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Re: Addendum-DC Tesla



Richard,
         I have noted an interesting phenomenon that might be 
related to the field emission rectification......

<v. big snip>
> In the strictest sense, I am putting in AC (wall outlet) and getting DC 
> and thus rectification is taking place, but not as it is currently dealt 
> with at the base level of undestanding.  Nothing magic here... just an 
> interesting phenomenon to investigate.

On a small coil setup operated single shot (as much for safety as 
anything else), I've found some rectification going on (at least 
that's how it seems). If you hold a metal rod (insulated shoes) 
near enough to the terminal to attract a fat stream of whiskers that
end in a point at the screwdriver, you can get very definite and 
heavy jolts (definitely not AC). Holding the rod close enough to 
attract a single bright discharge channel kills this effect 
completely (not all the time but mostly). This sounds a bit like your 
experiment with the Maxwell cap. I'd be very surprised if this didn't 
charge an isolated capacitance to very high voltages.

For what it's worth,
Malcolm