Re: Strange shock (fwd)

["Ed Phillips" <evp-at-pacbell-dot-net> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)]

> > Original poster: "Daniel Boughton" <daniel_boughton-at-yahoo-dot-com>
> 
> > I too have seen this effect with coils that either
> > have heavy varnish or heavy insulation on the
> > windings. The static charge comes from the last half
> > of the charging cycle in the primary circuit. It is
> > esentially varying +DC or -DC (varying sinusoidally
> > and changes polarity when it drops to 0 Volts).
> > Distributed capacitance between the windings holds the
> > charge until a larger capacitance (human touch)causes
> > an inrush of current (shock) to estanblish
> > equilibrium.
 
> Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz

	Based on my observation here, the charge is stored in the varnish over
the windings.  Typical example is when I run my hands over the surface
of a small coil with heavy shellac layer on it.  I get multiple "shocks"
as my hands move to various places on the outside of the coil.  Similar
to the effect I get when I use the VDG to store charge on a piece of
sheet plastic.  Can't imagine any other possible storage mechanism.

	By the way, I first observed this effect many years ago when Î removed
a small secondary coil from the mounting base and was handling it by
itself, with no external connections.

Ed