Odds and ends

[PyroJoe]

Good and healthy spark!

[Mark]

After many hours of work and probably thousands of PVC strokes in the process, I managed to get a much larger spark. This was the most physical "arm work" I've done in a long time for an experiment. When I stood directly over the ruler it was actually a tiny bit over 7 inches from the tip of the tiny steel bearing to the gazing ball, and the ruler is also a fraction over 12 inches where the 12 inch line/mark is. It was funny in previous experiments, I used the ruler to guestimate the distance, edging the bottle closer and then measuring from a safe distance, but even that caused the gazing ball to start hissing, discharging slowing into my ruler. The wooden ruler has a little metal piece/edge on one side running the length and I sometimes short out the bottle that way after the big spark, because it has this sneaky habit of recharging somewhat if you let it sit for a bit. You can completely dead short it and then wait a bit an it will develop a residual charge again somehow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SszfyEUcoec

[Mark]

A 6.5 inch spark taken in dim light. Sometimes you get a bang but no picture because the spark falls between frames. Just as I was charging the sphere moving the PVC rod just over the top and to the left, the device fired. It kind of startled me, you never know when it's going to decide to make the leap. The 4 liter plastic bottle and tall can with bearings are all sitting on a quarter inch thick by 4 inch wide by something long piece of solid copper. Don't know that it helped any or not over the aluminum disc I used for the other experiments, but it's a heavy hunk of copper. I got to thinking if I could get a 12 inch spark or so, (not likely), maybe the thing would just discharge to the plate directly below it instead over to the tall metal can opposite it if it were a greater distance. Or maybe it would fire into the side of the plastic bottle where the salt water level is. Anyway, behold the power of a paper towel. ha
And note the exotic branched sparks at the bottom of the bottle when it fires. Funny, the first few times I watched it, I didn't even notice them! Also there's a wooden ruler in front of the copper ground for a rough reference if you can make it out.
6.5 Inch Spark in Dim Light.AVI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w_18SqA6x8

[Mark]

Odd cabinet knobs and spark plug marriage ... I was reading about making a Wimshurst machine and this fellow suggested using knobs for his Steampunk design. So I bought several knobs for a dollar each at some Habitat for Humanity store. Then I was fiddling around and found they screw onto these spark plugs/igniters. The other day I cut some 8-32 threads on some brass rod just dinking around and happened upon the same thread on these jumbo spark plugs if you unscrew that little top piece. Don't know if there's any practical use to it, but it kind of adds a little flare. ha
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8ygaZFUokM

"Lamp Parts – You will need a selection of lamp parts which may vary depending on what is available at your particular store. Pictured here are pull chains, finials, and ball nuts used to make parts of the charge collector combs and discharge electrodes. Also pictured are cabinet knobs which were not used in this project but would make good alternatives. See the charge collector construction step for details."
http://steampunkworkshop.com/how-build- ... ine-part-1

I was dwelling on building a Wimshurst machine but then I read a sectorless Wimshurst or Bonetti made bigger sparks. All you need are 2 acrylic discs that spin oppositely and that creates a static charge if you put neutralizers and collector brushes on it. I have 2 acrylic discs I cut out that are 16.5 inches in diameter and they even crackle just lifting one off the other, they seem to have a lot of static. I bought a 10 foot length of PVC today 4 inches in diameter and put it in my Honda Pilot so that it fit completely inside straight from the back to the middle of the dash right next to me and it was lifting the hairs on my right arm just driving it home.
Here's some Bonetti pics and stuff.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12049698@N ... 269506341/
Notice on this particular Bonetti he gets a 7.5 inch spark. I'm going to have to see if I can push my pvc/paper towel friction method from my best of 7 inches to 7.5 inches. ha
Also note the 5 gallon bucket capacitor towards the last. He's made a myriad of devices if you check his youtube and flickr pages. On the flickr page he gets an even larger spark, although for me I like more the art and simplicity.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12049698@N ... 269506341/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12049698@N ... 269506341/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12049698@N ... 269506341/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05s3zkBPewg

[Mark]

Well I'm starting to make some improvements on the static spark project. It takes a lot less time now to get a spark of a certain size. Whereas it often took me up to or well over 150 strokes to hit the limit of 7 inches, I was able to one time get a 7 inches spark in 15 strokes! And a spark jumping a 6 inch gap in 11 strokes using the same PVC/Paper towel arrangement! A few days ago I got some 1 inch sparks, three one inch arcing sparks with a single slow stroke of the paper towel sleeve sliding over the PVC.

