Tesla Coil Operation (was -Wire length,resonance, and

To: "'Tesla List'" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Subject: Tesla Coil Operation (was -Wire length,resonance, and
From: Tesla List <tesla-at-stic-dot-net>
Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 23:16:07 -0500
Approved: tesla-at-stic-dot-net

----------
From:  terryf-at-verinet-dot-com [SMTP:terryf-at-verinet-dot-com]
Sent:  Wednesday, May 27, 1998 12:07 PM
To:  tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject:  Re: Tesla Coil Operation  (was -Wire length,resonance, and 

John, Malcolm,

>
>----------
>From:  Malcolm Watts [SMTP:MALCOLM-at-directorate.wnp.ac.nz]
>Subject:  Re: Tesla Coil Operation  (was -Wire length,resonance, and 
>
>A comment:
>
>> From:  John H. Couture [SMTP:couturejh-at-worldnet.att-dot-net]
>> Sent:  Monday, May 25, 1998 1:31 PM
>> To:  Tesla List
>> Subject:  Re: Tesla Coil Operation  (was -Wire length,resonance, and Q) 
> 
><snip>
>>   Only coilers and others who understand completely how a Tesla coil works
>> will be able to explain why the 100% transfer is possible in spite of
>> hysteresis, eddy currents, leakage flux, etc,
>
>I am bound to say that those of us who have approached that level of 
>understanding know why that statement is not true. Our test gear 
>tells us it's not as well.
>
>Malcolm
>

Obviously, no one has a Tesla coil that operates at 100% efficiency.  I
think John was trying to point out that all the losses are due to resistive
effects from I^2R losses.  If one uses none magnetic materials the
hysteresis loss should go away.  In free space the magnetic fields would
tend to stay in the coils.  Consider a coil that has no resistance (perhaps
super cooled), no breakout, and no nearby objects to steal magnetic flux.
Would such a coil run forever once triggered?  Perhaps a long time.  The AC
fields generate forces inside the inductors which move and contract them
slightly and do real work with each cycle. There are also dielectric losses
especially in the capacitors that would still be a factor.  John may
consider these as I^2R losses or perhaps super cooling would eliminate this.
Of course, the plasma inside a conventional spark gap would need to be
eliminated too.

        Given a charged primary cap, can one get 100 percent of the energy
into the secondary capacitance with 100 percent efficiency.  Not in the real
world...  Can the secondary pick up 100 percent of the primary's flux that
is available.  No. but it can get very close in a very special setup.  

My $0.02 worth.

        Terry Fritz