Re: theory(?) for long sparks

To: "'Tesla List'" <tesla-at-poodle.pupman-dot-com>
Subject: Re: theory(?) for long sparks
From: Tesla List <tesla-at-stic-dot-net>
Date: Thu, 4 Dec 1997 18:55:05 -0600
Approved: tesla-at-stic-dot-net


From: 	Jim Lux[SMTP:jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net]
Sent: 	Thursday, December 04, 1997 10:40 AM
To: 	Tesla List
Subject: 	Re: theory(?) for long sparks



> From: 	Edward V. Phillips[SMTP:ed-at-alumni.caltech.edu]
> Sent: 	Wednesday, December 03, 1997 1:36 PM
> To: 	tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> Subject: 	Re: theory(?) for long sparks
> 
> "That truly amazing 100+ meter spark in Bazelyan was produced by a
> relatively low 5MV but with a rise time in the hundreds of microseconds
and
> a fall time in the tens of milliseconds."
> 	Is there any verification that that report is true?

Photograph as Figure 1.2, page 4, in the recent book. Unless of course it
is "disinformation". As someone who works with forced perspective
miniatures on a daily basis, I can say that faking the picture would be
easy, but why lie....

> By the way, someone published some stuff here a while back about
> initiating the spark by discharging a capacitor bank into a
> very fine wire, which vaporized and formed a conducting channel
> along which current flowed.  Seems to me that would be very
> easy to do, taking only the wire which could be strung very
> easily.
> Ed
It is a pretty standard technique for impressive demonstrations of large
impulse generators. With 3 kJ at 15 kV, you can explode a #30 copper wire
about 2 meters long, assuming parasitic L is low enough to keep the action
up. It is a real explosion, shock wave and all, not just a fast melt and
flash. More at: http://home.earthlink-dot-net/~jimlux/artlight.htm