Recall this fellow was able to get a 7 inch spark but said it should be possible to get an even larger spark.
"The picture was taken with a digital video camera under bright fluorescent light. The sparks are not quite as bright as they appear in the pictures, but they are nevertheless quite impressive to the uninitiated in electrostatics, not to mention being quite loud. These sparks are 5 1/2 inches (14cm) long, but under optimum conditions I have made sparks as long as seven inches (18cm). I think with a little tweaking of the configuration, they might be much longer."
http://www.coe.ufrj.br/~acmq/foster.html

But the neat thing today I got a 7.5 inch spark with 23 strokes and an uplifting 8 inch spark with 70 strokes. It's no problem to get 7 inches now in the teens or twenties range. You can't imagine the surprise I got when I started seeing these long sparks with so little effort from what I had been doing. Funny the words "Now I am become death" came to mind for some reason. It was just so strange to see these big sparks so easily. I have been toying with different dielectrics for the capacitor and it really makes the game so much more fun. I took 3 pages of notes today, all these layers and combinations I didn't want to forget.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x39eRJA1aVU

And as an aside, I have tried to imitate the exact arrangement from Mr. Foster, but have not been able to do it with my bottles, none of which I have in a low density polylethylene (LDPE) in that shape and size. But I hope to make something small, perhaps even smaller and stronger if the gods are willing. My new sparks aren't quite as loud as before but form far quicker. I'm almost certain the reason it took 70 strokes to get an 8 inch spark is that I still haven't found a way to stop the charge from leaking away before getting it to build up and fire.

[metiz]

it often took me up to or well over 150 strokes to hit the limit of 7 inches

[Mark]

Here's some more strokes for you. Last night I tried some gray PVC, the kind made for use in sunlight. I started with white PVC tubing of various diameters. I even bought a 10 foot length of 4 inch diameter thin-wall in white. I made a jumbo paper towel sleeve for it but I couldn't get it to charge/jump to a capacitor as designed but it became quite charged on the surface and it was difficult to actuate and hold at the same time. If you put your arm inside the tubing and slid the paper towel sleeve/cotton cloth up and down outside the tubing you could feel this strong traveling wave of static electricity as the sleeve moved past the hairs on your arm. With a voltmeter you could see the charge go negative to positive on the forward and reverse movements of the sleeve. In the article the fellow measured voltages as high as a quarter million volts on the forward stroke.
After that I decided to go to the other extreme and bought some CPVC which is chlorinated PVC for hot and cold use. It is an off yellow color and I bought the 1/2 inch and 3/4 inch size. The half inch is just as good at charging I would say if not, not that much difference, and maybe even better. But the beauty of using the small diameter is the fantastic light weight. In the article I think the inventor said he used a 3.5 foot tube, but I found a 6 foot in the 1/2 inch diameter works better so far, if you have long arms. A five foot length is a good length too. I found sometimes you can stand back from the leyden jar and it sometimes seems to help. Maybe it's like that Schrödinger's cat analogy, by observing it too closely you change the results. If you hold my wooden ruler within 10 inches or so of the charged capacitor it will start to hiss bleeding off a charge from the metal strip on one edge of the ruler. Also I worry parking my camera tripod too close to the apparatus, that the tall legs are an energy drain on it too. When I charge the leyden jar, you can feel your shirt and the hairs on your arm responding, so in some small way it might help to stand back as far as you can while you are charging it.
I decided to make a capacitor out of a length of the 4 inch diameter white PVC. I had a piece of .25 inch thick 4 inch diameter aluminum tubing I bought on eBay and slid that inside the PVC. Then I capped the bottom with a PVC cap and put an inverted steel bottle in the top of the tubing sealing it making it look like some oversized thermos bottle. What struck me as odd is that you can "crackle" charge it with a piece of PVC tubing without having to hold the tubing near the metal top, it will charge up fine if you hold the rod in the middle of this 18 inch tall capacitor. And this is the funny part, if you get your knuckle within two inches of the walls of the PVC capacitor it will arc over to your finger. It charges up fairly quickly and the sparks while long are not that painful. You would think a large capacitor would take a long time to charge up but there is no amperage to it. And if you trace your finger around the sides of the PVC walls after discharging it, it's still alive with these "islands" that are still active and make a significant crackling sound as you disrupt them.
Getting back to the gray PVC last night, I produced two more 8 inch sparks but instead of taking 70 cycles to charge I got an eight inch spark with 46 strokes and another time with only 37 strokes. And another thing I used my gazing ball sphere this time instead of the PVC tower/steel bottle and instead of a steel pipe with bearings for discharging/arcing the capacitor, I used those spark plugs with the knobs. I was worried the sharp facets on the plug and threading would leak or bleed off the charge but they worked fine for the 8 inch pyrotechnics. Often you can hear this spitting, popping sound from the device you use to draw the spark over to, like it wants to fire but doesn't. If you have a piece of hair or fabric that was attracted there by static, you will never get it to fire, that little wisker is a sharp point that electricity loves to drain off of. And cleanliness is important too. My sphere I wipe down with alcohol to get the dust off occasionally. Static really collects dust. Speaking of static I wonder if there would be a way to take a charge off a load of clothes tumbling in the clothes dryer? I had some dog blankets in there the other day and they were really crackling when I took them out.
Because the PVC tower capacitor sparks so easily to your finger I decided to wrap it with a sheet of teflon. I think that helps slow some of the charge that leaks away before you want it to. Holding high voltage is tricky stuff. I think my spark plugs work because all the sharp threading and nuts are insulated from the knob by porcelain.

