By old death ray idea, i meant your old idea off the amasci site of hooking a tesla coil up to an air cannon using a wave generator and being fed a conductive gas. showy, but not really damaging.
And i didnt even think in that direction, in terms of the 10 MV coil. You mention MeV, and my mind immediately goes to particle accelerators. and i see, that makes more sense. Sorry, my mind is on neutral today. On 5/9/07, William Beaty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On Wed, 9 May 2007, leaking pen wrote: > what would you use as a source for the seeds? A 10MV tesla coil? If Tesla succeeded, his seeds must have come from an unknown source. High energy x-rays are known to come from low-volt vaccum tubes via buildup of surface ions on insulator, leading to immense e-fields and discharge inside the insulator. Tesla mentions that the resistance of gases apparently drops to very low value when voltages well over 1MV are involved. Perhaps he was seeing the "runaway" effect as an increase in conductivity > in addition, it would only throw the long sparks in the direction of > the motion of the seeds, yes no? so if you were using someting along > the lines of a particle beam gun to provide it, you could have a 10 > foot sparker that shot 1000 foot arcs in the direction you fired the > gun. an update to the old death ray idea? Think fractional-milliamp at immense volts. More like standing in the ion wind of a vandegraaff machine. Though it might slightly singe your arm hairs. Here's some possible art of the device, the white beam behind Tesla (maybe it's even a heavily retouched photograph:) http://amasci.com/graphics/tesbeam2.jpg > > On 5/9/07, William Beaty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > Normally a large Tesla coil sends out fractal plasma streamers: sparks > > based on electron avalanche of air molecules as well as UV ionization. > > The tips of the streamers grow relatively slowly, on the order of tens of > > KPH. > > > > However, if supplied with relativistic electrons as a "seed," where the > > electron velocities/energies are above 1MeV, then a second form of > > breakdown occurs. MeV electrons collide with air molecules and release > > more MeV electrons. This sort of breakdown is seen in Red Sprites and > > Blue Jets. (It's associated with gamma ray emission!) Yet the value for > > e-fields driving it are in the same ballpark as those of conventional > > sparks. Therefore, it might be possible for a large Tesla coil to create > > sparks which are far longer than usual. FAR FAR FAR longer than usual. > > 100 times, 1000 times, perhaps longer. A "seed" of relativistic electrons > > is required. > > > > See: > > > > Physics Today: Runaway breakdown and the mysteries of lightning > > http://www.phy.olemiss.edu/~jgladden/phys510/spring06/Gurevich.pdf > > > > 4HV.org thread: Runaway Breakdown as hobby project > > http://4hv.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?22714 > > > > > > It seems to me that if such a device was aimed upwards, it would qualify > > as a miles-tall conductive tower. > > > > And if it was switched on and off at high frequency, while it's lower end > > was also placed in conductive connection with a large Tesla coil, then > > electric currents created in the beam by Earth/Ionosphere cavity's voltage > > would pump some energy backwards into the Tesla coil from the ionospheric > > cavity. This would form an oscillator; an oscillator where the ionosphere > > is the power supply, the Runaway Breakdown spark is like a FET switch, and > > the Tesla coil is the resonator. But how much energy could be extracted > > in this way? It might be feeble. However, if the that needed to drive > > the Tesla coil, then the Tesla coil secondary would begin to self- > > oscillate, and it would continue to do so even if the primary coil was > > entirely removed. > > > > > > > > (((((((((((((((((( ( ( ( ( (O) ) ) ) ) ))))))))))))))))))) > > William J. Beaty http://staff.washington.edu/wbeaty/ > > beaty chem.washington.edu Research Engineer > > billb eskimo.com UW Chem Dept, Bagley Hall RM74 > > 206-543-6195 Box 351700, Seattle, WA 98195-1700 > > > > > > > -- > That which yields isn't always weak. > (((((((((((((((((( ( ( ( ( (O) ) ) ) ) ))))))))))))))))))) William J. Beaty SCIENCE HOBBYIST website billb at amasci com http://amasci.com EE/programmer/sci-exhibits amateur science, hobby projects, sci fair Seattle, WA 425-222-5066 unusual phenomena, tesla coils, weird sci
-- That which yields isn't always weak.
