Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!ukc!icdoc!mvax.cc.ic.ac.uk!sund!umapu02
From: umapu02@sund.cc.ic.ac.uk (D.A.G. Gillies   Supvsr  Dr K.J. Bignell)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Spark Coils
Message-ID: <1990Jul13.203920.13147@cc.ic.ac.uk>
Date: 13 Jul 90 20:39:20 GMT
References: <9007032018.AA27882@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> <2082@electro.com> <2885@isc-br.ISC-BR.COM>
Sender: umapu02@cc.ic.ac.uk
Reply-To: umapu02@cc.ic.ac.uk (David Gillies)
Followup-To: umapu02@cc.ic.ac.uk
Organization: Imperial College Computer Center, London, UK
Lines: 36

In article <2885@isc-br.ISC-BR.COM> jimc@isc-br.ISC-BR.COM (Jim Cathey) writes:
>In article <2082@electro.com> eric@electro.UUCP (Eric) writes:
>>Oil furnace transformers can apparently give 50kv sparks and up
>>while car ignition types give 35kv.  To get some real sparks you
>>...
>>  Note: oil burner transformers are very dangerous.  I have had
>>  pulled muscles, burns and bruses from being thrown.
>
>They are nasty, at that.  I made a Jacob's ladder out of one once (in my
>misspent youth) that wasn't too impressive as a ladder, but it would start
>on fire a piece of paper placed in the arc!  'Real' ladders have much less
>current and will merely perforate paper placed in the arc.
>
>Sometime later, we had some problems with a steer that would just walk
>through the electric fence (he twitched a little, but it didn't stop
>him) and get into the barn to pull down the haystack at night.  Pissed
>at having to fix the fence every day and clean up after this critter I
>'enhanced' the electric fence.  (The fence in question was a short
>temporary section we had put up for the summer.)  
 [ etc.. stuff deleted..]
 I made a fairly puny version out of the induction coil from a car.I used a
battery buzzer to trip the current and this would generate a spark about 2 cm
long ie approx 50 kV in dry air with 18 V in the primary.But you guys take
the cake.Where,oh where (please tell me) can I obtain one of these very
interesting devices.I have a healthy fear of death by electrocution and have
no particular homicidal tendencies (honest).Besides,I have a DeLorean and need
1.4 jigger-watts (sic) spare.



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