Evil static coiling :) and problems

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

Original poster: The MCP <ejkeever-at-comcast-dot-net> 

Hehe - I've been experimenting with a much larger (4" X 21") coil winding, and
to make a poor excuse for an RF ground I put a can inside the pipe. For that
small distance, the ABS and air manage to hold off the voltage rise.

But we all know that you get when you put a voltage differential between two
"plates!" So when I turn the thing off, it's got a vicious static charge on
it - You can swipe a small fluorescent bulb across the surface and it
actually illuminates. Based on how far the voltage will spark to the bulb
from, it'd say that there's at least 20 or 30 thousand volts clinging to the
darn thing.

And the worst part is that the poor form and the insulation on the wire I'm
using pending the arrival of some decent magnet wire is developing a real bad
dielectric memory - You think you discharged it, but come back in 5 minutes,
and it's back. I found that the voltage will even persist for DAYS (My
science teacher touched it when it hadn't been run for more than a *day* and
got shocked). And I mean these actually *hurt* when they go after you. This
thing is conditioning me to be afraid of it :)!!!

Anyway, the current system (5Kv rms, 420 turns) is generating ~4.5 inch arcs.
Once the proper magnet wire arrives (~800 turns), the system should throw
~8-9 inch arcs. When I get a larger transformer (12-15Kv rms), the coil
should generate a far more respectable 2 foot arc. How is this with respect
to what others on the list have been achieving?

I know it's way behind the 17 inches the 1.7 Sqrt(watts)
empirically-determined formula predicts, but was there any particular caveat
that might have skewed the results? Was it determined mainly by results from,
say, 12-15Kv transformers? Systems with high break rates? Anything that
explains my problem?