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NIKOLA TESLA and ELECTRICITY: ARCHIVES

"Collective knowledge, wisdom and insight about Tesla."

Tesla was probably one of the most ingenious of the inventors following the industrial revolution.

His life was one of intrigue and mystery and he receieved less credit than he deserved during his lifetime for his many accomplishments.

The following are some notes I kept from back in the PRE-INTERNET days, as some individuals shared information, thoughts and ideas about Tesla, about his inventions and his life.

If you are interested in building a Tesla Coil or other experiemental device, there are many resources available in books and on the Internet.

I hope that the following information may be interesting and useful to you. It is presented in RAW form with no editing (simply because I am too busy to edit it!)

You are welcome to edit or use it as you wish, as far as I am concerned. Most of this is in the form of BBS messages, so that you have to ignore the headers and other extraneous bits!

Enjoy!

Bry


 
 BBS: _The_Attic_ [301-428-1970] 14.4K v.32b -
Date: 11-23-93 (17:49)             Number: 237
From: DAVE HALLIDAY                Refer#: 235
  To: JOSEPH FREIVALD               Recvd: NO  
Subj: 10KVA Tesla Coil               Conf: (9) Electronic
  
JF>For those of us who are wanna bees, What's a tesla coil, and why does it
  >get at least 10 posts per day?

JF>                                Just trying to catch up,
JF>                                Joe

Hi Joe - the Tesla coil is basically a high-frequency resonant air
transformer - oscillator system.   It was developed by a wonderful
genius / wildman Nikola Tesla ( 1856-1943 ) as a means of generating
very high voltage as well as power transmission.

Richard has a great two hour video tape of his work which he will send
to you for the following:  ten bucks, a blank good quality tape, and a
postage paid mailer

It is well worth it!  His "big" coil is about 4' tall and fires
continuous bolts of lightning from nine to fifteen feet!  This is a
point-to-point measure too so add in about 30% for the twists of the
arc!

I used to be into them when I was a teenager and had always thought
about getting back into it but the stuff he is working on has convinced
me!  I will be working with a couple friends ( sharing work 'n money )
and we are starting work on parts of it this thanksgiving holiday.


It is interesting too because the "classical" design for a tesla coil is
quite different from the actual best design.  The classical design goes
for long thin coils ( maybe 30" by 3" dia ) and just two or three turns
of wire for the primary whereas the actual best design calls for much
shorter / fatter coils and lots of primary turns ( 10 - 15 )

My friends and I have arrived on a basic design - 6" diameter and 30"
long, fixed spark gap, 12kV neon sign transformer and homemade
capacitor.  Richard mentioned that he once built one just like this and
he was able to get 5' bolts!

Anyway, the posts are well worth saving, send away for the video tape
too - it makes for fantastic viewing!

TTYL - Dave  ð:-)
 þ QMPro 1.51 þ WOW!!  *Nice* spark, Nick!   Nick?     NIKOLAI, WAKE UP!!

--- WM v3.10/92-0434
 * Origin: Advanced Software Concepts-WC3.90P-15.8,301-794-6496  (1:109/546)



 
 BBS: _The_Attic_ [301-428-1970] 14.4K v.32b -
Date: 12-04-93 (15:52)             Number: 247
From: DAVE HALLIDAY                Refer#: 114
  To: BRIAN CARLING                 Recvd: NO  
Subj: 10KVA Tesla Coil               Conf: (9) Electronic
  
BC]DH]My friends and I have arrived on a basic design - 6" diameter and 30"
BC]DH]long, fixed spark gap, 12kV neon sign transformer and homemade

BC]DH]Anyway, the posts are well worth saving, send away for the video tape
  ]DH]too - it makes for fantastic viewing!

BC]What is his address? ANy chance I could get the design details on your
  ]smaller unit?

