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Hermit

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When I was a young lad of 32 my hobby was electronics and starting to get into physics (via electricity). My qualifications at that time was Avionics, and had recently left the RAAF to pursue work as a electronic technician. Part of the job was to repair computer video display units (VDU). They were cathode ray tubes requiring about 10,000 volts DC. One lunchtime I was playing with this voltage to see how long an arc it can make (about 10 mm). My colleague, who was watching, mentioned about Nikola Tesla, a man I have never heard of. So I went to the library (1986) to learn about him. That is how I started this new hobby of High Voltage Experiments.

A lot of things happened since then. Basically, lost many experiments and photographs in a house fire (not due to experiments). Later, new experiments and collected data and photographs were stolen. Have no idea why or who. But today, nearly every mad scientist has a Tesla Coil to play with. You can buy them at a novelty shop in the disguise of a plasma lamp (more like looking inside a VDU).

Anyway, much of my playing around was to get better understanding of a few things not yet known. In the 1980's electricity was still somewhat a mystery. An arc was a way to examine it in a visual way. At that time, you could not buy High Voltage equipment generating a million volts, let alone one hundred thousand volts. So you had to make it yourself. A lot of the materials to build it required some knowledge of material properties such as resistance, conductance, capacitance, and dielectrics. From these, materials can be sought and utilized for making a very high voltage test equipment.

Much of the photographs to be shown came from parents and people who had a copy of the prints. Any illustrations that may be posted here are made for clarification of what the experiments entailed. Like all things in my life, God has always been waiting for me to abide to Him. Whenever I relinquished myself to Him He always provided the truth I needed to bring me closer to Him. Physics was just a means for bringing me closer to God. I will try and explain this closeness as this thread unfolds. This story is more worldly than spiritual, but it has helped me to let go of this world more than ever before. I may be involved in this world but I do not consider myself belonging to it. In other words, I can let go and walk away without feeling any loss of investment.

Below: Examining my first Tesla Coil apparatus. I did not want three months of work to blow-up, or burn-out, because of some silly oversight. Later that night, I switched the Tesla Coil on for the first time. (1986).

uiebben.jpg
 
Cool. Yes, I am an electronics technician and worked all my life in the microelectronics field (I also love astronomy, physics and mathematics as my signature says). Ah yes, Tesla coils. FIrst off, I read a book several years back about Tesla. Quite a character. I would put him on par with Einstein and Newton. I remember reading he was very debonair taking pride in his appearance, unlike messy-haired Einstein. He was obsessed with resonance, which of course, is what the Tesla coil is based on. He dreamed of building a tower which would transmit energy all over the earth for power. He was a genius and a man ahead of his time. I wonder if he came back in a time machine? LOL

Your story is interesting. Maybe the fire was an accident, but someone stealing your papers? Hmmmm.

I am both amazed and humbled myself at the concept of resonance. Inductive reactance cancels Capacitive reactance so that the circuit is only limited by the resistive component. This, in turn, builds up high voltage across both Inductor and capacitor. But as you know, they are 180 degrees out of phase and thus "cancel" each other. In effect, one is storing energy for the other and they feed it back and forth as a swinging pendulum transfers potential and kinetic energy.

I can perfectly understand how Physics brings you closer to God. This is why I'm a big Sir Isaac Newton fan. WE share similar characteristics as Newton. He was into astronomy, alchemy, optics, physics of various sorts, and discovered calculus. But unbeknownst to most, he was a learned theologian as well who was verse in (I believe) something like 5 languages and history. He was obcessed with the books of Daniel and Revelation. So science brought him closer to God, I suppose, too. Some people claim Newton was "occultic" because he was into alchemy, but while that subject is the topic of wizards today, back then you have to see why Newton was doing what he was doing. He was messing with changing the elements. What he was trying to do, but did not understand, was NUCLEAR PHYSICS. He was attempting to do that chemically instead of on the atomic (e.g. fusion) level. That's not superstition. That was just misunderstanding. I find those who accuse Newton of that as being rather unlearned themselves.

So, that was you back in the 80"s with that contraption? Cool. I was married in 1986 at the age of 27.
 
