Re: TC triggered high energy discharge

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

Original poster: "S & J Young by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <youngs-at-konnections-dot-net>


Here is Bill's original account of this interesting experiment.  It is an
amazing and amuzing read:

From:  Wysock, William C. [SMTP:Wysock-at-courier8.aero-dot-org]
Sent:  Friday, February 27, 1998 7:51 AM
To:  Tesla List
Subject:  FW: Donner und Blitzen



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From: wysock-at-ttr-dot-com
To: Listown-at-pupman-dot-com
Cc: William C Wysock
Subject: Donner und Blitzen
Date: Thursday, February 26, 1998 11:44PM
Priority: High

W. Encil Scott, Jim Lux, D.C. Cox, Bill Lemieux, and all:

Since I recounted an experiment I performed in 1981 here on the
Tesla List, I've received a number of comments about giving more
details on that event.  Let me begin by setting the record straight.

D.C. Cox wrote to the List today, that he took the picture that is
on my web site at www.ttr-dot-com.  This is true.  D.C. visited me
in 1981, for about a week long period.  He was interested in the
work I was doing up to that point, and expressed interest in
visiting me at my Monrovia location.  I opened up my library to
him and gave him the use of my 1969 390 cu. in. 4-speed "tranny"
American Motors AMX, for transportation around town; (D.C.
and I are both "old gear-heads" when it comes to hot-roding.)  As
I recall, D.C. even boasted of winning a street match with another
muscle car about town at the time (do you remember that D.C.?)

Anyway, I had my Model 10 Tesla Coil all ready to set up (with an
attached 35 foot long transmission line to the top of the 4 foot dia.
toroid,) and this Aerovox 7.5 KJ -at- 60 KVDC energy storage cap.
I only had a 30 KVDC power supply (to pre-D.C. charge the cap,)
and I had manufactured a special "conical" triggered spark gap, to
go across the coaxial output terminals of the Aerovox cap.  My idea
was to pre-charge this cap with D.C.; then avalanche the trigger gap
from a single-shot from the Model 10 coil (single shot being defined
here as a one second long burst,) with the idea that the over-voltage
across the trigger gap would fire, dumping the high current of the
storage gap across this gap, and still be fed with a continuous
supply of high voltage R.F. from the Tesla coil.

The [intended] purpose of this exercise, was a [crude] attempt to
produce artificial ball lightning!  From the transmission line
stretched across the back yard "high voltage lab proving grounds,"
was a downward section of flexible aluminum tubing, terminating
at a 20 inch diameter toroid on top of an 8 foot high station post
insulator stand.  This caused about an 8 foot gap between the toroid
and the 4 inch diameter copper sphere, which was attached to the
center electrode of the trigger gap on top of the Aerovox cap.

The [thinking] here was that I could produce an avalanche ionized
condition across the conical cross-section of this trigger-style gap
from the initial over voltage provided by the Tesla coil.  This was
[by intended design,] supposed to cause a very high current, very
short pulse duration arc across this gap.  The thinking was that
after this initial pulse had exhausted itself, there would still be
enough energy supplied by the Tesla coil discharge, to continue and
manifest the high current plasma of the Aerovox cap, long enough to
"pump" this plasma with sufficient R.F. energy, to help maintain
continued (and hopefully a uniformly expanding, hydro-dynamically
stable plasmoid, i.e., ball lightning.)

This of course, as Mr. Murphy would have it, is NOT what occurred!
Instead, the energy from the Aerovox cap, found its way back up the
Tesla coil corona streamer, and through the secondary coil, and
finally, back to ground.  From several posts on the List just today,
it has been suggested that the inductance of the secondary coil,
would have been too great, to support any high amount of current
back to ground through that winding.  This is certainly logical and
expected.  However, it remains that literally every circuit breaker
(on my own equipment which was rated at 100 amps, 240 volts,
curve #1 by Heinemann,) and all the breakers on the main house
distribution panel, (more then 100 feet away from the back yard
"H.V. proving grounds,"  as well as TWO neighbor's breakers,) all
tripped in that single, glorious "FLASH!"