OK - here is his address excerpted from a message:

]a two hour video tape in exchange for: One blank (high quality)
]VHS tape, a postage pre-paid return mailer, $10.00 to pay for my
]time and effort in seeing that you get a high quality, two hour,
]recording of my work. Note this offer is not made on my behalf to
]make any money, and I am not resposible for anybody's safety
]should they decide to replicate any of the experiments I perform.
]I will send a glossy print for $1.00 and a SASE.

RQ]  Richard T. Quick II, 
RQ]  10028 Manchester Rd., Suite 253,
RQ]Glendale, Missouri, 63122, USA


You could scale down the design but I feel that the amount of time and
money involved would be about the same regardless of what size coil you
are building so why not go for a bigger one.

The one I am building is 6" diameter, 30" tall and is powered by a bank
of four neon sign transformers.

Richard says that a coil like this will be capable of consistent five
foot long arcs.

Down the road, I would like to experiment with a "pocket" coil or a
tabletop model but you do need a very very good ground regardless of the
size so this isn't something that you could take somewhere and casually
set it up and expect to get good results.

Anyway, keep tuned to this conference and I will be letting people know
how things are progressing!

TTYL - Dave   ð:-)
 þ QMPro 1.51 þ Never Wear Battery-Powered Clothing to a Formal Event.

--- WM v3.10/92-0434
 * Origin: Advanced Software Concepts-WC3.90P-15.8,301-794-6496  (1:109/546)

Tesla Picture

 
 BBS: _The_Attic_ [301-428-1970] 14.4K v.32b -
Date: 12-07-93 (11:29)             Number: 178
From: DAVE HALLIDAY                Refer#: 177
  To: BRIAN CARLING                 Recvd: NO  
Subj: 10KVA Tesla Coil               Conf: (9) Electronic
  
BC>DH>RQ> DH> Have a bunch of 3/8" refrigeration tubing that I can use for
  >DH>  > DH> the primary -

BC>DH>RQ>Just fine for this sized primary coil, make sure it is long
  >DH>  >enough, though you can braze in a splice for added length.

BC>DH>RQ>His was not the first, and won't be the last!!! You should have
  >DH>  >seen the look on MY face while I was running it! I was 20' away
  >DH>  >and under cover and the sparks looked like they were going to
  >DH>  >wipe my nose for me.

BC>I am a rank beginner, but have some good background education in
  >electronics/electricity... Can you help me get started?
  >I want to build a large Tesla coil. I'm also interested in Van de Graaf
  >generators etc. I don't want to build something puny! I like the idea
  >of building with refrigeration coil type copper tubing - that sounds
  >like serious high power. I've built my own linear amplifier before
  >(not a kit!!) I'm watching the posts from you and Richard with great
  >interest!

Hi Brian - best thing to do would be to jump right in!  I hadn't touched
the stuff myself since high school but Richard's info is really clear and
his video tape is well worth getting.

The 6" dia / 30" long coil that my friends and I are building should be
capable of a 5' arc so although this doesn't quite qualify as "large" it
should be enough to make the neighbors *really* start to wonder about me
( not that they don't already )

There is a basic "learning curve" that needs to be accomplished and I
think that it would be best to do this on a medium sized coil such as
the one we are building - then progress to a monster  

Also, the really large coils need a really large source of high voltage
to power them ( power company distribution transformer ) and they are
very very loud - I think that Richard's 10" dia coil is about the upper
limit to home built coils ( it throws 10 to 15 foot arcs )

I was also into Van de Graaf generators too in high school - used cake
pans for the dome and was able to get 4" sparks on a dry day.  Didn't
have access to the tools to make a spun aluminum dome so the rolled
edges of the pans were the upper limiting factor for voltage.

Anyway, save all of the posts and send away for the video, get some
thin-wall PVC tubing and a couple thousand feet of magnet wire, some
neon-sign transformers, make one of the capacitors detailed in an
earlier post and fire away!

TTYL - Dave

 þ QMPro 1.51 þ "Bother", said Pooh, and deleted his message base...

