What am I seeing here?

I found this video titled: "Tesla Coil." No info on what's going on or it's faked or not.

**broken link removed**

For those with dialup, theres this huge mechanical spark gap that slides apart like a gate and a spark so bright it makes a lens flare. The arc snakes upward several feet and theres a big AC hum and an even louder sound I can't really describe. The spark cuts off real suddenly. Any ideas?

DigiTan said:

I found this video titled: "Tesla Coil." No info on what's going on or it's faked or not.

**broken link removed**

For those with dialup, theres this huge mechanical spark gap that slides apart like a gate and a spark so bright it makes a lens flare. The arc snakes upward several feet and theres a big AC hum and an even louder sound I can't really describe. The spark cuts off real suddenly. Any ideas?

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once a spark starts , the air ionizes (also very hot) , it rises upwards , since the ionized air has very low resistance than normal , the arc continues to strike along the rising ionized air's path , that is why it looks twisted and curved.

lol I like the guy at the end ... "wooot!"

that video is ancient - if you google for high voltage arcing you'll find out the explination behind that video as well as plenty other cool videos / pictures

I don't care about how old it is, I just wanna know what kind of facility this is and what they were testing. There aren't any landmarks or logos shown in the footage, so I can't find much info.

DigiTan said:

I don't care about how old it is, I just wanna know what kind of facility this is and what they were testing. There aren't any landmarks or logos shown in the footage, so I can't find much info.

Click to expand...

I would imagine it's to do with HV power distribution?, transformers, pylons, breakers etc. looks like they are testing how much it takes before it breaks down :lol:

When I was at technical college my course was on the fourth floor, and there was a really cool room there - it looked like a set from a Frankenstein movie!. It had huge jacobs ladders, massive Walton Cockcroft multipliers, spark gaps 4 feet apart, and was (obviously) fenced off with a Faraday cage.

But the REALLY!!!!! annoying thing was, I never saw it in operation :cry:

Apparently in use it wiped out all TV reception in the town, so it was only very occasionally fired up.

The town is world famous for it's church spire, I wonder if the Frankenstein setup had anything to do with the shape of it's spire?, see the atteched photo!.

I saw this video not so long back on here:

**broken link removed**

It gives a good explaination. Quite a fascinating video I thought, cool sound too

Dr.EM said:

I saw this video not so long back on here:

**broken link removed**

It gives a good explaination. Quite a fascinating video I thought, cool sound too

Click to expand...

that's the one!

if the OP had typed the keywords i'd suggested into google, that is the very first result returned, and it has a lengthy description of what is happening and why it's happening

No duh.

i heard it was a high voltage switch opening but one phase didn't disconnect before they cut the power.