Re: Spark Dissipation

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

Original poster: "David Trimmell by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <davidt-at-pond-dot-net>

John, All!

John, I must agree with your "intuitive sense"! I does seem probable that 
the intense heat formed from CW VTTC (even pulsed) will provide a intense 
(hot!) ion path for sparks to follow. Thus reducing the potential growth 
per cycle...

Perhaps a "Super Staccato" VTTC could produce similar results as a Spark 
gap coil (at least research wise) with less burnt Silicon, ;-)

Regards,

David Trimmell
www.ChaoticUniverse-dot-com

At 06:06 PM 2/1/01, you wrote:
>In an intuitive sense, I picture the very thick heavy discharge from a tube
>or SSTC as *capturing* the sparks within themselves, and not letting
>the ends grow.  Maybe a factor of the low Z of these sparks too?  Thick
>low Z sparks may be unable to grow?
> >
> >  I'm a newbie to this SSTC thing,  (and know nothing about VTTCs,)  so I
> >  would be very
> >  interested to hear if others have obseverd similar behaviour.
> >
> >  For some reason,  it would seem that the thin streamer-like sparks from
> >  a conventional coil
> >  are in some way more susceptable to being re-ionised than the much
> >  fatter sword-like sparks
> >  from a SSTC or VTTC.
>
>It may have something to do with the ends of the streamer where growth
>occurs.  My branched (thinner?) VTTC sparks seemed to be more able
>to grow than the unbranched (thicker?) swordlike sparks.  Or maybe
>the branched sparks creates a cloud of ionization that persists better
>(or works better) because it is spread out more?
>
>Cheers,
>John