Fusion Message Board

In this space, visitors are invited to post any comments, questions, or skeptical observations about Philo T. Farnsworth's contributions to the field of Nuclear Fusion research.

Subject: Tesla Coil
Date: Sep 30, 08:01 am
Poster: Eugene Kopf

On Sep 30, 08:01 am, Eugene Kopf wrote:

Richard:

Something I've been itching to try (but haven't gotten to yet) is a fusor hooked to a tesla coil. Since you're an old coiler, maybe you've tried this.

My thinking on this issue is, not only would you be achieving high voltages inside of the reactor, but during half of the since wave when the outside chamber wall is negative, it would pull a large quantity of the ions to the outside of the reactor, preparing most of them for the next phase, where they would all go rushing from the outside of the reactor through the grid. Furthermore, this should create shock waves, which could serve to heat the plasma even further.

I'm quite certain that a solid state driver would produce even better results, since the oscillations would be continuous, rather than burst mode as in most spark gap systems. However, for testing results, I'm willing to bet that a spark gap system should give great results, since they can handle so much raw power. Also, since these are experimental setups, spark gaps can take a lot of the experimental results much better, since they can handle many abuses which kill semiconductors.

As a matter of fact, Tesla's old carbon-button bulb hooked to a coil has pointed in this direction. In that setup, ions and electrons oscillate and hit the center button, heating it to a very high temperature. It's not quite a fusion reactor (no hollow central terminal and no deuterium), but it does suggest the idea for anyone looking toward it.

Finally, I believe that a Tesla coil setup has the advantage that it makes the power supply relatively easy to construct and use by fellow experimentors, since TCs are easy to somewhat easy to construct by the average garage workshop type with some electrical knowledge, and seem to avoid many of the pitfalls of DC supplies, such as HV rectifiers, etc.

The chamber would act as a capacitor at the end of the coil, thus lowering the resonant frequency of the system. A little retuning of the primary should handle this easily.

I've thought about this since 1995, when I was a physics student. I've built the coil recently, but haven't completed the vacuum setup (although the nuclear lab at the hospital where I work has given an old scintillation counter to me which works quite well; they even had the manual). Nonetheless, I thought I would ask you, since you're an old coiler and have a chamber already.