--- WM v3.10/92-0434
 * Origin: Advanced Software Concepts-WC3.90P-15.8,301-794-6496  (1:109/546)


 
 BBS: _The_Attic_ [301-428-1970] 14.4K v.32b -
Date: 12-07-93 (17:20)             Number: 233
From: RICHARD QUICK                Refer#: 178
  To: DAVE LYLE                     Recvd: NO  
Subj: 10KVA Tesla Coil               Conf: (9) Electronic
  
I thought I would take a minute and expand a little more on the
subject of harmonics in Tesla systems. This should give you a
better idea of how these harmonics can be used, and help me to
better organize my thoughts on this very interesting subject.

I talked yesterday about theory. Today I would like to discuss a
little more practical application. Let me look at a system that I
have actually built and fired.

I have a normal Tesla secondary that resonates at about 200 kHz
with a discharge ternminal. When this coil is placed in a primary
and critically coupled, it will fire when the tank circuit is
tuned to 200 kHz. No problems here, this is a normal 1/4 wave
system. The tank circuit oscillates at 200 kHz, the secondary
coil with discharger resonates at 200 kHz, and the output from
the system is the 1/4 wave peak of a 200 kHz signal.

Now we remove the secondary from the primary and replace the
secondary with a coil that is 1/4 wave resonate at 400 kHz.
Take a heavy wire or pipe from the top of the 400 kHz coil and
make a connection to the bottom of the 200 kHz coil, now placed
some distance away. Leave the tank circuit alone.

When we fire the system, the secondary (or "driver" coil) is
still excited by, and resonating at, 200 kHz. The frequency of
the system has not changed. What has changed is the output of the
driver coil: It is no longer a 1/4 wave peak at 200 kHz, nor is
it a 1/4 wave peak at 400 kHz (the natural 1/4 wave resonate
freq. of this coil) it is 1/8 wave CURRENT at 200 kHz which
contains significant voltage. The frequency of the system has not
changed, nor has the natural frequency of any coil in the system.

What we have done is forced a shift in a 400 kHz 1/4 wave output
coil to a lower harmonic. In this case the coil is quite able to
resonate for 1/8th wave current output at 200 kHz. The natural
frequency of the coil does not change, nor does the tuned fre-
quency of the system change. The 200 kHz 1/4 wave coil at the end
of the system recieves high current 1/8th wave signal at 200 kHz.

Now we have set up a system that opens up many opportunities for
specialization and improvement. First thing that will be noticed
is that the transmission line is highly energized but runs at a
fairly low voltage by Tesla standards. We have removed the high
voltage 1/4 wave peak from the secondary in the system, and the
1/4 wave peak is now located on the discharge terminal of the end
resonator (the 200 kHz 1/4 wave "extra" coil).

Simply removing the 1/4 wave peak from the top of the secondary
has really reduced the stress on the system and allows for
substantial increases in throughput. One of the most important
factors here is that the 1/4 wave resonator (the extra coil) is
allowed unrestricted VSWR. In a normal 1/4 wave system, with the
1/4 wave peak located on top of the secondary, the VSWR in the
1/4 wave coil is restricted by the field flux interaction between
the primary and secondary. This field flux damps some of the VSWR
resonance. Now the resonator is able to "ring" freely, without
magnetic interferance.

The secondary in the system (driver coil) is still damped by
field flux, but we are no longer looking to this coil to perform
substantial VSWR voltage gains. What we want from this coil is
heavy 1/8th wave current. We are more than happy to get a simple
ratio of turns transformation from this coil, but as it turns out
we do get a significant VSWR voltage rise even on a coil forced
into 1/8th wave resonance. However since we want current and not
high voltage, we can couple this coil much much tighter to the
primary. Increases in coupling coefficients by a factor of four
may not be out of line in primary/secondary drivers fired under
oil. Even in air, coupling coefficients may be doubled or even
tripled. We may also use much heavier wire for higher Qs.

