The marx generator is being fed at the base from my Cockcroft-Walton
voltage multiplier via my current limiter.
For my first attempt at operation, I set the bottom gap to ~1/2" and the
other gaps to ~1". This did not work. The bottom gap would
fire, but not the upper ones. Next, I used a piece of 1/2" square
copper buss bar as a gauge block to set the lower gap at just less than
1/2" and the rest at just over 1/2". This worked great, with a nice
6" spark jumping from the top stage to a grounded wire. Then, using
a piece of 1" X 3/4" UHMWPE bar as a gauge block, I set the gaps to just
less than and just more than 3/4". This produced the results seen
in the above pictures, with a nice ~14" spark to ground (very loud too).
With the gaps set to just over and under 1" and the C-W at full output
a loud sizzling sound and lots of ozone were produced, but the gaps refused
to break down. I believe this is due to corona losses balancing out
the current supplied by the C-W. I might be able to suppress these
losses by adding a toroid to the top and maybe some gradient rings....