Re: High amperage in tank circuit

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

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

 > I have a few questions that I was hoping someone could answer in beginners
 > terminology, or could possibly give me a link with basic explanations:
 >
 > First, I hear everyone talking about the importance of large wire in tank
 > connections, and the explanations that I have read all point to the fact
 > that the currents can reach potentials of hundreds of amps.  The thing
that
 > I am not understanding, is how can we reach this kind of potential from
 > supplies which are putting out much less than an amp?  I can see the
 > potential for high amperages in capacitor discharge experiments, where the
 > charge time for a cap bank can exceed several minutes or more with a small
 > power supply (like a neon), but we are talking about discharging the
 > capacitor in a TC a minimum of 120 times/sec.  How is it possible to reach
 > these high currents in short periods of time?

The high currents are peak currents (not RMS currents).  The tank capacitor
is charged up by your high voltage supply and then when the spark gap
closes (switch) it immediately discharges the current into the primary coil.
This peak discharge current can be extremely high.

 > Finally, could someone point me to a link which explains the theory behind
 > a voltage multiplier?  I have been checking like crazy, and can't find an
 > explanation that I can understand.  It's hard for me to grasp the concept
 > of diodes and capacitors multiplying voltage.

Its actually quite simple.  The best way to probably see this is to simulate
a multiplier in PSPICE and look at the waveforms etc...
You can download PSPICE v8 Student version from a variety of sources on the
web (search for it using google) and the program is extremely easy to use.


 > Thanks, and the simpler the explanation or the link, the better.
 >
 > John Richardson
 >
 >
 >
 >
 >