The Spark Transmitter. 4. Inductive Coupling of Tuned Circuits.

"All is riddle, and the key to a riddle is another riddle."

R.W. Emerson

Will we ever get to the load? Well, it's getting closer . . . trust me, I'm a doctor.

Inductive Coupling.

Having generated power at rf, it is necessary to transfer it from the primary circuit where it
originated to the secondary circuit where it will do something useful. Remembering the
requirements of the maximum power theorem, it is clear that the conditions required are those of
an impedance match.

In the diagram, the primary and secondary coils are coupled

inductively by means of a mutual inductance M. This has a
reactance at the operating frequency Xm. For perfect matching, the
resistance coupled into the primary circuit must be equal to the
resistive load which the generator expects to see. If the load is itself
reactive, then to get a perfect match two out of the three reactances
Xp, Xs, and Xm must be variable. Fortunately, if primary and
secondary are tuned circuits at resonance, things become greatly
simplified and we have the possibility of obtaining a perfect match
purely by varying the mutual inductance coupling. This we do
according to the equation:

where Rp and Rs are the resistances associated with both circuits. (The value of the mutual
inductance M can then be calculated if we know the frequency of operation.) Well, what exactly
are these resistances? For the primary circuit, Rp is the resistance associated with the generator
(remember the maximum power theorem!)

But what is Rs? That is a harder question to answer. It also seems likely, for a Tesla coil
secondary, that it will vary according to whether a spark is being produced from the top electrode
or not. At least with an aerial it will be constant. With a resonant aerial in fact it's fairly easy,
being equal to the sum of the resistive losses in the aerial, the ground and the radiation
resistance. The radiation resistance is a fictitious resistance, which if it was included in the aerial
would cause as much power loss through heating as the loss of power due to radiation from the
aerial. So in the case of a Tesla secondary, what we need here is a "spark resistance" which
would cause the same amount of power loss as is caused by spark discharge from the top
electrode. It is by no means easy to see what value this should be. We can, however, state with
certainty that it is unlikely to be very useful trying to reduce the rf resistance of the secondary to
a value much below that of the ground connection, as the two act in series.

Fortunately, we can be ignorant of the exact requirements here and adjust the mutual inductance
coupling by the physical separation of the primary and secondary coils and, according to time
honoured wireless practice, "tune for maximum smoke"! [You can usually tell when you've
damaged an electronic component because the smoke they put in it at the factory leaks out. I
don't know who it was who invented smoke as a means for indicating faulty components but all I
can say is, it's a jolly clever idea and I wish I had the patents on it.]

One of the reasons (by no means the only one, nor, as it happens, anything like the best one) why
Tesla secondaries give bigger sparks with larger top capacitances is because there is often
insufficient mutual inductance coupling for perfect impedance matching (this may be because
decreasing the separation between the coils causes sparking into the primary) and when the top
capacitance of the secondary increases, the resonant frequency drops, more turns are needed on
the primary (which may be too small in relation to the primary capacitance) and the effective size
of the primary is increased, thereby increasing the proportion of input power converted to rf, and
increasing the mutual inductance and improving the match. It may also happen that reducing the
secondary reactance (corresponding to the drop in frequency) improves the impedance match and
we get a better power transfer from that cause too. (We'll come to the best reason for big
secondary capacitances later.) But there's more.

The mutual inductance coupling between primary and secondary can be related to their self-
inductance by means of the coupling constant k:

Notice that since k is defining the relationship between magnetic flux linkages in the circuit, it
can never be greater than 1. A value of 1 means that all the flux produced by the primary is
linked with the secondary and vice versa. A value of k greater than 1 would mean that more than
all of the flux produced by the primary is linked with the secondary and thus values of k greater
than 1 (and I have seen people claim it!) means you have a problem! In fact, k = 1 is never
achievable! The closest you are likely to get is in the output transformers of high quality valve
amplifiers where primary and secondary are split into interleaved windings, and in specialist
types of instrument transformers where the construction is similar. Power transformers used for
supply distribution are also quite good, fortunately for the supply companies and the end user.
Neon sign transformers and welding transformers are examples of designs where the value of k
varies considerably with the load and is sometimes a lot less than 1.

Transformers of this latter type are called "magnetic leakage transformers" because the design is
such that a large proportion of the flux generated by each coil can escape from the magnetic
circuit associated with the other coil. Under load, the proportion which "leaks" increases. This
gives intentionally poor power regulation and ensures that when a short circuit is placed across
the secondary (the striking of the welder's arc, the conductive breakdown of the neon gas, or the
flashing over of the primary spark gap) the output voltage is suddenly reduced until the "fault
condition" is removed. Mr. Melville Clapp-Eastham in the USA can be credited with the
introduction of this type of transformer for spark transmitters, and his Model E transformer has a
prominent place in wireless history. Similar results can be obtained from a power transformer of
the closely coupled type if there is an external inductance (choke) in series with the primary and
this external choke provides the necessary "leakage inductance".