As coupling coefficients (magnetic interaction between coils) are
increased, energy transfer is increased. All of the sudden you
can squeeze in nearly twice as much power, without drawing a
single additional watt. In a normal 1/4 wave system, increasing
the coupling would force a destructive breakdown of the 1/4 wave
secondary, as all energy must be processed by the single
resonator. But, with an extra coil, and an 1/8th wave driver,
stress in the system is greatly reduced. The driver hands off
current to the extra coil as fast as energy is pumped in from the
primary, there is no high voltage 1/4 wave "pressure point" on
top of the driver coil to stress the windings, and the VSWR is
divided between two coils, not burdened on a single secondary.

Another gain is realized by the fact that the output of the 1/8
wave resonating driver contains 20% greater energies than a 1/4
wave output. Why? Well the total energy in a wave form at any
given point is a product of current and voltage. The 1/4 wave
output has voltage, but theoretically has 0 current, as it is a
peak on the wave form. The 1/8 wave harmonic however has voltage
and current both, and both are porportionally at their highest
value. In other words the 1/8 wave point is the location of the
greatest energy available anywhere on the wave form. Here you
find the highest value of voltage * current. It works out to 70%
of the wave energy as opposed to 50% available at the 1/4 wave
peak.

So lets look again at what we have gained. Greater coupling
between the primary and secondary for more efficent throughput.
Higher VSWR in the 1/4 wave resonator (extra coil) by removing
this coil from the damping effects of the magnetic field flux.
Higher energy transfer between the driver and extra coil by using
1/8th wave current in the transmission line. These gains are
easily realized before specific modifications are made to the
tank circuit and coils to take advantage of the setup. Improve-
ments can include higher break rates for more frequent excit-
ation; heavier wire, higher Q coils; higher input voltages;
and balanced capacitor tank circuits.
... And if all else fails...  Put another megavolt through it
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12


--- WM v3.10/93-0100
 * Origin: St. Louis Users Group BBS (314) 878-7614  (1:100/4.0)  (1:100/4)


 
 BBS: _The_Attic_ [301-428-1970] 14.4K v.32b -
Date: 12-07-93 (21:50)             Number: 220
From: TERRY SMITH                  Refer#: 214
  To: RICHARD QUICK                 Recvd: NO  
Subj: 10KVA Tesla Coil               Conf: (9) Electronic
  
 RQ> the drugstore. The only thing required was 56 hours of time in
 RQ> arranging the plates according to Bill. But he did end up with
 RQ> .03 uf 15 kv pulse capacitor in a five gallon bucket. It was
 RQ> quite a performer on his coil at 3600 watts!

 RQ> The novice coiler should think about the capacitor requirements
 RQ> and experiment some before beginning large scale homemade caps.

Why not use a G3 mica or, for more current, a vacuum cap?  With the time
value and instability of what you're describing, it sounds
like a couple hundred $$$ for a readily available
commercial cap would be a good comparative value.

What is the design ESR goal?

Terry


--- Maximus 2.01wb
 * Origin: Methylene Chloride:  Melts your CPU, & your hand! (1:141/1275)

Tesla Picture

 
 Area:    Electronics
  Msg:    #225
 Date:    12-09-93 11:03 (Public) 
 From:    Richard Quick            
 To:      All                      
 Subject: 10KVA Tesla Coil         
   
I have spent a few hours and archived all of the posts from this
thread. I have had several people ask repeat questions, and
others inform me that feed problems have caused them to miss some
material.

If you are interested in getting a complete and up to date
archive of all of this material, please mail me a floppy and a
SASE. I will be happy to send you my archives free of charge.

