Induction Coil. US Patent No. Born November 28, - Died May 14, Related Inductees. Previous Slide Next Slide. Find an Inductee. Latest Articles in "Industry News". The inventor Nikola Tesla experimented at the end of the 19th century with different configurations of two or sometimes three resonant circuits. These experiments resulted in the Tesla transformer, better known as the Tesla coil. At the end of the 19th century, Tesla experimented with different configurations of two or sometimes three resonant circuits.
He used these devices to conduct novel experiments in the fields of electrical lighting, phosphorescence, X-ray generation, high-frequency alternating current phenomena, electrotherapy or wireless transmission of energy. Tesla coils can generate output voltages ranging from 50 kilovolts to several million volts in large coils.
The alternating current output is in the low high-frequency range, usually between 50 kHz and 1 MHz. To set his oscillator "ringing," Tesla employed sudden discharges, sparks, across an adjustable gap between two electrodes. Voltage on a capacitor builds until it reaches a level at which air in the gap breaks down as an insulator.
Precision screws set the gap clearance, so that a larger or smaller gap selects a larger or smaller breakdown voltage. This, of course, completes but a single cycle in the circuit's operation. The air gap restores itself as an insulator, and the capacitor begins to charge until it reaches a breakdown value once again.
The whole process can repeat itself many thousand times per second. The transformer's secondary is rather special, too, designed by Tesla to react quickly to a sudden energy spike and, most importantly, to concentrate voltage at one end as a standing wave. Its length is calculated so that wave crests, as they reach the end and are reflected back, meet and exactly reinforce the waves behind them.
The net effect is a wave, a voltage peak, that appears to stand still. If, as happened in practice, Tesla made an antenna of the high-voltage end of his secondary, it became a powerful radio transmitter.
0コメント