Re: Slow Building Streamers

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <FutureT-at-aol-dot-com>

In a message dated 4/5/03 2:44:10 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes:

David,

This effect may be caused by a shift in the capacitance as the
capacitor heats up.  Some of the Fair Radio caps are known to
fail in Tesla coil duty due to their Mylar dielectric.

John

>.  This is where I noticed the slow streamer growth.  The torrid was
>too small, giving lots of breakouts that grew in length, almost like I had
>a variac, and was ramping up the power slowly over about 15-30sec.  The
>only difference was the sound of the gap remained the same throughout this
>time.  Gap temps after 1min were warm but not uncomfortable to touch.
>
>Any ideas on what's causing this?
>
>David E Weiss
>