[Mark]

I was fiddling around today and happened to find an adequate polyethylene bottle in my kitchen that served to somewhat emulate the experiment described by Mr. Foster. I didn't make jumbo sparks, but I was able to make them at a fairly fast rate relatively speaking. It's sort of like a linear sectorless WImshurst machine; instead of spinning it's reciprocating. The green aluminum bottle was purchased at a dollar store for a dollar. I bought some blue ones, and red and gray too just because they were so inexpensive. That little polyethylene bottle with salt water and green bottle atop shocked me several times today when I thought is was dead or forgot that it was charged when adding tape or taping down the ends again that stretched loose. A few times the shocks were somewhat painful but just for a bit.
I also made some more 8 inch sparks today, but what a pain to do. Note in this video one particular interval only took 7 strokes to make a good spark.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMJQmmyb7HI

As an aside I was only able to generate a 6 inch spark with these two mated bottles, but I didn't video it. When I tried for an eight inch spark the polyethylene bottle decided to arc to the aluminum disc base instead of to the electrode, even though it's sitting on a white square of 1/8 inch thick teflon, it just jumped across the teflon to the base. I tried squares of nylon, delrin, glass, polycarbonate, and pvc in all sorts of dielectric arrangements. It's just something I found works over having to put up with the charge leaking sometimes or spark discharging to the base from the wall thickness being to thin to hold up repeatedly. I was thinking a mica sheet would be something to try. When the poly bottle is charged up, you can get a shock just by putting your finger within a few inches of it. It will fire at you if you get too close. Either bottle will get you.

