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NEWSCIENCENEWSCIENCENEWSCIENCE Nikos TES oo oo goes The letterhead of Tesla's business stationery, showing the famous Wardenclyffe tower. Capacity for Secondary The secondary will be more powerful if it has a capacitance connected to the top end. This can result in a considerable charge being stored in the capacitor, which makes for a more efficient system and a more spectacular discharge. The type of capacitor which is commonly used is a hol- low copper ball which should be about the same diameter as the secondary. Air Gap When the capacitors are storing energy from the high-voltage transformer, ‘the air gap—which may consist of two 25 mm Stainless steel balls a certain distance apart—will be bridged by electrical dis- charges. The frequency of these discharges can be increased or made slower by vary- ing the capacitance or by adjusting the spark gap. =—- SSS I decided to use a cylinder which was 20 charges. The frequency of these discharges inches in diameter and 60 inches long. The can be increased or made slower by vary- cylinder was covered with waxed paper ing the capacitance or by adjusting the which I carefully peeled off. Underneath spark gap. was untreated cardboard. I then applied three coats of transformer varnish. The end TEST RESULTS result was a cardboard cylinder impregnat- When the apparatus was connected up, it ed with an insulating varnish. As the volt- was possible with an input of no more than ages can be very high, it is essential that 50 volts AC to obtain discharges from the the cardboard is well treated and cannot secondary terminal of 1.5 to 2 million volts catch fire. plus. The apparatus can easily produce dis- The next stage was to wind on the sec- charges which will jump a two-metre dis- ondary wire. The wire size was 0.5 mm. I _ tance. wound on 680 turns. With no Earth terminal to discharge to, Next was the primary. The primary the secondary terminal produces a purple cable was approximately one inch in diam- corona for a distance of two feet around the eter and consisted of three inner cables of 9 terminal. mm diameter. The primary had three-and- The 50 volts AC which is supplied to the a-half turns. primary of the high-voltage transformer It was now time to connect in the capaci- can rise up to 120 volts when the system is tors. As mentioned previously, Tesla used energised. I feel this is caused by a back- champagne bottles. However, I decided as EMF from the high-voltage coil. a first step to test out some cgpacitors that I The apparatus also produces ozone as a had recently obtained by way of a govern- result of the high voltage discharging ment auction. These were in fact high- through the air. voltage capacitors from an obsolete radar The apparatus, if pushed to its limit with system built in the UK. As I was soon to present adjustments, should be capable of find out, these were excellent capacitors producing at least 5 million volts and prob- and have never given any problems. ably much more. 2—An elevated terminal capacity for the secondary 3—Primary coil (exact length to be determined) 4—Capacitors (size to be determined) 5—Variable induction (to tune primary) 6—Break mechanism 7—High voltage transformer to charge the capacitors 8—Electrical schematic for above 9—Special Earth connection After listing the above, it was now time to have a go at costing. It took no time at all to get a figure of $10,000. I felt better after I realised that it was not necessary to spend $10,000 at once—for example, I could buy the copper wire for the sec- ondary and the heavy cable for the primary. It is worth inentioning here that, as one can see, it is easy to spend considerable amounts of money. Tesla spent huge amounts of money to build the Colorado equipment. The actual amount in 1900 US dollars was approximately US$70,000. The big question was, could tests be done with apparatus that did not cost this much, to prove or discover something? I felt the answer was yes. CONSTRUCTION The next step was to build the apparatus. High-Voltage Transformer SUMMARY After considerable thought I decided it may This is an essential part of the system. It These are considerations only—and only be wise to build a slightly smaller machine charges the capacitors which are then dis- time will tell if energy can be extracted as a first step. With this I could get an idea charged into the primary. The primary from the Earth. of the basics, test the various circuits then vibrates or quivers electrically at a As stated above, these are theoretical including capacitors, and see how well I certain period. The vibrating primary then considerations, and any person who wants could get one of these devices working. excites the secondary. This causes a high to use this information does so at his or her The first stage was now to build the sec- voltage to be produced in the secondary. own risk as the voltages are very high. ondary coil. I was wondering what sort of The actual voltage that is produced is deter- Therefore, one has to be cautious. form to use to wind the wire on, when it mined to a degree by the turns ratio, but if To be continued... occurred to me that the large cardboard _ the apparatus is tuned correctly the voltage cylinders, used in high-rise buildings, etc. can be much higher. The high-voltage when pouring concrete to mould round transformer I use has an output of about columns, would be ideal. 10,000 volts. Anthony Hansen PO Box 1682 Toowong, Qld 4066, Australia 52 ¢ NEXUS APRIL - MAY 1995