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Re: spark gaps
At 10:25 PM 10/17/96 -0600, you wrote:
>> Subject: spark gaps
>
>>From hullr-at-whitlock-dot-comThu Oct 17 21:33:47 1996
>Date: Thu, 17 Oct 1996 10:20:23 -0700
>From: Richard Hull <hullr-at-whitlock-dot-com>
>To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
>Subject: Re: spark gaps
>
>Tesla List wrote:
>>
>> >From mhammer-at-midwest-dot-netWed Oct 16 23:00:56 1996
>> Date: Wed, 16 Oct 1996 19:39:16 -0500 (CDT)
>> From: Mike Hammer <mhammer-at-midwest-dot-net>
>> To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
>> Subject: spark gaps
>> Questions.
>>
>> 3. I have seen references to vacuum gaps in the archives but very few
details.
>> Could somebody who has built one give some details and what kind of
results
>> were obtained.
>
>
>
>
>The details are.... put the series gaps in a box or plenum so that no air
>can get in except by straining through the "teeth" of the gap. Next,
>mount a vacuum cleaner blower assembly to the box in such a manner that
>cool outside air must be sucked through the working gaps into the box and
>exhaust from the blower. We show several of these during construction
>and operation on our video tape reports. The results were excellent.
>
>R. Hull
>
Looks like I will be building a vacuum gap. I kind of had already thought
I would be going this route but wanted some input from the list.
>
>>
>> 4. The message I get from the list archives is that rotary gaps are not
>> for neons. The message is loud and clear that using a rotary on a neon
>> is inviting transformer failure. Why? What is it that promotes a failure?
>> I'm not likely to build a rotary anytime soon but would like to know just
>> the same.
>
>
>
>The rotary forces a break rate!!!! Most beginners run the things at
>countless billions of breaks per second! Somehow or other, they find the
>20,000 rpm motors and put 24 studs on a 6" diameter wheel and hum the
>thing up. This shortens the lifetime of a neon sign by about 10,000%
>over just shorting the ouputs together, plugging it in and walking away.
>
>The series static gap allows the, naturally weak, neon transformer to
>supply energy and quench the spark in its own good time and at levels
>relatively comfortable to its natural desire to squelch the output
>voltage. This avoids any ill timed interupts and reflections from the
>tank. Still, the transformer is doomed!
>
>R. Hull, TCBOR
>
>
I got a couple of other responses with basically the same story.
I does indeed make sense now and I should have realized what would happen
if I had thought about it.
Thanks to all
Mike Hammer
mhammer-at-midwest-dot-net