PS This video seems kind of funny to me now. ha
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IChKfldm9QQ&NR=1

And this Bonetti/sectorless Wimshurst gets an 11.4 inch spark. I wonder what size is possible/maximum with the pvc pipe primitive man/troglodyte charging method. He has "funny" looking capacitors/leyden jars, I wonder if they came from some kitchen plasitc canisters or something?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT4eupcxU-U

[Mark]

I found that you can take, well what I did was tape together an unopened 12 oz Coke and an empty 8 ounce Coke can together and it works fine as a spark producing capacitor/Leyden jar. I was able to get about a 3 inch spark. Interesting to note the lids of both the 12 oz Cokes and 8 oz Coke cans are the same diameter/size. In the picture the cans look almost the same size because of the angle. I'm sure you could have used two 12 oz Coke cans. The cans are resting on a sheet of Teflon, one of the most negative materials in the triboelectric series. Below that is an aluminum disc with little objects placed around the square for targets.
Recall I started from this site that seemed like it would be something fun to try. I've made 8 inch/20.32 centimeter sparks so far but I want to improve on that.
http://www.coe.ufrj.br/~acmq/foster.html

[Mark]

Again, just a full Coke can and an empty Coke can taped together top to top to store a charge. It helps to view it full screen, if you blink you will miss it. Yawn.
Coke Cans Capacitor.AVI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnT2a9r8zBo

I found that a Dollar Store one dollar blue aluminum bottle put inside of a Tri Clover jar works much better than the Coke can capacitor. They really don't like humidity though. When it's down around 50-60% it's fine but much above that and you might as well not even try. Right now I am working on a Tri Clover steel jar filled with copper and stainless steel scrub pads. It has made some 5 inch sparks that are nice and fat. It always seems to want to go out to the edge of the teflon and discharge with a bang to the base, even though I have arranged some ball bearings on a pole that are much closer to it. There is something about the field that it prefers to strike low instead of high. One time the spark went from the lip of the jar straight down, then over to the edge of the teflon to reach the aluminum plate. It was a bright 10 inch L-shaped spark. But the straight line distance was only 5 inches. Other times the spark will curve out of it's way in the air and then strike one of the objects I have provided for it. You would think it would just go in a straight line instead of playing like that.
And on the blue bottle the plastic cap will shock you too if the jar and bottle are charged. Plastic is no insulator at these high voltages. If you have some PVC sheet, that works about as well as the teflon sheet for insulation for these experiments. Some person I read makes their own sheets out of tubing, just cutting the stuff and heating it with particle board for weight in an oven to get it perfectly flat. I don't know about using my house oven but it only takes low heat to form it he said.

[Mark]

I reached a greater distance today with my PVC charging method. Previously my record was 8 inches or 20.3 centimeters. With an eight inch gazing ball atop a 4 liter LDPE bottle with saltwater about a third full I placed this upon an eighth inch thick 12 X !2 inch square of Teflon and under the Teflon was an eighth inch thick 12 X 12 sheet of polycarbonate. Then for the grounding base, there was a 16.5 inch aluminum disc. The humidity was 60% and the temperature 75 degrees thanks to the air conditioner. I used two paper towels wrapped around some ~1 inch diameter gray PVC tubing. The wrapped paper towel was taped in 5 or 6 places to hold it together on the PVC. You don''t want it tight, just lightly snug. Then I wrapped a cotton dish cloth around the towel for insulation, the lower 6 inches.
After charging the sphere for about 40 strokes I got hit with a bolt to my hand/paper towel region which didn't really hurt that much as I was surprised. After about 10 more strokes or so the bottle made a large spark to the grounding plate of aluminum skirting the Teflon and polycarbonate I put there to prevent arcing in that direction. Then after a short bit more it happened. A bolt of electricity jumped over to the ball bearings mounted on the pole, the target area. Amazingly, after several measurements I can safely say the spark jumped a distance of a whisker under 9.25 inches! Or safely 9 and 3/16 inches or 23.3 centimeters.
I guess the next goal is the big ten inch. I didn't video it, but I guess I will one day. I noticed my tripod completely destroys the charging process if it is within 3 feet of the apparatus. And there are magnetic fields that you have to get right with the spacing and size and shape of the discharge electrode and the whole apparatus. Each part can interact with the lines of force. It's like a theramin, I find myself moving things away from it in case it's doing something deleterious. Like a pulsejet where you lengthen the pipe the thrust goes down but if you lengthen it a bit more it starts to go back up. Other times after not many strokes the bottle and electrode will start to hiss, bleeding off the charge prematurely and you can keep trying to charge it more to no avail. Somehow when things are right you tune it so that it ramps up and creates that tension between the two electrodes. I have gotten some really loud beefy 5.5 inch sparks with a little as 11 strokes and you wonder how can it be possible. But the Teflon base seems to hold a charge like the electrophorus base holds a charge for free. If you touch it it will often crackle, alive with static. Here's a picture of the Tri-Clover Caps I made that made 5.5 inch sparks in 11 strokes. All I did was invert two Stanley stainless steel bottles and pushed them down in the Tri-Clover jars. That's it. In the photo you see one on Teflon and the other on some gray PVC square. Under each is further insulation, a sheet of acrylic. Under that is a long slab of pure copper 1/4 inch thick by 3 wide. They arc to the little drawer handle thing I bought for a dollar. You wouldn't believe the zap these guys put out, loud and easy to make for so seemingly little energy or effort. It truly is some manner of witchcraft or sorcery. ha

