rising spark structure in a Jacob’s ladder. In the photographs, it leads to comb-like discharge patterns, or the so-called “banjo effect,” because bursts briefly illuminate each rising channel during the exposure. This process is similar to streak photography except that here the spark discharge is moving instead of the camera system. In the video, this is shown by the illusion of vertically rising discharge structures that evolve over time.

During testing of the Marx coil (MC) apparatus, the longest observed discharge lengths were roughly 15 cm for free discharge in air for operation with the solenoid as arranged in the inset of Fig. 3, and 20 cm for discharges from a wire to a flat grounded target without the solenoid as arranged in Fig. 4.

Marx-coil aparatus
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The total height of the MC apparatus as shown in Fig. 1(a) was roughly 68 cm. The capacitors $C_{1-17}$, $C_b$, and $C_t$ were Murata DHR series ceramic disc capacitors with a ZM temperature characteristic, $\pm 10$% tolerance, and 15 kV direct-current (DC) rating. Their capacitance is known to decrease with DC bias, up to roughly 22% at 15 kV.[@murata]

The inductors $L_{1-36}$ were 3-pi universal wound Bourns/J. W. Miller 6306-RC varnished RF 