Triggered spark gap

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Triggered spark gap
From: "Doug Brunner" <dabrunner-at-earthlink-dot-net> (by way of Terry Fritz <terryf-at-verinet-dot-com>)
Date: Wed, 04 Nov 1998 19:55:17 -0700
Approved: terryf-at-verinet-dot-com


I'm currently playing around with a design for a triggered spark gap, and
I'd like to get reactions on it. It would be a 12" to 24" long pair of 1"
diameter copper pipe electrodes, spaced with a gap of .8" between them, and
another 10 AWG solid copper electrode placed parallel to the other two
electrodes, so there would be a gap of .9" between it and either of the
other electrodes. There would be a variable-power air blast over the whole
assembly. The third electrode and one of the others would be connected to
the output of a spark coil (more on that in a moment), and the two with a
gap of .8" would be the two electrodes of the main gap. The spark coil
would have a 1:500 turns ratio, and would be (probably) air-cored. Its
primary would be connected to a 6JB6 amplifier tube (I have a couple of
them in my parts box), with a plate voltage of 120V, which would be fed by
a signal generator. Next, I would set the generator for square-wave output
(the spark coil would put out quick pulses of HV), and tune its frequency
for half of whatever break rate I wanted.
  
Thanks in advance for your comments and time in reading this.
  
           --Mr. Postman (Doug Brunner)
                <<mailto:dabrunner-at-earthlink-dot-net>dabrunner-at-earthlink-dot-net>