[Mark]

I built a new design today - a 4 liter LDPE bottle with a Subzero stainless steel bottle atop that. It started hissing around the 8 inch mark but incredibly from a dead short/no charge beginning it ramped up and fired off a 7 inch spark in 14 strokes believe it or not. Insane!!!
So I found this piece of bellows material you attach to your gutter drain pipe to get the water to flow away from your house. I found by putting that on the top section it insulated the Subzero bottle from hissing and leaking a charge. Then I tried it all the way on and it didn't like that even though I cut a small piece out of it at the same height as the other electrode/ball bearings. So then I went back to just the top but angled it remaining end away from the other electrode 180 degrees instead of 90 as before. And after 67 strokes or so I just moved/raised the charging PVC tube up flush with the bellows on the right side just an inch higher from where I was charging and it induced the spark.
I didn't film it but took a few photos, and I know the path now. Homemade Lightning ala 25.4 centimeters.
Big Ten Inch Record
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gweUVWUYYQ8

[Mark]

More troglodyte adventures, kind of long but the last spark is good. Was bored the other night making this. I had better results without the camera, the spark hopping to all the items without help.
Spark Roulette.AVI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVeWhE9Qsgk

[Mark]

And so the game continues. Last week I bought the thickest bottle I could find, a Roundup bottle that is so stiff it has no flex and about a quarter inch thick HDPE plastic. I put some magnesium sulfate and sodium chloride solution as strong as I could make into it. The top is a steel jar I bought on eBay long ago. It came from Colorado and was used to train government people in gathering radioactive samples. The fellow who sold them to me said they were tested to be sure they weren't radioactive before selling them. They have that label on them "For training only, Do not use". So they are very smooth on the bottom with gentle curves so that no charge can drain off. I wrapped tape around the threaded part and inside the steel jar is a wad of aluminum foil and copper capillary tubing for air conditioning leading down into the salt water. So it took no time to make at all.
And what a performance, I started out trying 8 inches with no teflon or any sheets because it's so thick. When it fired it was really loud and a fat spark, kind of awe inspiring and it struck me as probably being very hot. Oh!
So then I tried 9 and 10 inches and somehow even as thick as it is, made an arc to the base so I had to go with the teflon sheet under it for added insulation. Then it again made an arc to ground so I finally put 2 sheets of acrylic, the sheet of teflon, another sheet of polycarbonate and PVC set out to block any chance for more ground strikes. And after a bit I managed the big ten inch AGAIN with yet another new design. I got greedy and tried for a full 12 inches and let me say a 12 inch gap looks like a pretty big distance for something to jump. The top of the canister decided to hiss so I think it needs a little cap to stop it from leaking the charge. But to my great surprise I was able to produce an 11 inch spark!!! What not to long ago, 9 inches seemed a miracle is now for me like taking candy from a baby. ha
But the humidity was right at 50% and the temperature 73 degrees so I won't always get that here in Florida, and certainly not in summer. I guess soon I'll have to do some videos of the latest static testing. For now, and probably the first on my block, a few pics of a Leyden Jar made out of a new, unused insecticide sprayer. It's pretty strange I know, an eleven inch spark sprayer.

[Mark]

The ongoing saga ...
Leyden Jar Making an Eight Inch Spark.AVI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXkg3flm2xg