...Your story is interesting. Maybe the fire was an accident, but someone stealing your papers? Hmmmm...
The fire story was irrational sabotage by a teenager who did not want to leave fingerprints for stealing a rifle from our house. He wanted to shoot the neighbour, his supposed girlfriend's father, who disallowed her to date the boy.
In regards to the other matter, I am assuming theft because all my work was in the garage, which I found empty.
...I find those who accuse Newton of that as being rather unlearned themselves...
People, of old nature, can only feel safe when having some resemblance of being in control. So anything thrusted upon them without prior understanding, or not wanting to understand, their fear throws them into all sorts of denial. All sorts of false judgments abound. Even Jesus Christ was judged as a demon _ see Matthew 12:24.

I also have a degree in Health Science, which led me to be experiment with alternative healing paradigms and methods of which crystal therapy was one I focused on. Revelation 21:8 and other verses get thrown at me because of that. They do not understand that there are other dimensionalities in play when it comes to physics. We too are multidimensional beings. There are finer realities within us. Some alternative healing methods, unbeknownst to many practitioners, are actually utilizing those finer realities. IMHO

In saying this, I do not plan to explore this here. However, one of my convictions from all of this is that everything, on its own, is not necessarily so. The only certainty is that Truth/God is the only Reality, because anything else will eventually be found wanting.

In saying this, in this thread, I will not be exploring deeper understanding through the language of mathematics. I know that maths is required to do so, because the English language is inadequate to bring such understanding to realization. However, not many, including myself, would wish to go there, because it easily gets used for claiming glorification for self instead for God. So it ought to be enough to explain what revelations, and there's only a few, which has brought me closer to God.
 
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Only God and electricians make electricity.

Tesla was consumed by frequency.
And because of his work we know a lot about it today. Skin effect and radio waves all go into why our little cell phones work. Ever see hollow pipes made out of silver in a coil to adjust the frequency a bit more for a transmitter?

Or wait for them to turn down the power of an antenna and yet still when climbing the thing to change the light bulbs at the top still hear the music coming from the fillings in your teeth? Sure they say you won't be harmed by it...but I tend to think that it's not a good idea to be up there.
 
Only God and electricians make electricity.

Tesla was consumed by frequency.
And because of his work we know a lot about it today. Skin effect and radio waves all go into why our little cell phones work. Ever see hollow pipes made out of silver in a coil to adjust the frequency a bit more for a transmitter?

Or wait for them to turn down the power of an antenna and yet still when climbing the thing to change the light bulbs at the top still hear the music coming from the fillings in your teeth? Sure they say you won't be harmed by it...but I tend to think that it's not a good idea to be up there.

Tesla was in big competition with Edison. Everyone and their brother praises Edison but you don't hear much about Tesla. Yet, without Tesla we would not have AC today (well.... until someone else came along I suppose). Edison was a big fan of direct current. Direct Current as you know only has resistive properties, so Edison's big dream was merely to light houses with resistive bulbs and heat producing items (e.g. a toaster would work on DC). But with DC, there would have been a power source of some sort every few miles since the voltage was so low. AC on the other hand can be transformed because of inductance, which is why we transform the voltage so high to transfer the power long distances (skin effect as you said). There's less I2R loss since the current is kept down. After all we know that a 10A fuse blows just as quickly on a 100v circuit as a 300v circuit if there's 10A going thru it.

When reading about this, I actually got a tad irritated with Edison being more business-like and out-spoken than the more reflective Tesla who was happy to be in his lab doing calculations. But that's typical of the world to praise those who show themselves off while missing out on a true gem behind the scenes ---they don't have the discernment. Tesla died virtually penniless, but he was "interesting" enough for the government to seize his work in his apartment. Interesting. We don't deserve the advancements Tesla discovered for us. We should be back enjoying incandescent bulbs, space heaters and toasters yet and to heck with smart phones.
 
Tesla was in big competition with Edison. Everyone and their brother praises Edison but you don't hear much about Tesla. Yet, without Tesla we would not have AC today (well.... until someone else came along I suppose). Edison was a big fan of direct current. Direct Current as you know only has resistive properties, so Edison's big dream was merely to light houses with resistive bulbs and heat producing items (e.g. a toaster would work on DC). But with DC, there would have been a power source of some sort every few miles since the voltage was so low. AC on the other hand can be transformed because of inductance, which is why we transform the voltage so high to transfer the power long distances (skin effect as you said). There's less I2R loss since the current is kept down. After all we know that a 10A fuse blows just as quickly on a 100v circuit as a 300v circuit if there's 10A going thru it.

