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Tesla coil
A Tesla coil is an electrical resonant transformer device designed by inventor Nikola Tesla in 1891. It is used to produce high voltage, high frequency alternating current. Tesla experimented with a number of different configurations consisting of two, or sometimes three, coupled resonant electric circuits.
Tesla used these devices to conduct innovative experiments in electrical lighting, phosphorescence, X-ray generation, high-frequency alternating current phenomena, electrotherapy, and the wireless transmission of electrical energy. Tesla coil circuits were used commercially in spark-gap transmitters for wireless telegraphy until the 1920s, and in medical equipment such as electrotherapy and violet ray devices. Today, their main usage is for entertainment and educational displays, although small coils are still used as leak detectors for high-vacuum systems.[clarification needed]
Originally, Tesla coils used fixed spark gaps or rotary spark gaps to provide intermittent excitation of the resonant circuit; more recently, electronic devices are used to provide the switching action required.
A Tesla coil is a high-frequency, air-cored resonant transformer, which can be used to produce very high voltages. In Tesla’s early designs, a simple spark gap was used to set up the oscillations in a tuned, radio-frequency transformer.
Tesla coils can produce output voltages from 50 kilovolts to several million volts for large coils. The alternating current output is in the low radio frequency range, usually between 50 kHz and 1 MHz.
The original, spark-excited Tesla coil circuit, shown below, consists of these components:
The specialized transformer used in the Tesla coil circuit (L1,L2), called a resonant transformer or radio-frequency (RF) transformer, functions on different principles to transformers used in AC power circuits. While an iron-cored transformer is designed to transfer energy efficiently from primary to secondary winding, the resonant transformer is designed to temporarily store and transfer high frequency currents. A primary winding is in parallel with a capacitor, while the secondary winding has a "parasitic' capacitance with its inductor, as illustrated by the diagram. The inductors and capacitors together function as two LC circuits, "tuned" so they have the same resonant frequency, and each spark briefly completes a circuit on the primary side, producing oscillation back and forth between the primary and secondary. This is analogous to the way a tuning fork stores vibrational mechanical energy.
The primary coil (L1) consists of relatively few turns of heavy copper wire or tubing, and is wired in parallel to a capacitor (C1). Current flows through the spark gap (SG) with each spark, and repetitively energizes the primary side LC circuit. The secondary coil (L2) consists of hundreds to thousands of turns of wire on a hollow cylindrical form, and the primary is coupled to it by being wound on an insulating former outside it.
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Tesla coil
A Tesla coil is an electrical resonant transformer device designed by inventor Nikola Tesla in 1891. It is used to produce high voltage, high frequency alternating current. Tesla experimented with a number of different configurations consisting of two, or sometimes three, coupled resonant electric circuits.
Tesla used these devices to conduct innovative experiments in electrical lighting, phosphorescence, X-ray generation, high-frequency alternating current phenomena, electrotherapy, and the wireless transmission of electrical energy. Tesla coil circuits were used commercially in spark-gap transmitters for wireless telegraphy until the 1920s, and in medical equipment such as electrotherapy and violet ray devices. Today, their main usage is for entertainment and educational displays, although small coils are still used as leak detectors for high-vacuum systems.[clarification needed]
Originally, Tesla coils used fixed spark gaps or rotary spark gaps to provide intermittent excitation of the resonant circuit; more recently, electronic devices are used to provide the switching action required.
A Tesla coil is a high-frequency, air-cored resonant transformer, which can be used to produce very high voltages. In Tesla’s early designs, a simple spark gap was used to set up the oscillations in a tuned, radio-frequency transformer.
Tesla coils can produce output voltages from 50 kilovolts to several million volts for large coils. The alternating current output is in the low radio frequency range, usually between 50 kHz and 1 MHz.
The original, spark-excited Tesla coil circuit, shown below, consists of these components:
The specialized transformer used in the Tesla coil circuit (L1,L2), called a resonant transformer or radio-frequency (RF) transformer, functions on different principles to transformers used in AC power circuits. While an iron-cored transformer is designed to transfer energy efficiently from primary to secondary winding, the resonant transformer is designed to temporarily store and transfer high frequency currents. A primary winding is in parallel with a capacitor, while the secondary winding has a "parasitic' capacitance with its inductor, as illustrated by the diagram. The inductors and capacitors together function as two LC circuits, "tuned" so they have the same resonant frequency, and each spark briefly completes a circuit on the primary side, producing oscillation back and forth between the primary and secondary. This is analogous to the way a tuning fork stores vibrational mechanical energy.
The primary coil (L1) consists of relatively few turns of heavy copper wire or tubing, and is wired in parallel to a capacitor (C1). Current flows through the spark gap (SG) with each spark, and repetitively energizes the primary side LC circuit. The secondary coil (L2) consists of hundreds to thousands of turns of wire on a hollow cylindrical form, and the primary is coupled to it by being wound on an insulating former outside it.