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Click pictures
to enlarge.
Due to a computer virus, pictures for this Teslathon are a little limited.
The pictures were backed up on a CD, which we are still looking for, so there is
hope for more at a later date.
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Rocket Science?
Well actually, yes. The truck is modified,
owned, and operated by Ted Slack who works in the aerospace industry. The
instrument panel displays the engine air inlet temperature, (the orange
thing sticking out of the front) exhaust gas temperature, and everything
in between. The
truck started life as a Ford F-250 3/4 ton pickup. The engine is a 6.9
liter V-8 diesel. Each of the two
stainless steel fuel tanks has a capacity of 38 gallons, giving a range of
1300 miles. All wiring in the truck was removed, and it was rewired to
eliminate chassis grounds, and improve the circuitry. A Cadillac,140 amp,
alternator provides plenty of juice. The exhaust system is a work in
process, having 8 separate exhaust pipes and two 5 1/2 inch resonators.
Semi-type 'air springs' were used in the reengineering of the rear
suspension, allowing up to 5,000 pounds to be carried on the flat bed.
Since the truck is constantly being modified, these pictures are only a
close approximate to the current incarnation of this superior form of
vehicular transportation.
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Wild Bill checking his suit for ground integrity.
Bill Emery's performance this year was a big crowd pleaser. He says that
he can't feel the arcs (he is wearing a full chain mail suit) except where
the current goes from his boots to the concrete and causes some local
heating. On occasion you can see smoke coming off his boots and he will
step away from the coil for awhile. In addition to being an avid coiler Bill is also a highly skilled commercial neon sign builder. He has his own
custom built gas manifold which is capable of evacuation and bombardment
far superior to run of the mill sign shops, and he can make intricate
glass tube bends and shapes.
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In
the wee hours of the morning.
In this series of experiments with Dave Wightman's small tabletop coil the
team was investigating several different things, in one of the early test
all the air in the five gallon water bottle was replaced with Argon gas at
atmospheric pressure, this caused the bottle to act as a solid conductor
at the same time providing a most interesting visual display with sparks
both inside the bottle (much like a Plasma ball display) and outside
discharging into the air as expected from a standard coil. The scope shot
is a view of the ring down from Dave's coil running with the rotary gap.
Not pictured in this setup we also replaced the rotary gap with a Nitrogen
tube in a 1500 gauss magnetic field, the coil operated with the same level
output with only about a third of the power input.
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| John Friesenhahn's coil using a pair of 810s.
This is a classic tube coil design, the basic schematic is originally from
TCBA member John Weisener of New York. It was built, tweaked, and tuned
empirically by John Friesenhahn of Texas - who has experimented with
different size toploads and secondary coils (finding the two inch
diameter performed best). Krylon black paint was used for insulation on
the secondary coil, even after 15 years it's still performing as well as
the day it was built, we were able to coax an 18" discharge out of
her. Of special note - the twin 810 tube plates do not get hot, even for
extended runs.
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