The coupling constant is independent of the number of turns in a coil. The number of turns in a
coil determines the magnetic field which will be produced for a given current. The coupling
constant is concerned with how the lines of magnetic force produced by one coil interact with
another coil, and hence the coupling constant between two air spaced coils depends only on their
physical size and disposition in space. Hence to obtain the best coupling between primary and
secondary in an air-cored transformer we can only change the size and spatial relationships of the
coils. With a tapped coil it may be noticed that changing the tap position changes not only the
self-inductance but also the coupling constant. This is of course because when the tap is moved
to a different position, the effective size and spatial relationship of that coil are changed as well
as its self-inductance.

When we have the critical coupling, which exists when the voltage output is optimised, then we
have an additional relationship between kc the critical coupling constant and the Q values of
primary and secondary:

The value of coupling constant is important in a spark transmitter because the tightness of
coupling determines the rate at which the primary loses power to the secondary, and hence
determines decrement, damping, sharpness of tuning (loaded Q) and intensity of current at
resonance (and hence secondary voltage in a Tesla coil.) Remember those nice graphs showing
the logarithmic decrement and loaded Q? The graph of decrement  = 0.09 and loaded Q = 34.6
corresponds to the critical coupling constant having a value of kc = 0.17, which, from the records
left by the old-time spark wireless operators, is around the maximum which can be used with a
quenched spark gap of multi-plate construction. Hence for a critical coupling constant of kc =
0.17, the product QpQs must be 34.6. We can of course split that product between a wide range of
possible Qp and Qs values! If both are equal to Q = 5.88 (the square root of 34.6) the decrement
of each circuit individually is given by the graph of  = 0.53.

The diagram shows the effect of varying the coupling on the frequency distribution (read
'logarithmic decrement') of a spark transmitter. As the coupling is increased much beyond 20%,
k = 0.2, the frequency spread increases dramatically, indicating that the logarithmic decrement
has increased and that loaded Q has decreased. The square of the current, plotted on the y axis,
also plummets drastically.
 The next diagram shows that, in
order to get the highest possible
secondary current, the primary and
secondary circuits have to be
slightly detuned. In each case the
primary circuit remains tuned to a
wavelength of 650m, whilst the
aerial circuit (secondary) is varied
from 500 - 650m. The best result
is for 585m. This was obtained in
an experimental test circuit chosen
to demonstrate the effect clearly,
and the best detuning is here about
11%. For the average aerial and
coupling k=0.17, the detuning was
normally about 3%.

Curves like these are recorded by

coupling an rf ammeter into the
circuit. I have seen circuit
diagrams in which the meter is
placed directly in the primary
circuit, but evidently these were
low voltage circuits (possible with
the quenched gap which will
operate on just a few hundred
volts) and it is more usual to
couple the meter to the aerial
circuit and then indirectly by
means of a coupling loop. A
thermocouple ammeter would be
the instrument of choice, but these
curves were recorded most likely with a hot wire meter, whose deflection is proportional to the
square of the current - hence the plot of I2 on the y axis.

The mutual inductance coupling ensures that everything critical to the operation of the spark
transmitter (or Tesla coil) is dependent on just about everything else, and that is why trying to
find the global optimisation for a Tesla coil to give the biggest spark for a given input power is
so very difficult. It isn't that we have such an enormous number of variables - it's the
interdependence of all of them simultaneously on each other!

All of which goes to show how very complicated the inductively coupled spark transmitter (or
Tesla coil) really is. It's a nice demonstration of the fact that there is not necessarily a direct
correlation between the number of components in a circuit and its complexity of operation. The
spark transmitter circuit is one of the simplest - just seven components (power transformer,
primary capacitor, primary inductance, primary spark gap, secondary inductance, secondary
capacitance and mutual inductance) and yet a detailed description of its operation would require
a lot more space than this and cartloads of higher mathematics. Any electrical circuit can be
broken down into just four fundamental 'units' - inductance, capacitance, resistance and mutual
inductance - and with just seven components, this circuit has the lot.

As a mere radio ham tinkering outside my sphere of professional competence I can only scratch
the surface. I am left gasping with admiration at the achievements of the old timers who built and
operated spark transmitters and Tesla coils often without a clue as to the frequency of operation
or technical knowledge much above Ohm's law. They did it, of course, by a combination of
knowing inside out what there was to know, by meticulous method and by sheer patience and
dogged determination.

