Protonmom:

Wow, this is excellent news!  I can't even imagine why an original NS coil would end up there but hey, stranger things have happened.  Best of luck to you on your trip.  If indeed it is a real NS coil, not only will that help us to replicate but, that will be a real piece of history.  I am sure the NS museum would purchase that from you, after, of course, we reverse engineer it, ha ha.

Have a safe journey.

Bill

@Protonmom,

That is good news, but please bring a digital camera and document it or any other electrical equipment, with his permission of course. It would be great if it's an actual Stubblefield.

wow!!
This is good news.
I also want to request that you look closely for clues to the connections.
I think you know my thoughts about the globes and the long stake going into the ground,. I would love something definitive on this.

If the outside is covered in cloth this means it is the primary and not the secondary.
Hopefully the rest of the electrical stuff belongs with it and we can figure it out.

Excellent work!

jeanna

QuoteSo, do YOU (or anyone else) think this will work on a skinny rod?

Of course it would if its high iron and low carbon. Just a matter of wire size and number of turns that will dictate the power. It will be hard to wind without some sort of setup for it.
Protonmom: You may want to ask for a picture of this coil. The coil itself may not have been made by NS but that would be a plus if it were.

QuoteCould it be that the length of time the iron takes to lose its magnetism is related to voltage-ampherage ?

It is related but pretty much agree with Electricme. If you put a steady dc voltage on this coil there is no field collapse.  Which means the core is keeping the em field and aligning domains. A partial collapse of the core will affect the current and voltage output.  The dc current has to be interrupted in a timely manner in order for the max field collapse for max effect.  With AC it drops to a negative voltage reversing the polarity resulting in the cores collapse. Interrupted dc voltage only drops to zero with no polarity change.

That is a very cool experience.
Do you think there was ever any cotton insulation on the copper?
Was it varnished copper like jim's?

Not in mine, but yes on stubblefield's, and definitely on stephen vail's one, in order to sustain a galvanic like reaction ala alessandro volta whom used copper and silver coins separated with carboard soaked in salt water,but this coil doesn't depend on the galvanic but the radiant/cosmic energy absortion through pulses and in the ground also take advantage of the telluric currents
What I have been not asking very well is 'how well can a thing like this work if I have only a 3/32 inch diameter welding rod as a core?'

Eveything is proportional, core thickness and length, wire windings and diameter of it,so it will work with the right calculations, to avoid hysteresis loses making a core with several of this wires will act as the E insulted laminates of a regular transformer making more efficient with less losses eddy currents etc  

Hope this helps Jeanna