Big Tesla Coil

When a streamer terminates in the air, current flowing through it flows through capacitance between the streamer and ground. I have seen this effect before, while playing with homebrew Tesla coils.

One effect that is my usual experience with solid state Tesla coils (ones oscillating continuously, especially) is that I get very intense corona. The capacitance between the corona and ground (or between corona on a nearby grounded point and the coil) is sufficient to pass current of a significant fraction of a milliamp to even milliamps. I was able to ignite paper with that intense corona. In some situations, current flowing through this corona concentrates into streamers.

One thing I noticed in the video was that streamers going nowhere were not as bright as sparks that were hitting something.

- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)

I don't know, but check out the music made by the arcs.

Mike

Wow! Not bad at all. Any info on the frequency response of such an awesome speaker?

So, what happens if you get hit by one of those streamers? Burns I would guess, but does the high frequency prevent you getting electrocuted?

Good at high frequencies, but not all that linear.

-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

I once saw a guy standing on top of a big Tesla coil, about 4' tall by about 18" diameter, and showed streamers from his fingertips. He did have kind of a grimace on his face, like it hurt a bit.

Cheers! Rich

They're coronas.

Hope This Helps! Rich

I would not count on it. A coil that size may have a rather low resonant frequency.

Furthermore, my experience is that sometimes Tesla coils can shock. The capacitance of the top of the secondary can discharge with the oscillation stalling, resulting in a pulse with some DC and broadband low frequency component. The top of that big coil looks to me to have capacitance of several 10's of picofarads, discharging when its voltage reaches maybe a couple megavolts. This sounds to me like a fairly nasty shock.

- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)