Richard T. Quick II
10028 Manchester Rd.
Suite 253
Glendale, MO 63122
USA
... And if all else fails...  Put another megavolt through it
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12

--- WM v3.10/93-0100
 * Origin: St. Louis Users Group BBS (314) 878-7614  (1:100/4.0)  (1:100/4)


   
 Area:    Electronics
  Msg:    #228
 Date:    12-10-93 17:25 (Public) 
 From:    Richard Quick            
 To:      Brian Carling            
 Subject: 10KVA Tesla Coil         
   
Brian;

Dave is correct about the learning curve in these systems. You
need to learn to power, filter, ground, tune, quench, and couple
coils before you can appreciate the complexities and respons-
ibilities of a "monster" system. Many would shrug this off, but
trust me, a big coil is quite dangerious.

I would recommend starting with a 6" diam. secondary coil running
around 1500 watts input power from a bank of parallel wired neon
sign transformers. A system this size would be large enough to
perform a multitude of experiments, powerful enough to throw 4
foot sparks with ease (and larger sparks with additional neons
banked in) and upgradable to an 8" diam. secondary if the tank
circuit is built with a little forethought. The cost for a system
like this will typically run around $150.00 from start to finish
if you follow some of my tips. Generally it will take a month or
two to design, accumulate components and materials, and
construct.

I have posted a tremendious amount of information regarding coils
in this thread in the last few months. Most of this information,
and nearly all of the details on system design and construction
are available from my archives. The archives cover: neon
transformer cores and building up Tesla power supplies from them,
secondary coil design, primary coil design, capacitor design
(including complete instructions for the .02 uf, 10 kvac pulse
discharge rolled capacitor), toroid discharge terminals, grounds,
control circuits, filters, quenching, Q factors, spark gaps,
etc.. Send me a disk and a SASE, and I will send you back
everything I have.

I also have some GIF files I made showing detailed diagrams for
two of the best spark gaps I have used for neon powered coils in
the 1.5 kVA power range, as well as some related text files that
have not been seen in this conference. I will be more than happy
to copy everything onto the disk. I warn you, these files add up
to over 150 pages of detailed information. There is a lot to
learn. But I will also tell you that if you can't build a really
hot coil from the information I have, you never will. This
information is free to any who write me, just send a disk and a
SASE or mailer.

Again, if you are interested in seeing some of my equipment in
action, send for the video tape. The tape is $10.00, and you must
send a high quality VHS blank video tape and a first class
postage pre-paid, return addressed, mailer. The tape will be
return mailed the next day in most cases. The video tape shows a
lot of high voltage stuff, and I must state that I cannot be
responsible for the safety of anyone who attempts to duplicate
the experiments or equipment shown.

My address is always:

Richard T. Quick II
10028 Manchester Rd.
Suite 253
Glendale, MO  63122
USA

... And if all else fails...  Put another megavolt through it
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12

--- WM v3.10/93-0100
 * Origin: St. Louis Users Group BBS (314) 878-7614  (1:100/4.0)  (1:100/4)

   
 Area:    Electronics
  Msg:    #227
 Date:    12-10-93 16:15 (Public) 
 From:    Richard Quick            
 To:      Terry Smith              
 Subject: 10KVA Tesla Coil         
   
 -=> SEZ  Terry Smith to Richard Quick <=-

 RQ> the drugstore. The only thing required was 56 hours of time
 RQ> in arranging the plates according to Bill. But he did end up
 RQ> with .03 uf 15 kv pulse capacitor in a five gallon bucket.
 RQ> It was quite a performer on his coil at 3600 watts!

 RQ> The novice coiler should think about the capacitor
 RQ> requirements and experiment some before beginning large
 RQ> scale homemade caps.

 TS> Why not use a G3 mica or, for more current, a vacuum cap?

Mica is not as good for homemade caps as poly, they are lossy,
and they get hot. Poly has a lower RF dissapation factor, is
cheaper, and easier to obtain. Commerical mica caps that are
found surplus may be used, but they are not as high Q as poly.

Not many amateurs are running the vacuum systems or have the
equipment and design skills to produce homemade vacuum caps. I
have priced commercial units surplus, and would not find much use
for a vacuum cap unless it was perhaps employed as a tuning cap
on a small magnifier.

