Tesla Coil Design Manual

The Tesla Coil Design Manual has been written to supplement the information on Tesla coils given in the Tesla Coil Construction Guide.

Note that this is a design manual and construction techniques are not included. Tesla coils using the designs in this handbook will work satisfactorily provided quality materials and good construction methods are used. Many articles have been written giving construction details for building Tesla coils and the reader is referred to these publications for this type of information.

Tesla coils have the ability to generate intense electric fields that may be used to contain plasmas for fusion and nuclear research. For this reason, Tesla coils may play an important part in finding a new future energy source. It is the aim of this design manual to create interest in these devices with the possibility that Tesla coil builders may make important future discoveries in this technology.

Electrical engineering handbooks state that the design of Tesla coils is empirical. This is typical of most practical engineering design work. When confronted with this type of situation engineers and scientists collect the necessary empirical data from systems that have been built and tested and the data is converted into equations and graphs that can be used to design and build new systems. This is the approach that has been taken for this manual.

There are 26 graphs and 13 drawings which are based on data from actual coils that have been built and tested by the author and many other coil builders. The graphs cover all of the major Tesla coil parameters. The drawings include special homemade instruments and instructions for testing the coil parameters. The graphs and drawings are all new and have never been published before. Also included in this volume is a section on Tesla's extra coil.

This design manual also includes the documentation for a new computer program that is available separately. Refer to the JHCTES program flyer for more information on the diskette.