Re: Neighbors and noise

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

Original poster: "cd by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <vbprg1-at-hotmail-dot-com>

Ok topload
is anything you put on top of your secondary
You can use hollow spheres and torrids....
The objects are generally hollow and provice a certain capacitance
the capacitance allows a charge to build up before it jumps off the surface
of the object..
A larger object with more capacitance takes a little bit longer to Load up
with
charge.
I would seem that since it sits on top of the coil and gets loaded up with
charge.... we call it the topload.....

A torus is the recomended topload the shape of the torus fits into the
magnetic field generated by the secondary in a way as to prevent the output
sparks from jumping back down into the secondary and thus helping to avoide
secondary damage.

At the chicago worlds fair back around the turn of the century
I believe Tesla made a POWER sign, the letters of the sign served as the top
load for a coil.
He probably used some type of transmission line.
and sent the HV to the sign from a coil located nearby but not necessarily
underneath...

In essesence
A topload can be any smooth hollow metal object  that provides a
capacitance, Electric charge will jump from sharp points...
I liked useing my Orange soda can...It helped me learn how to tune, but
didnt provide enough capacitance to shield the  top of my secondary. Meaning
when useing the can sparks also leeked out of the top turn of wire on the
secondary.

Hope that helps....
Chris Dowdy

>     OK. I know I'm new to all this and I've heard of topload, but since
I'm a
> newbie, what the heck is topload? Can anyone define and describe it for
me?
> Thanks. Eager to learn about coiling. :)
>     Sincerely yours,
>     Rick Logan
>     algolrave-at-aol-dot-com
>