 TS> With the time value and instability of what you're
 TS> describing, it sounds like a couple hundred $$$ for a
 TS> readily available commercial cap would be a good comparative
 TS> value.

Not for a simple hobbiest. Most coilers are looking for cost
effective and flexible designs. They would rather put in the time
stacking or rolling to build a cap cheaply, than send a check to
the cap company for a custom commercial unit. After you have a
few coils under your belt, and you can design systems that you
know are going to require such and such values, you then start to
look to a commercial unit to reduce size, increase efficiency,
and reduce costs. This is more often true than not in large
systems that grow from the work done with homemade or salvaged
caps.

60% of the capacitance in my lab is homemade. Now if I added the
total value of this capacitance against the cost of a single
commercial unit, a commercial unit would be more cost effective,
and this does not even include the time invested. But my homemade
caps consist of 14 individual units. The number of units gives me
voltage and value flexibility not available in one or two
commercial units. To reproduce my homemade array in 14 commercial
units would not be cost effective.

Since I started small, I went homemade. As my work grew, so did
my homemade capacitors. I already had most of the materials, had
aquired the design and construction skills, and could increase my
power levels with a couple days work building a few more caps.

When I decided to go to the pole pig, I shopped for commercial
caps to drive the system. I knew exactly the voltage rating that
would be required, and the value I was going to need. Not paper
values mind you: I had set the system up with homemade caps and
juggled the system around to find the tune spots I wanted to hit.
The bill on my two .05 uf 45kvac pulse caps came to $600.00, and
I had to wait nearly two months for deliverly once I knew exactly
what I needed.

The bottom line on homemade caps is that they are cheap, built
out of readily available materials, and offer high Qs. The
instabilities are 90% resultant of poor techniques in
construction or operation, such as dirty plates and dielectrics,
trapped air, improper break-in of a newly constructed unit, or
running with the gaps set to wide. Every failure I have
experienced resulted from one of the above. Since the unit was
homemade, I was able to repair the cap and return it to service.
Built with cleanliness and durability in mind, homemade caps will
work quite hard for a long time. It has been nearly a year since
I have had any problems with a homemade unit. The designs I have
mentioned work, give great spark, and are not too expensive to
make for the beginner. If you want to pay $$$ for commercial
units to experiment with, please feel free, the commerical units
are quite good.

Down the road a bit I will post the addresses of a couple of
commerical manufacturers I have dealt with. Both of these
companies have a $150.00 minimum order with a 6-8 week delivery
wait.

... And if all else fails...  Put another megavolt through it
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12

--- WM v3.10/93-0100
 * Origin: St. Louis Users Group BBS (314) 878-7614  (1:100/4.0)  (1:100/4)

   
 Area:    Electronics
  Msg:    #229
 Date:    12-11-93 01:16 (Public) 
 From:    Richard Quick            
 To:      Terry Smith              
 Subject: 10KVA Tesla Coil         
   

BTW,

I have several commercial micas that I have experimented with.
The discharge from a coil using commercial micas tends toward a
spindly, violet discharge with very little current behind it.
The run times with these micas is very short, and I have damaged
a commercial mica cap from overheating with very short runs times
at fairly low voltage. The problem with commercial micas is
really a combination of high RF dissipation factors, and the
inability of most commercial micas to effectively pulse
discharge.

The homemade polyethylene caps give much superior performance.
They don't get hot. In fact I have never even gotten a homemade
cap warm. The reason for this is that poly has a very low RF
dissipation factor, and when mineral oil is used as a coolant/
corona supressant there is very low loss, very little dielectric
heating, and what heat does form is sunk to the oil. The spark
from a coil run with poly caps is blue-white, thick, and violent
with a hefty current peak behind it. Nearly all of the modern
commercial caps designed for RF pulse discharging are plastic
film types covered in oil.

