use them because it is so overwhelming to look through these many megabytes!

I suggest that we start with the topics that are mature and that most every
coiler needs to know something about. A topic, like capacitors, would get a
chapter (or several chapters) in a Handbook. I am thinking of .pdf files (or
similar) so that revisions are not too difficult. A topic would have
multiple authors, or a single author with multiple reviewers. Once a topic
was posted, there could be a one or two month period for review by the
coiling community at large, and then a "final" posting. At that point, the
chapter would have similar status of an IEEE Standard. People could use it
with some assurance that it is correct.

A topic might start off easy (high school algebra), progress to "one star"
(circuit theory I), and maybe to "two star" (graduate coursework in
electromagnetic theory). Or maybe we should have two Handbooks, one broadly
applicable for beginners through circuit theory I and the other for advanced
and specialized topics.

I suggest the following topics for the first edition:

1. Overview of Tesla coils.
2. Capacitors.
3. Inductors.
4. Transformers.
5. Chokes.
6. Gaps.
7. Construction practices.
8. Safety issues.

My concept of style and content for the first four topics in this list are
the first four chapters of my Solid State Tesla Coil book at
http://eece.ksu.edu/~gjohnson. The group is welcome to use these chapters as
a starting point for the Handbook. Note that it is easier to edit or
critique something already in print than to write something from scratch. My
experience in textbook writing (Wind Energy Systems, Prentice-Hall, 1985)
indicates that significant changes will probably be necessary to get these
chapters into a form that most of us would like. I am not too thin-skined,
as long as you don't get too personal in your comments.

Topics like input impedance and solid state drivers are probably not mature
enough to deserve Handbook status. Topics like vacuum tube drivers are
probably mature enough, but may be too specialized to be in the basic
Handbook. The whole body of Tesla coil information is immense, but I think
we could put together something very useful in perhaps 100-200 pages.
Additional topics can be added as people are moved to write about them. 

Gary Johnson