When reading about this, I actually got a tad irritated with Edison being more business-like and out-spoken than the more reflective Tesla who was happy to be in his lab doing calculations. But that's typical of the world to praise those who show themselves off while missing out on a true gem behind the scenes ---they don't have the discernment. Tesla died virtually penniless, but he was "interesting" enough for the government to seize his work in his apartment. Interesting. We don't deserve the advancements Tesla discovered for us. We should be back enjoying incandescent bulbs, space heaters and toasters yet and to heck with smart phones.
High voltage on transmission lines operates at 15 hz and is transformed (using relative motion of increasing and decreasing magnetic fields and successive coils) to the 60hz we commonly have.
 
High voltage on transmission lines operates at 15 hz and is transformed (using relative motion of increasing and decreasing magnetic fields and successive coils) to the 60hz we commonly have.
I did not know about the 15hz part. Whenever I was near to any transformers or substations, I often hear the familiar 60hz buzz. So I assumed that was the frequency all over.
 
I did not know about the 15hz part. Whenever I was near to any transformers or substations, I often hear the familiar 60hz buzz. So I assumed that was the frequency all over.
The humming or buzz is from the secondary side usually. The 500KV lines also crackle...the noise gets louder when it snows. You have to be almost directly under them to hear it...but I recommend that you don't carry any pipe or something else metallic and long under them. Inductance will zap you hard. Dragging it is much preferable. Experience is a hard teacher and a fool will learn by no other. :dunce

Also any Ground lines must be straight...no coils of any kind because if they get energized in a switch yard they will go straight... immediately... cutting or knocking the stew out of anything in their way.
 
The humming or buzz is from the secondary side usually. The 500KV lines also crackle...the noise gets louder when it snows. You have to be almost directly under them to hear it...but I recommend that you don't carry any pipe or something else metallic and long under them. Inductance will zap you hard. Dragging it is much preferable. Experience is a hard teacher and a fool will learn by no other. :dunce

Also any Ground lines must be straight...no coils of any kind because if they get energized in a switch yard they will go straight... immediately... cutting or knocking the stew out of anything in their way.

Joking aside regarding a pipe etc, we had a man here in the township killed on his own property with downed wires near the substation. I think he left his dog out and the dog dropped. He went out to investigate and he dropped dead, too. Somehow they figured a wire was down and he was near enough to get zapped (I don't remember the details how he contacted the hot line). A horrible and freak accident. Left behind a wife and kids.
 
Joking aside regarding a pipe etc, we had a man here in the township killed on his own property with downed wires near the substation. I think he left his dog out and the dog dropped. He went out to investigate and he dropped dead, too. Somehow they figured a wire was down and he was near enough to get zapped (I don't remember the details how he contacted the hot line). A horrible and freak accident. Left behind a wife and kids.
You don't have to touch it. Taking a walk towards a downed line can create a potential difference between your two legs and feet and there you go.

Shuffling your feet walking towards or away from a downed line is your only option.
 
Tesla knew about the skin effect of AC current in power lines, that was one reason he recommended 60 Hz and no higher. The other reason is because he calculated that 60 Hz was the best low frequency harmonic for the planet Earth (for some other ideas he had). His high voltage experiments were all high frequency, The skin effect was visually evident (corona). The higher the frequency, and voltage, the greater the skin effect, but the problem is that a lot of energy is bled/lost into the air. That is why power lines is no higher than 60 Hz.

Earthed high power sources, such as lightning strikes, and active downed power lines, dissipate their energy through the earth. The closer you are to the source the higher the power dissipation is. So if you walked, or took a step towards the source, the potential difference between the step may be enough to cause electrocution. That is, the potential difference would find it easier to travel up the leg and down the other than to travel through the earth between them. That is why high power electricians, at the time of seeing a potential short-circuit hazard lift up one leg. And as John mentioned, nothing metal / conductive is used that will close the air gap between power source and earth (via person).
 
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Yup, that is why if you are ever near downed power lines and need to move away from them you either do short hops, ensuring your feet are together the entire time, or shuffle your feet without letting them leave the ground. Otherwise, you will become a post toasty.
 
Here is the basic circuit diagram which I had been using:

qKINtPV.jpg

I have experimented with many variations of the basic circuit. I bought a copy of Tesla's diary when he conducted experiments at Colorado Springs. Tried some of the variations of circuitry he experimented with. But the circuit above was the main one I used for my experiments.

