Re: Telsa Tornandos, was: Sword-like VTTC spark pics

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

Original poster: "Malcolm Watts by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <m.j.watts-at-massey.ac.nz>

Hi David,
          I've seen the effect on spherical terminals only. I suspect 
that the fact that a sphere is more or less symmetrical in three 
spatial dimensions has a lot to do with it. Since the spark can only 
leave from one point, a torus is unsymmetrical from the spark (and 
hence airflow) point of view. A very interesting effect indeed.

Regards,
Malcolm

On 8 Feb 01, at 7:51, Tesla list wrote:

<snip>
> Now that this effect is under discussion, I recall one of my coils
> that I built several years ago that would occasionally produce a spark
> that would look almost like a long, slender power arc. It had two
> large SS salad bowls turned end-to-end as the discharge terminal and
> the un- usual sparks would emanate from the top of it and strike the
> ceiling (yes, a fire hazard for sure !)  Anyway, these "tornado"
> sparks had a flaming yellowish-purple color to them and they drifted
> around from almost the same spot on top of the top salad bowl to
> strike the ceiling for several seconds before finally breaking and
> resuming the more typical type of Tesla discharges from various places
> on the salad bowl terminal. It seems like that this effect was
> discussed on the list several months ago (John Freau?). I have never
> noticed this effect from the conventional toroid shaped discharge
> terminal. How many other coilers have noticed this phenomenon and has
> anyone ever seen this effect with a toroid type terminal or is it an
> effect that is exclusive to spherical or semi- spherical terminals?
> 
> David Rieben