Re: new coil emerging

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

Original poster: "Terry Fritz" <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>

Hi Dan,

At 12:51 PM 12/1/2001 -0700, you wrote:
>after much trial and error, i still haven't gotten it right.
>
>i originally found the plans in an electronics project book from, i think 
>the 50's.
>followed the plans loosely, excuses being available materials.

"Good" plans are hard to find, especially old ones...

>
>it was a 2" secondary 12"end to end, thick cardboard mailing tube. wood 
>plugs made to fit tightly
>in either end without glue or screws. 28 awg enameled wire, approximately 
>500', no rf ground, wrapped
>with clear packaging tape. 25 wraps of #10 insulated wire on a 5" piece of 
>2-1/2" pvc (wasn't too
>sure about the bare copper at 15kv. a foil cap of uncertain value, 12" x 8" 
>x 3/16" plexiglass as a
>dielectric, 2 5/16" bolts for the sg. no topload no protection circuit, not 
>even a momentary contact
>switch, just me, a 120v plug, an extension cord, a fire extinguisher, and 
>an alibi. for a grand total of
>maybe an 1/8" barely noticeable seemingly infinitesimally minute and 
>distant spark, and then only if
>i extended the exacto knife taped to the end of a 6' length of 3/4" pvc in 
>said proximity.

I am surprised it worked that well :o)

Your secondary coil sounds fine.  The cap was probably far too small and
weak.  Salt water caps would have done far far better.  You really "need"
the topload and RF ground.  They are not optional :-))  The problem was the
cap, but you also need to "tune" the coil to match the primary and
secondary system frequencies.  So:

Get a saltwater cap, topload, RF ground, and tune the coil and it will make
nice streamers.  Those are the keys you need to get it to work.  The RF
ground is just a wire going to a little pipe in the ground or anything like
that.  The top load is like a kid's ball wrapped with aluminum foil, Beer
bottles like Guinness draught are perfect for salt water caps since the
labels are very easy to remove :-))  Tuning is trial and error taping of
the primary coil.  You may want to make a bunch of holes in the primary
insulation so you can hunt around for the right spot.

I really will work.  You did not mention the type of transformer and some
other information but this will get you real close.  If you want to read
some quality information, see:

http://home.earthlink-dot-net/~electronxlc/

This should get you started in getting your coil to really work.

Cheers,

	Terry

>
>    it was at this point, in all my abounding cleverness, that i realized i 
>must not have all the information.
>so, armed with a DSL, and a strong sense of huh!!! here i is.
>
>    and if you liked this little story, perhaps i will post chapter 2 
>already in progress and nearing completion, with different props and 
>similar results. this book could be longer than anything
>written by dostoevski.
>
>dan
>