Re: Slow Building Streamers

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

Original poster: "Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <acmq-at-compuland-dot-com.br>

Tesla list wrote:

 > Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" 
<FutureT-at-aol-dot-com>

 > This effect may be caused by a shift in the capacitance as the
 > capacitor heats up.  Some of the Fair Radio caps are known to
 > fail in Tesla coil duty due to their Mylar dielectric.

I see the phenomenon occur in all my experimental coils, but I
don't observe any heating in the capacitor (the power is too low).
Still air may be a reason, with accumulation of ozone and other
byproducts (maybe just hot air) around the coil.
A measurement of the capacitance before and immediately after
operation can decide if this is the reason.
In a demonstration yesterday, in a closed room with conditioned air,
I had to shut off the coil after a few seconds, as the streamers
that normally reach at most 10" were reaching everything around the
coil (primary, capacitor, transformer, etc.).

Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz