We have been unable, as of yet, to determine a practical limit to the maximum terminal loading where spark length is concerned. Another thing we immediately noted was the huge increase in the brilliance of the output sparks. This obviously meant more current was in the resultant bolt from the toroid. Furthermore, we noted that the spark emission rate decreased in frequency from the system. This is in keeping with the conservation of energy. Lots of short, thin, rapid sparks were being turned into infrequent, long, high power, white hot, bolts. The giant toroids were storing energy over longer and longer periods before they underwent catastrophic breakdown in air. These larger capacitances stored more energy according the relation Es = 1/2 C V². All internal resonator breakdown ceased! In our magnifier systems, sparks were creeping to over 6 times the resonator length! Tesla had never even done this! We have documented all of this work over the years on our video report tapes. Many builders have taken full advantage of our disclosures to produce quick results of up to 4 times their resonator length in simple two coil Tesla systems.

Real Examples

We were amazed to discover that top and bottom bulkheads were no longer needed on our magnifier resonators! The electrostatic shielding of these massive terminals so evened out the varying fields beneath them that air alone set the up limits of break down, and even then, some instances defy ready made explanations. As an example, I have used a 16" long helical resonator 6" in diameter on our magnifier #11-A to produce straight line, point to point arcs of up to 110"! This was with a total tank circuit capacitance of 0.0125ufd and power inputs of 3-4 KVA. Here is the strange part. The base of the resonator sat on a solid metal aluminum toroid of 10" diameter and 3" cross section. The resonator was hollow and you could ram your arm through it! The top terminal capacitance consisted of a 12" X 3" toroid topped with a 20" X 5" toroid with a 36" diameter conical aluminum shield transitioning to a final toroid of 48" X 10". The linear distance in air through the tube between the bottom aluminum toroid and the top aluminum toroid was a mere 18"! The spark would rather tortuously cover about 160" of free air path and strike 110" away from the large toroid rather than take a straight, free air path of 19" through the center of the open tube to the base of the resonator. It is at this point that we realized that the resonator system is as electrostatic in nature as it is electromagnetic. The “radio boys” focus in on the electromagnetic goings on and seemingly forget the electrostatic capabilities of the system. We have settled on a minimum toroid diameter, for high performance systems, of three times the resonator winding length! More than this is desirable! A round ball or sphere is no good for a terminal capacitance unless it sits on a lower toroid which can electrostatically shield the top of the resonator helix.

Now that some ground work for understanding has been laid, we can return to a question begged by this paper and under current investigation by us. What are the practical effective limits of this loading? Is there a stopping point forced upon us by nature? Remember that the resonant frequency in these large loadings is determined more and more by the terminal capacitance and less and less by the wire helix. We are reducing the fractional value of the wire in the helix and its role in determining the effective, apparent, electrical length of the resonator as the frequency is pushed ever lower by increased loadings. Would there seemingly be a point where the resonant frequency would no longer be effectively determined by the helix at all? This is as absurd as the totally unloaded helix where its own tiny internal capacitance made little difference in the resonant frequency compared to its inductance. There will always be both capacitance and inductance in a resonant system! There will obviously be a limit, but we have never even approached it! It would appear, as Tesla forecast, that the limits are so remote as to be limited only by insulating materials and air.

We once loaded up a small 2.5" diameter resonator, 13" long, tight wound from #30 wire with a terminal from a giant building exhaust fan cover made of spun aluminum. It was 36" in diameter and 24" tall. This massive and seemingly gross overloading, allowed the normal 880khz helix to resonate down around 250 khz! This was fed from a magnifier driver as an extra coil resonator system. To our surprise, the little coil used 2400 watts to throw out 70 inch point to point, straight line arcs! We have run this resonator system for as long as 4 minutes without stop. Yes, the resonator coil gets almost too hot to touch after such a run due to the tremendous base current demanded by the load and the high frequency resistance offered by the small wire. Again, all this is fully documented on our tape reports. You need not take my word for it. This is fact. The deed is done. This little coil was like a minature Wardenclyffe in relative dimensions and points up the degree to which Tesla was knowledgeable concerning large terminal loadings. He picked up specifics at Colorado Springs and even had a germ of the idea before 1899!