It was most fortunate, that D.C. was there, with his 35 mm camera
with ASA-100 film, tripod, cable release, and (I think) an f-stop
on the shutter (set for bulb exposure,) of about f-16.  He opened
the shutter, I gave Model 10 a short "blast," there was a tremendous
acoustic "BOOOOM!" and everything went dark.  Then the neighbors
all came out.  Then I had a LOT of explaining to do.  Then I
discovered all the damage that was done.  (Actually, it took until the
following afternoon, to understand and comprehend, the extensiveness
of all the EMP damage that took place the night before.)

Analysis:  In the years since, I have done extensive studies on the
R.F. spectrum of Tesla Coil discharge itself (not including the
resonant frequency or mode of operation of the coil itself.)  This is
fairly simple to do with the right E-field probe and a high
performance spectrum analyzer (such as an HP-8593.)  The E-field
probe is set up in such a way as to "see" the signature of both the
resonant frequency of the secondary, plus the spurious artifacts
(that run into the megahertz range,) from the corona discharge.

  What I have concluded is this:  In any Tesla coil with a
[comparatively] large ionization volume (corona discharge channel,)
this channel forms its own multi-resonant modes with spurious
frequencies many orders higher then the fundamental frequency of
the coil's operation.  This can be easily shown by regulating the
size (length) of the gap between a toroid on the coil, and a grounded
electrode.  I [personally] have seen considerable E-fields generated
up past 300 MHz, even though the resonant frequency of the coil
was only 175 KHz.

What I believe happened on that [fateful] night is this.  The energy
stored in the Aerovox cap, expended itself (for the most part,) in
the discharge path (~ 8 foot long,) created by the Tesla coil
discharge.  Here was the phenomena of an air-borne higher-order mode
self-resonant R.F. cavity mechanism in operation.  The balance of
the energy, that was to overcome the inductance of the secondary coil
on its way back to an [electrical] ground, managed to also couple as
a step-down function, back into the primary tank circuit, and back
through all the power supply circuitry, and finally, back through the
"house mains" and to the distribution line that is common to my
property, as well as that of four other homes.

Considering the damage that was done in and around these other
homes [electrically speaking,] it is clear that a tremendous amount
of pulse energy made its way back through those lines.  The
"frying" of the 300 MHz PCM 9 volt isolated battery transmitters
on my property, indicated the nature of high energy EMP being
released from this experiment.

As D.C. noted in his post of today, the camera really caught the full
magnitude of this arc, which lasted but for a fraction of a second.
In that photograph, you'll notice a couple of 8 foot long florescent
tubes, leaning up against a chain link fence, glowing.  Remember, the
total time exposure on D.C.'s camera at about f-16 was less then 5
seconds total.  The firing of the Model Ten coil was a single push
of the momentary contact operate mushroom button!


BTW; another "interesting development," that occurred at R.F. Gulch
that week, was my initial firing of the Super Model Nine Tesla Coil.
D.C. was there for that as well.  When I first fired the coil, D.C.
was standing about 15 feet away for it.  I said,"Better step back a
little further, D.C., I wouldn't want you to get hit."  He replied,
"Naw, I'm fine right where I am."  I said, "Suit yourself...."  And
with that, I zapped the coil at full power.  An arc went out from the
30 inch diameter toroid, and hit D.C. right in the forehead.  Knocked
him right on his can! [Er, ground terminal.]  Do you remember that
D.C.?  Anyway, when he got up and was only stunned, and said he
was o.k. I said I was going to fire the coil again.  He wouldn't even
allow himself to be anywhere in the back yard at that point and opted
for the safety of standing behind the driveway gate.

But this is off the subject.  Back to the point.  Which  is this:
I found out the hard way, as I believe Bill Lemieux pointed out, that
even with the best of intentions and careful planning, etc., it is
MORE the possible for Mr. Murphy to "ruin your whole
[Tesla coil] day!" I vowed NEVER to repeat THAT particular
experiment, under ANY circumstances, until I was [inside of]
a controlled environment.  BTW: The quest for this form of
generating ball lightning phenomena, continues.

Bill Wysock.
___________________________
Tesla Technology Research