The difference between the two capacitor types is vast. Plastic
film caps are much better performers in the Tesla tank circuit.
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12

--- WM v3.10/93-0100
 * Origin: St. Louis Users Group BBS (314) 878-7614  (1:100/4.0)  (1:100/4)


   
 Area:    Electronics
  Msg:    #237
 Date:    12-10-93 23:51 (Public) 
 From:    Dave Lyle                
 To:      Richard Quick            
 Subject: 10Kva Tesla Coil         
   
RQ>I have a normal Tesla secondary that resonates at about 200 kHz
RQ>with a discharge ternminal. When this coil is placed in a primary
RQ>and critically coupled, it will fire when the tank circuit is
RQ>tuned to 200 kHz. No problems here, this is a normal 1/4 wave
RQ>system. The tank circuit oscillates at 200 kHz, the secondary
RQ>coil with discharger resonates at 200 kHz, and the output from
RQ>the system is the 1/4 wave peak of a 200 kHz signal.

RQ>Now we remove the secondary from the primary and replace the
RQ>secondary with a coil that is 1/4 wave resonate at 400 kHz.

Hi Richard,

I was actually wondering what would be the effect of going the
opposite way.

What if you removed the _primary_ and replaced it with one that
resonated at 600 Khz.  Now the secondary would be resonate
at 3/4 wave, and the voltage/current distribution would be:

At the base.........................Current peak, Voltage null
At the 1/4 wave point
   (1/3 of the way up the coil).....Voltage peak, Current null
At the 1/2 wave point
   (2/3 of the way up the coil).....Current peak, Voltage null
At the 3/4 wave point
    (Top of coil)...................Voltage peak, Current null

I suppose you would have trouble preventing a breakdown at the
1/4 wave (1/3 of coil) point, but would there be any advantages
to the higher frequency operation?

--- 
 * Origin: The County Line BBS Node1 414-476-8468 (1:154/100)

Tesla Picture

 
 BBS: _The_Attic_ [301-428-1970] 14.4K v.32b -
Date: 12-14-93 (14:30)             Number: 163
From: DAVE HALLIDAY                Refer#: 162
  To: BRIAN CARLING                 Recvd: NO  
Subj: 10KVA Tesla Coil               Conf: (9) Electronic
  
BC>thanks for the info. I am going to see what I can find at the
  >local library also.

Although I have not really researched Tesla's life all that much, from
what I gather, he kept critical stuff from his patent applications
because he had been screwed by Marconi and others.  You need to read
between the lines.


BC>DH>You could scale down the design but I feel that the amount of time and
  >DH>money involved would be about the same regardless of what size coil you
  >DH>are building so why not go for a bigger one.

BC>No, I want to build the BIG one!

How big?

BC>DH>The one I am building is 6" diameter, 30" tall and is powered by a bank
  >DH>of four neon sign transformers.

BC>That doesn't sound too huge to construct...

It struck me as a nice size - large enough to produce nice 5' arcs but
small enough as not to overwhelm my workshop or my budget.

BC>Do you connect the neon sign transformers in series or what?

A combination - the transformers are 12kV at 30mA so I will get 24kV at
60mA by using four of them.


BC>DH>Down the road, I would like to experiment with a "pocket" coil or a
  >DH>tabletop model but you do need a very very good ground regardless of the
  >DH>size so this isn't something that you could take somewhere and casually
  >DH>set it up and expect to get good results.

BC>Why can't the one you describe be a "table-top" model?
  >6" around by 30" tall would fit on most tables!

Yeah but I was thinking about one that was maybe 3" dia and 12" tall.

That would be impressive if it threw out foot-long arcs and from what
all of the other designs of this type do, the arcs are several times
longer than the length of the primary.

Imagine something sitting on the table, a foot tall and two feet or so
in diameter ( the flat primary coil ) throwing off two foot long arcs!

BC>DH>Anyway, keep tuned to this conference and I will be letting people know
  >DH>how things are progressing!

BC>I'll watch eagerly!

Hey - start planing something!  Get some neon transformers, some stuff
to make the capacitors and a bunch of magnet wire and start building!

TTYL - Dave
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