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08. April 2012 Notes:
A new coil, accessories, and system for studying electrical phenomena
An 18" Pancake Coil was resurrected from defense research I was
doing in 2005. The same coil had been used as the Primary
Oscillator
of a Pancake Magnifier System (cylindrical tertiary or
"extra" coil). The magnifier has produced hot arcs
48-50" length with less than 2KW input power.
It has moved from Pompano Beach and has been sitting upright in a
corner behind a large radar condenser bank for the last 7
years.
It was the smaller of two coils made, the other, a 24" diameter
coil, burned up within a second of testing - it produced a
powerful arc over 2 feet long which
lasted less than 2 seconds and left a black furrowed 3/4" wide
carbon track on the top surface of the wax-impregnated interleaves
that burned down to
the actual winding. It was the most spontaneous failure I have
seen to date. It is one reason I choose not to use plastic
interleaves, which in both coils
are 1 mm wide x 75 mm tall plastic strips (edge-banding for melamine
countertops).
The total power consumption of this apparatus in its current
rendition is 360 watts. It is powered by a 12,000V 30mA neon
sign transformer. It uses a
.01 mfd Sangamo Mica Transmitting Capacitor, courtesy of Frank
Jones. (Endless thanks!) The spark gap is a 4-series gap
made of 1/8" tungsten rod,
with a shorting rod to allow less than 4 gaps. The total
spacing allows the gap to fire at approx 8kV only.
The discharge from the coil with 1 or 2 gaps only produces no
effluvia or brush discharge of any kind at the terminal, but fierce
pseudo-static sparks
of solid white color which cause relatively painful muscle
contractions...this is likely from driving the coil at a lower
frequency than its natural resonant
frequency. On opening to 3 gaps the coil fires intermittent
straight brush roughly 2" long from the ball with 10-12"
"Phantom Streams" starting from the
brush tips (ends). The sound is reminiscent of popcorn
popping. On opening the gap to 4 gaps the brush is continuous,
and forms not 360° as in the small
9" coils but rather in semi-circular arcs, 90-270 degrees
approximately - and very dependent on proximity of grounded
objects. (The streams are most
abundant when the coil is approached from several feet away - this
point is worth noting, as with small coils the phenomena act more or
less independent
of outside interference, in the larger coil they rely to a
certain extent on nearby interactions - not to form in general, but
to form in great abundance in all
directions (or at least from a majority of the sphere). The
greater current used causes the physiological sensations to change
from cold to hot - this is not
the sensation of temperature from the "Phantom Stream"
portion but rather the straight brush. On close interaction
this straight brush tend to mutate into
waving bands of brush nearly forming the shape of the familiar
tree branches seen in normal coils: However, the brush
contains only a stem (no branches).
The bending brush can extend out 6" or more if approached too
close and great heat can be felt from the end of the brush. It
consists of a bundle of breakout
sparks, perhaps a 1/4" or more in diameter total. The
sensation of heat is as if the brush was a tube transmitting hot
compressed air of low psi. As in normal
Tesla breakouts the brush tends to dance all around the
sphere. This again is different from the 9" coils, which
produce more of a strobing effect whereby
the Phantoms are continuously moving outward from many central
points but the points themselves do not change starting positions as
the streams form.
Part of this explanation is the greater current and heat causing
convection currents. (The 9" coils are operated at less
than 30 watts of power).
The ratio of sparks/brush to electric phenomena is much less because
of the increased current. The spark output of this coil may be
8-10" or more, with great
faradic sensations (highly unpleasant). With the larger coil
and bigger top-load capacity there is less freedom to manipulate the
ratio of sparks to phenomena,
however, and this comes somewhat as a surprise, the actual static
sensations of the "Phantom Streams" is greater, likely
from greater input power.
In smaller coils, using more than 100 watts (in practice normally
less even) will produce phenomena as Tesla originally described -
almost as perpendicular
white lines, very faint, but with no definition whatsoever. On
careful manipulation, I have discovered that by lowering the input
power and adjusting the
frequency of discharge (spark gap) in micrometer steps this lack of
definition transformers to well-defined [typically] positive
streamers which grow thicker
on careful adjustment. What begins as a 1/16" wide branch
pattern can be drawn out to 1/2" thick or more at the
"stems and branches". At times though,
the streams appear to have negative components forming between the
brush and positive. Prior proving this was hard, because
electrically and
physically they were located in a position where you couldn't
experiment with them in an isolated fashion. By appearance
though, they looked negative -
or at minimum as an irregular form of positive
discharge.
[Reference Kinraide's glass negatives]
The first curious discovery in initial experiments was used with a
modification of my "Electrocryptoscope" invention. I
took a dielectric disk, in this case a polycarbonate sheet 1/4"
thick and fastened an insulated handle to hold in the path of the
streams. Normal white copy "xerox" or
"printer" paper was used
as an upper surface to the disk to study the streams. I
removed the bottom condenser coating of my Electrocryptoscope,
leaving only a dielectric between the electric phenomena and the
disk. In this case, I am assuming that the actual polarity of
the disk is the same as the phenomena which strike it. By
taking a 2" copper ball and fixing it to an insulated handle,
the ball can be touched and when sat on top of the paper beautiful
streams can be studied that may be too
difficult to decipher to the naked eye when studied without the
apparatus. A small flat spring of brass or bronze can be
attached to the handle and used as
a spark gap between the ball and user's hand if an oscillation of
the streams is desired. This can also be accomplished by
raising the ball some distance from the paper, but in practice it is
found easier to rest the ball on the paper and simply raise a finger
to effect this spark gap.
At times, the discharge appears pure positive - as with the 9"
Pancake streams the branches and stems may appear 1/2" thick or
more at various durations.
However, in this setup occasional negative streams also issue and
are seen on paper as distinct plume and spherical radiating (or
retracting?) line patterns.
A slight spark gap will transform the positive streams by forming
negative streams at their tips - or when in the negative phase will
show an off-shoot that may
extend to a branch pattern or to an unusual fish-tail type plume
that extends outside of the normal patterns. These are often
seen in Kinraide negatives, but
never witnessed by me until today up-close.
The sound of the breakout sparks [brush] appear to be of slightly
different pitch when the positive or negative streams form - I am
uncertain if this change of
sound is from a change of breakout polarity or is from some event
which leads to a change in breakout polarity. [??]
The noxious fumes produced by the streams may be of different
proportion with this higher power Pancake Coil. In the lower
power 9" Pancakes Ozone
production seems abundant, whereas in this setup - though unknown
currently - I am guessing nitric acid is high. The effects are
rather irritating
even after a few minutes of experimentation. This may also
explain various early conclusions of Kinraide regarding the effects
of bad X-Ray burns without
a tube in connection to the coil.
The notes given here should not be regarded as an assertion of facts,
but rather as genuine opinions and observations of the
experimenter. Much research
will be needed to draw true scientific conclusions as to the exact
events leading up to the production of this phenomena. I am
writing these notes, however,
with as much honesty as I can express to the events I am witnessing.
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Discharger and "Electrocryptoscope II"
Distinct spark forms originally made
by Kinraide witnessed in these notes, two of which
for the first time in my experimentation.
(C) Jeff Behary , 2012
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