Duncan Cadd on Tesla Coils

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Original poster: westland <westland@xxxxxx>

I came across a brilliant essay on the wireless transmission origins 
and explanation of the workings of a Tesla coil at 
http://home.freeuk.net/dunckx/wireless/wireless.html .  Cadd (a 
research chemist by trade) puts the development of the Tesla coil 
into context, tracing the development of early radio, spark-gap 
transmitters, tank circuits (so-called because you put the coil and 
caps in an oil filled tank) and dual resonant tank circuits for 
transmission.  He shows that a Van de Graaf generator and Tesla coil 
operate on the same concept, but with the Tesla coil replacing the 
Van de Graaf's moving belt with a sinusoidal AC current pushing the 
charge up to the topload capacitor and the secondary serving as 
equipotential rings.

Just thought I'd share this if anyone is interested

Chris Westland