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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.







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