This is the general layout of the components on top of a wooden table. Not knowing what to expect from the initial experiment, I placed it outdoors.
grs3lJx.jpg


The Neon Transformer (used for neon signs) had a 15,000 volt output, which fed the Tesla Coil circuitry.
The breakout box was so I could control individual items of interest. They were labelled by erasable pen, depending on what I had plugged into the box.
Xh2naav.jpg


Below:
The Tesla coil is a simple air transformer with a primary of 8 turns of multi strand wire (later versions used copper piping). The secondary, from memory, had about 500 turns of copper wire spaced with nylon fishing wire between each turn (for added insulation). Output voltage was about 500,000 volts.

The Rotary Spark Gap (RSG) is purely for safety reasons. Tesla designed many variations of these. The purpose is to bring the voltage frequency from 50 Hz (Australia) to above 2,000 Hz. The human nervous system cannot react to impulses above 2 kHz. The RSG was made from 1/8" aluminium plate with an insulated (perspex) centre hub. This was attached to a 3,000 rpm motor (from an industrial printer). Each of the 16 blades passed 3 air-gapped contact points, which broke up the 50 Hz voltage to about 2,400 Hz (chopped). The blade is finely balanced (note the holes drilled into the blades). The whole thing is boxed in and welding glass is used for observing the gap sparks. When it gets up to speed it sounds like a muffled jet engine.
21Idu6m.jpg

Above:
The capacitors are homemade Leyden Jar types, made from 3 mm thick glass flagon bottles. The glass is the dielectric, and the conductor between the glass is salt-saturated water in and outside of the bottles.

The overload spark gap is just to take up the load in case there is a short circuit, such as the dielectric of the glass breaks down. When the glass shortens out you cannot tell where it has ruptured. The jar still can contain water, but not electricity. The jar needs to be replaced.
 
The humming or buzz is from the secondary side usually. The 500KV lines also crackle...the noise gets louder when it snows. You have to be almost directly under them to hear it...but I recommend that you don't carry any pipe or something else metallic and long under them. Inductance will zap you hard. Dragging it is much preferable. Experience is a hard teacher and a fool will learn by no other. :dunce

Also any Ground lines must be straight...no coils of any kind because if they get energized in a switch yard they will go straight... immediately... cutting or knocking the stew out of anything in their way.
during Irma salt pasted the covb grid feed from fpu/fpl to sub 8 and would cause power failures intermittently. they simply used water to clean the salt off. I have a photo.
6e429d96ec7dfd3a47340453aebcf2f386eb772a.jpg
 
I worked with our power cable guys as traffic controller for a few years. Any work they do on or near the cables, even before using the hoist, the power is turned off. In Australia, they even connect an earthing cable between lines and a spike driven into the ground as an added safety precaution. I even used the same method of earthing for all my Tesla coils. Even when they were in the house, a cable went outside to a brass rod driven in the ground. Then watered the ground around it for half an hour to make a good earth.
 
I've grounded myself to the line then isolated myself from earth ground.

So if somehow the line became energized (by inductance usually) I am still safe. No arc blasts this way. There's no potential difference this way. And I've done it this way when working energized too. Just made sure that I didn't get earth grounded..
It's scary yes...but it works. Especially when cleaning the glass insulators in a switch yard.
 
I've grounded myself to the line then isolated myself from earth ground.

So if somehow the line became energized (by inductance usually) I am still safe. No arc blasts this way. There's no potential difference this way. And I've done it this way when working energized too. Just made sure that I didn't get earth grounded..
It's scary yes...but it works. Especially when cleaning the glass insulators in a switch yard.
Body potential the same as source.starters will use that method to shut off a selonoid

Hermit,uk English lists ground as earth.American English doesnt.
 
I worked with our power cable guys as traffic controller for a few years. Any work they do on or near the cables, even before using the hoist, the power is turned off. In Australia, they even connect an earthing cable between lines and a spike driven into the ground as an added safety precaution. I even used the same method of earthing for all my Tesla coils. Even when they were in the house, a cable went outside to a brass rod driven in the ground. Then watered the ground around it for half an hour to make a good earth.
I don't think they turn off high Powered one such as on this photo.they could use the switch yard to get power from other sources. I'm not knowledgeable on that.I know the grid area as I work in it and the feeds.that photo was taken not too far from my house,which isn't served by covb.
 
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