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Re: Griffith Park Observatory, Oudin TC

Hello,

	I saw this coil in operation more than fourty years
ago.  It was a summer outting with a youth group in Long
Beach, California.  It was the first such device I had ever seen
and I was so young I don't even recall what age I was.  I was
so small I had to be picked up to see over the rim wall of
the Focault Pendulum pit, which is about three and a half
feet tall.
	I haven't seen the coil in operation recently but
I have never seen it doing what it did that very first time.
The arcs didn't just reach out and lick the side walls now
and then.  They flared out, a livid ultraviolet blue, in
continuous contact with the walls on both sides and danced
about, climbing and breaking, then flashing low again.
	From that memory I have no trouble believeing
that the coil is capable of much greater distances than
the current enclosure permits, provided it were restored
to its' original condition.
	In the sixties a friend of mine and I managed to
wangle getting into the enclosure so see the system close
up, and to see the pole pig under the enclosure that powers
the beast.  On that day the coil had degraded so much that
the arcs never came close to the walls.
	The very last thing I had heard about it was that
there was some thought of removing it from the museum
because of the assumed association of electromagnetic
fields and cancer risk of a few years ago.  It's nice to know
it is still there.

	John Williams



>Original Poster: "mrand" <mrand-at-iols-dot-net>
>
>Hi All,
>
>Just got back from seeing the 5 foot tall Oudin coil built by Frederick
>Strong, donated in 1935.  Still going strong with 4 foot streamers to the
>side walls.  In the past, before they put up the glass enclosure, the spark
>traveled over the audiences heads across the hall (+20').  I asked if they
>had any plans on the design but the speaker did find any in their research
>library, when asked by another person earlier.  The plaque said 250kV and
>the speaker said that was what was feeding the oudin.  He did not know what
>the voltage was coming off the oudin coil.  It was an enjoyable evening also
>viewing the planetarium show on the upcoming April 5th conjunction of 5
>viewable planets.
>
>Thanks - Michael