Re: General Questions

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Bert Hickman by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <bert.hickman-at-aquila-dot-net>

Jason and all,

Jim's right - believe it! The world's largest pulse generator (Sandia's
awesome Z Accelerator) uses a swimming pool sized chamber full of deionized
water as the insulating medium for low impedance high voltage transmission
lines that connect 36 Marx Generators, delivering 20 million amperes of 
current into a cylinder of tiny tungsten wires for fusion experiments. And, 
once most of the gigantic 290 terawatt pulse has come and gone, the water 
then breaks down, safely dissipating the small amount of energy that's left 
over, covering the surface of the water with spidery lightning-like
discharges. 
The water dielectric then "heals" for the next shot.

Check out:
  http://www.sandia.gov/media/z290.htm

And, if you've got a high speed internet connection, download the awesome
2.8 MB 150 DPI image... :^)

Best regards,

-- Bert --
-- 
Bert Hickman
Stoneridge Engineering
Email:    bert.hickman-at-aquila-dot-net
Web Site: http://www.teslamania-dot-com


Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "Jim Lux by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>"
<jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>
> 
> Au contraire... deionized pure water is a fine insulator, particularly for
> pulsed applications.  Typical minimum resistivity in this sort of
> application is  2 Megohm cm.  The disposable DI cartridges do a nice job.
> 
> Getting the pure water for home use isn't all that hard (you can buy it at
> the supermarket).. keeping it clean is the challenge. The system will tend
> to contaminate it, which is why the systems that use this approach almost
> always use cartridge deionizers (or a big version of the same...)
> 
> Tesla list wrote:
> >
> > Original poster: "Jason Petrou by way of Terry Fritz
> <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <jasonp-at-btinternet-dot-com>
> >
> > no water really isnt a very good insulator - por a jug over a mains socket
> > and find out :)
> >
> > Jason> And air.  And porcelain.  And epoxy.  And water.  and SF6...
> > > And vacuum.
> > >
> > > (yes: Water.  As I've mentioned, near here (powering this
> > > post in part) is a +/- 500kvdc (DC) converter.  For cooling
> > > AND insulation of the switch stacks:
> > > Very Pure Water....)
> > >
> > > Now getting That Pure water for 'home' use is tricky.  As is
> > > SF6 and air and hard vacuum.
> > >