Re: Power arcing on a rotary(?)

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: Power arcing on a rotary(?)
From: Richard Hull <hullr-at-whitlock-dot-com>
Date: Mon, 11 Nov 1996 17:07:23 -0800
Tesla List wrote:
> 
> >From chip-at-poodle.pupman-dot-comSun Nov 10 22:30:57 1996
> Date: Sun, 10 Nov 1996 22:30:43 -0700 (MST)
> From: Chip Atkinson <chip-at-poodle.pupman-dot-com>
> To: Tesla List <tesla-at-poodle.pupman-dot-com>
> Subject: Power arcing on a rotary(?)
> 
> Greetings,
> 
> Jon Bazemore, a fellow list subscriber, came up to my house today to see
> my coil.  One of the things that I thought I would try with him was to
> put a static gap in series with my rotary  I had the static gap tapped at
> two 0.030" gaps, as well as the rotary with about 0.060" on each side,
> giving a total of 0.060" (approximately) for the static gap, and 0.120
> between the stationary and moving electrodes on the rotary, for a grand
> total of 0.180" (approximately).
> 
> Normally, the gap fires with a snappy sound and no elongation of the arc
> between the moving and stationary electrodes.  This time, with the static
> gap in series, I got a 2" long stretched out arc around the
> circumference.  Not surprisingly the spark output diminished drastically.
> 
> Any ideas?
> 
> One other thing to note -- the series gap wasn't truly in series with the
> rotary, it was on the other side of the primary inductor.
> 
>         - RG --at---SG--||--
>        |_________________|
> 
> (RG: Rotary gap, SG: stationary gap, ||: cap, -at-: primary inductor)
> 
> Chip
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=->  Chip Atkinson
>  http://bhs.broo.k12.wv.us/homepage/chip/info.htm
>  --- Everyone is someone else's weirdo. ---
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Chip, 

 This  is a long series string!!!!  I assume power from the HV xfrmer 
came in across the cap in this string as shown above.  It is the only way 
it will work properly.

If placed across the string, at the ends, the cap could only charge by 
arcing through the gaps!  More data please.

Ricard Hull, TCBOR

[ Duh!  Now I feel stupid.  Yes, I had the thing set up so that the 
  transformer has to arc over the gap to charge the cap.  I'll reconfigure 
  and try it this week -- Chip ]