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Re: Ion motor? (fwd)



>Subscriber: ed-at-alumni.caltech.edu Thu Jan  2 23:16:40 1997
>Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 20:01:41 -0800 (PST)
>From: "Edward V. Phillips" <ed-at-alumni.caltech.edu>
>To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
>Subject: Re: Ion motor? (fwd)
>
>Re: "Spinners"
>	Built my first one about 1941, simple copper wire poundeed
>pounded flat in middle, punch mark for upper bearing, bent into
>a "Z" shape and ends filed sharp.  Spun like crazy with very small
>coil powered by what must have been about a 15 ma, 6kV transformer
>and really crummy glass plate capacitors.  Of course, coil didn't
>have a toroid, just a large sewing needle pointint straight up out
>of the wooden cap on the inside of the top of the coil.  Never
>heard of a toroid on a coil until got involved with TCBA News a
>number of years ago.  With just the needle got three or four
>inch streamers, which amazed all the parents at our high school
>science fair.
>	Can 't imagine a spinner working at all at the center
>of a toroid!
>Ed Phillips
>
I am re-doing my web page this weekend and will have the
photos of an ion motor in operation. I little overkill
though. I was using 1 15kv-at-60ma transformer so there is
a little over-spray of about 2 feet. One thing I noticed
as you pointed out here Ed, was the toroid center. In the
pics, the discharges avoid the center. I also noticed in
earlier experiments with lower input/output that coupling
was a issue. If I was loosely coupled to achieve longer
sparks, the ion motor would putter along at best. When I
tightend up the coupling and got more current the little
motor would take off. When I used the larger power who
whammys regardless. One motor was a perfect cross which I
thought would in no way work but spun like crazy.

Bob Schumann