On Sunday, 27 October 2019 19:22:36 UTC, Jim Horton wrote:
On 10/27/19 1:58 PM, Cursitor Doom wrote:
On Sun, 27 Oct 2019 08:35:01 -0500, Fox's Mercantile wrote:

On 10/27/19 5:16 AM, Cursitor Doom wrote:
On Sat, 26 Oct 2019 20:31:15 -0700, tabbypurr wrote:

I always understood the Oudin & Tesla were much the same. What's the
difference?

The main difference is no one's ever heard of an "Oudin coil" :-)

You mean you've never heard of it.
In the words of Jon Stewart, "You can look this **** up you know."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oudin_coil

Obviously. But what I said still stands. Everyone's at least *heard of*
Tesla coils even if they don't know what they are.


Actually, the so-called "violet ray" device I have and a "Tesla" coil I
used to have were both made by Electro Technic. Both devices used
almost the same components throughout which consisted of an adjustable
vibrator/ kicker which drove a resonant coil/ capacitor. The only
difference was in the main coils: the hand held vacuum checker (aka
violet ray) used a wax/ epoxy potted coil whereas their "Tesla" coil
used a single air coil would around a plastic form. Both of the devices
operated on identical frequencies and would give a slight shock/ burn,
but neither were dangerous. In fact, I built their portable Tesla coil
myself year ago, using both parts from them and ones I had lying around.
I still have all the parts to build another someday as I sold the
original. And I have several of the hand held coils in my drawers.
Only one is assembled, but there are parts for others. I always
considered them as close to "safe" as anyone was going to get because
the 2" sparks really are weak just in case kids or others decide to
touch one (and they have plenty of times!). My spark generator device I
recently rehoused though is a different animal entirely. You definitely
DON'T want any of the direct sparks touching you. Even when I'm struck
with the weaker sparks through the HV tv wire, I really feel it. So,
other than for demos and me using the device the entire time, no one
gets around it.

Now I should point out that my Electro Technic coils and parts are not
that old and it's quite possible that original, antique violet ray
devices used a different set up as I've never come across one to
investigate for sure.

The main difference between antique & modern violet rays is the oldies use a self-oscillating relay, new ones use electronics to drive the coil.


NT