Oh, by the way. We have now arrived at the load.

We're not through yet though. The next section looks at transmission lines and magnifier circuits.

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The Spark Transmitter. 2. Maximising Power, part 1.

"I think a famous French mathematician and physicist was guilty of

only slight exaggeration when he said that no discovery was really
important or properly understood by its author unless and until he
could explain it to the first man he met on the street."

Sir J.J. Thomson

By means of a suitable condenser, inductance, spark gap and high voltage source it is possible to
generate power at r.f. (radio frequency). Having generated power at r.f. it is necessary to ensure
that it is transferred efficiently to the load, be that an aerial or Tesla coil, where it can do
something useful. The question of "how?" is now one to be considered in greater detail.

Maximising Output.

Consider a generator connected to two resistors in series. Call the resistors R1 and
R2. If the generator produces an emf E volts, then the voltage across R2, call it E2,
is equal to:

and the power P2 dissipated in R2 is equal to:

This value is a maximum when R2 = R1 and the power dissipated in R2 then becomes:

Now imagine that R1 is inside the generator itself. The above expression for the power P2 in R2 is
the maximum which can be obtained by connecting a generator having internal resistance R1 to
the resistance load R2. This is a very important result and is generally called the maximum
power theorem. It demonstrates that the maximum power transfer can only occur when the two
resistances are equal, and the generator and load are then said to be matched.

Resistances, Reactances, Impedances and Resonance.

What has been stated above is not only true for circuits containing pure resistance. In a circuit
containing a coil and/or a capacitor, there will not only be the resistance of the coil to consider,
but the reactances of coil and capacitor too. The reactance of a coil or capacitor can be thought of
as the resistance of that component to alternating current (ac) and because the frequency of ac
can obviously vary, the reactance of a coil or capacitor is frequency-dependent, or in other
words, the resistance of a coil or capacitor to the passage of ac depends on the frequency.
The reactance is given the symbol X and is measured in ohms as is a resistance. The formulae for
capacitive and inductive reactance are:

This begs the question, what is the real difference between a resistance and a reactance if both
are measured in ohms? It is necessary in ac circuits to take account of the relative phases of
voltage and current, and the difference between a pure resistance and capacitive and inductive
reactances is one of phase. In a purely inductive circuit, the voltage leads the current (this is
called a positive phase difference and is shown by +j) and in a capacitive circuit, the current
leads the voltage (a negative phase difference shown by -j, j being the square root of -1). In a
purely resistive circuit, there is no phase difference. In other words, the difference between
resistive and reactive ohms is not real but imaginary (sorry about that.) Only resistances consume
power, because for power to be consumed, the current and voltage within the component must be
in phase. Reactances do not consume power (aside from any resistance they may have) but take
it from the supply over part of a cycle and give it back over the rest. We might then amend our
formulae to take account of this, and, whilst doing that, we can rename the 2f bit, which
appears with monotonous regularity, as the Greek letter .

Inevitably in a circuit containing reactance there will always be resistance too. The combination
of reactance and resistance is called "impedance". This too is measured in ohms and is given the
symbol Z. If the coil or capacitor is efficient, the resistance can often be neglected (this is
particularly true of capacitors) and the impedance is then numerically equal to the reactance. In
other cases we must calculate the effect of the resistance, and in a circuit where there is a
combination of significant resistance, capacitive reactance and inductive reactance, we must
calculate the net result thus:

If there is more capacitive reactance than inductive reactance, the value of Z will be something
multiplied by negative j; if there is more inductive reactance, Z will be something multiplied by
positive j. Whenever the squares of the inductive and capacitive reactances do not come to zero
under that square root sign, there is net reactance (shown as +j or -j) present in the impedance Z,
and Z is said to be a reactive load.

Now, as we said above, only if the generator is suitably matched to the load will the maximum
power be transferred. In the case of reactive loads, it is not enough for the generator to have the
same impedance - the impedance Z of the generator must be the "conjugate" of that of the load -
conjugate effectively means "equal and opposite" - and if the impedance of the load contains
positive (inductive) reactance then the impedance of the generator must contain negative
(capacitive) reactance of equal magnitude. [Psssst - this of course means that the load and
generator together are resonant!]

Happily, this complexity is greatly reduced in the case of resonant tuned circuits as loads,
because the reactances at resonance of capacitor and coil have equal and opposite phase
differences and the load appears to the generator to be a simple resistance - the impedance Z of
the tuned circuit as a whole is a pure resistance because the squares of the capacitive and
inductive reactances under that square root sign sum to zero.

