[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

Re: Tesla Coils and Lamp Tests -

Hi John,

At 05:55 PM 2/19/99 +0000, you wrote:
>
>  Malcolm, Reinhart, All -
>
>  This may be a good time to discuss what we think we know about how the
>LED, fluorescent, and incandescent lamps are energized by the Tesla coil or
>radio transmitter. These lamps need a source of electrical energy to be
>lighted. How does this energy transfer from the Tesla coil or radio
>transmitter to the lamps? What are the differences in the energy transfer
>methods between the two? Only a few milliamps are required for the LEDs but
>much more current is needed for the other lamps. Note that these lamps are
>transmitting electromagnetic energy in the form of light frequencies.

I won't address the radio transmitter side of this since it is off topic
and the moderator will reject it :-))

However, the Tesla coil's ability to illuminate light bulbs and such that
contain various low pressure gasses is well known.  Low pressure gasses
don't need much energy to give off light.  They actually look brighter than
they are.  The process of ionizing gasses is much more efficient, occurs
very quickly (uS or nS) and can be done at far lower currents than say a
filament bulb.  Thus, the energy of a Tesla coil can light them with ease.

The phenomena is straight forward.  When a Tesla coil energizes, the
electrostatic fields around the coil are very high.  The E-fields are
powerful, high voltage, and can easily supply the relatively small currents
needed to ionize gasses in a tube.  Grounding one end or holding onto the
tube just gives a greater current do to the lower resistance to ground.
One end of the tube is near ground, the other is place in a fields of say
200000 volt / meter.  Obviously 200000 volts (across a 48 inch tube) will
cause breakdown in the tube and it will light.  The E-fields are fairly
"stiff" and can supply enough current to the tube to illuminate it very
well.  The pulses are brief but the energy in those pulses is very high
(the instantaneous power is well into the megawatt region) so the tube
lights brightly.

The fact the light from these tubes is also a form of electromagnetic
energy is not really relevant since it is a function of the ionization
process. 

You "can" illuminate a filament bulb too, but the power required is very
high and a great load is placed on the coil.  With say 1000 watts going
"into" a Tesla coil, it is not great challenge to trap 10 or 20 watts on
the output to light a filament bulb.  However, that is not a very efficient
system at all. A battery would be a far better and simpler choice of power
source.  Thus, there are 50 million homes illuminated by standard AC power
while the number illuminated with true Tesla coils has remained fairly
constant over the last 100 years at ZERO! :-))  This is why the subject of
using Tesla coils to power things and the "free energy" topic is heavily
moderated.  You "can" set such a system to light a few bulbs but it would
not be at all practical compared to every other power distribution system
available.  Also, operating a Tesla coil continuously for days and weeks on
end WILL attract the FCC who WILL put an end to your little power system
right then and there!!

>
>  Faraday discovered that changing magnetic fields could induce currents in
>conductors. Maxwell predicted electromagnetic waves that consisted of
>electric and magnetic fields at right angles to each other. Hertz discovered
>these waves. How are these discoveries and others being used for
>transferring the electrical energy?

As a few of Richard Hull's video tapes show, you can have a second Tesla
coil secondary and torrid system near a regular Tesla coil and get nice
sparks from the second "disconnected" coil (the second coil is grounded and
tuned to the same frequency).  The experiments of Richard and Alex are
really neat!  This is from the second coil transferring the E-field energy
(and perhaps some magnetic coupling form the hundreds of amps in the
primary) back to resonating energy in the second coil system.  The second
coil has fairly high Q and will develop a voltage needed to cause breakout
(which lowers the Q drastically).  Richard's tapes demonstrate that placing
a conductive sheet between the coils will stop the effect.  This is due to
the conductor blocking the E-field effects.  Again, I forget the numbers of
the videos but Richard Hull can sell them to you if you are really interested.

>
>  Many coilers (including myself) have made these tests but have been very
>vague in describing how the energy that is lighting the lamps was obtained. 

I have done a fair amount a field mapping and testing using field sensing
attennas.  I can assure you that the fields around an operating Tesla coil
are very powerful and can easily light gas tubes or produce other such
effects.  There is a simple way to get a very rough idea of these fields.
If you guess that the output voltage is 400000 volts (probably pretty
typical) and the secondary current is say 10 amps.  Then you can guess that
the E-fields are very roughly 400000 volts per meter for a typical coil.
Since the secondary current is stored as in the capacitance of the
secondary system in the space around the Tesla coil.  You can divide the
secondary current by the area of a surface around the coil and get a rough
idea of the current per unit of area.  For 10 amps and say 10 square
meters, the current is 1 amp per square meter around the coil or 400kW of
instant available power (really kVA) per every square meter of area.
Easily enough to illuminate any gas tube.  If this energy were continuos
instead of pulsed, the effects would be very dramatic as in the case of
large tube coils.

I don't think the RF nature or the specific frequency has any real affect
on any of this.  Almost all of our coils run in the 100-500kHz range which
really is rather narrow.  However, larger low frequency coils and smaller
high frequency coils show the same effects.  Very high frequencies may do
some other funny things but they probably would no longer be "Tesla coil"
effects at that point.

I wrote this rather quickly and I am not a physics type so forgive small
errors and correct any big ones...  

	Terry

PS - Please keep posts on this topic practical, on the subject of Tesla
coils, and of general interest and usefulness to us all.  I haven't
rejected a "free energy" post for almost 10 hours now! :-)  There ARE
important energy transfer effects involved with Tesla coils despite the
"pie in the sky" impractical stuff.  I hate to reject all posts on a topic
like this just because it has such a high probability of going off topic.
I may be making a mistake supporting this subject but I killed it once and
I can kill it again :-))  I probably WILL have to, but hopefully, we can
get some use out of it till then...


>
>  John Couture
>
>------------------------------------- 
>
>
>snip.........