I have to confess a marked objection to the various statements sometimes seen that the
reactances "cancel out". The reactances are not sentient beings! Coils and capacitors do not sit
and conspire together to reduce their reactances to zero as the resonant frequency is approached!
The reactances within each of the components are still very much present at resonance as is the
relative phase difference due to them (if you were to take the components out of the circuit and
measure their individual reactances at that same frequency you would see it) but the net phase
difference across the input terminals becomes zero because phase differences, unlike reactances,
do cancel and all the generator sees is a pure resistance. Hence the conjugate impedance required
of the generator to get the most power into the load is also a pure resistance. As we saw in the
paragraph above, a reactive load must be driven by a reactive generator having a conjugate
impedance, and a vital consequence of the maximum power theorem is therefore demonstrated
by tuned circuits themselves.

The Maximum Power Theorem inside Tuned Circuits.

Any tuned circuit at resonance obeys the requirements of the maximum power theorem. This is
because, at resonance:

The impedances are "conjugate"; in terms of the reactances we know that XL = -XC. This
equation corresponds to two physical realities:

1. The capacitor is fully charged and there is no current passing through the coil.
This situation is unstable and the capacitor spontaneously discharges via the coil,
creating a current in it which is linked with a magnetic field. The energy stored in
the capacitor (potential energy) is exchanged for the energy associated with the
magnetic field and flowing current (kinetic energy) in the coil. In other words,
The capacitor is the generator, and the coil is the load.

2. The current flowing in the coil is at a maximum and so is the associated magnetic field. The
capacitor is fully discharged. Unfortunately, because of this, at this very moment the power
supply fails. The situation is unstable. The current flow ceases momentarily, the magnetic field
gradually collapses, and a current is induced in the coil, passes out of the coil and charges up the
capacitor. Kinetic energy is exchanged for potential energy, the above formula is effectively
written the other way around, the coil has become the generator and the capacitor has become the
load.

Since the impedances of coil and capacitor are conjugate, the maximum power is transferred
from (transferred from, not consumed by!) one to the other at the condition of resonance. If there
was no resistance in the circuit, this exchange or oscillation would continue indefinitely because
the current and voltage are out of phase in each branch of the circuit and no power is consumed;
the damping and decrement would be zero and the Q infinite. Moreover, if the exchange of
energy is attempted at any other frequency than the resonant frequency, the impedances are not
conjugate and less than the maximum power will be transferred from one to the other.

Power is not consumed by the tuned circuit, except in any resistance which may be present, but
is transferred from one component to the other and back again. This enables the tuned circuit to
act as a sort of "accumulator" for radio frequency power and in a transmitter which is sending
say 500W to the aerial and taking say 750W from the power supply, there may be over 7kW
circulating in the tank circuit. The phase difference between voltage and current at resonance is
equal and opposite in the coil and the capacitor and so at the terminals of the circuit there appears
to be no phase difference at all. It's still there for each component - you just can't see it - the
reactances don't "cancel", but the phase differences do. The tuned circuit at resonance appears to
be a pure resistance because of the cancellation of the phase differences at the terminals, but it
obviously is not exactly the same thing as a pure resistance because a resistive load by definition
consumes power and converts it to heat, light, radio waves, mechanical energy etc. This is
particularly evident in a parallel tuned circuit as shown, since at resonance the apparent
resistance is very high (theoretically infinite).

This in fact tells us a lot about loads which are not at resonance but contain net reactance - a
reactive load receives power from a generator for part of the alternating cycle, and gives it back
over another part. Since the voltage and current are not in phase, power is not actually consumed
except by the resistive component of the load. Such unconsumed, circulating power is called
"wattless power" because it doesn't do any work. Electricity meters still measure it however, and
you still pay the bill for it, so it is an excellent idea to minimise the wattless power taken by any
electrical appliance, which of course we can do by cancelling the phase difference present at its
input terminals. This is called "power factor correction", is generally achieved by connecting
appropriately rated capacitors across the mains input to the appliance, and a purely resistive load
on the mains supply has a power factor of one, meaning there is no wattless power for which you
are being charged. Not only is this advantageous to the consumer, but it would be a disaster for
the power company if the distribution system was feeding a huge reactive load with massive out
of phase components (remember the maximum power theorem!) and power companies require
that all large loads are power factor corrected. All appliances which you buy and which have a
significant reactive component to their load characteristics are power factor corrected by the
manufacturer, so please don't try "tweaking" them!

The next installment will examine the meaning of Q and how to achieve an impedance match by
inductive coupling.

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