Re: Addendum-DC Tesla

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: Addendum-DC Tesla
From: Richard Hull <hullr-at-whitlock-dot-com>
Date: Thu, 08 Aug 1996 09:53:26 -0700
Tesla List wrote:
> 
> >From msr7-at-po.cwru.eduWed Aug  7 19:07:34 1996
> Date: Wed, 7 Aug 1996 07:32:33 -0400
> From: "Mark S. Rzeszotarski" <msr7-at-po.cwru.edu>
> To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> Subject: Re: Addendum-DC Tesla
> 
> Hello All,
> Malcolm said:
> <snip>
> >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.
> >
>         I read this post today after coincidently reading last night a
> portion of an old text on Wimshurst Machines (circa 1908) (a vigh voltage
> D.C. electrostatic generator, for the uninformed).  The book suggests a
> simple test to determine whether the charge is positive or negative:  "Hold
> a lighted candle first to one discharging ball and then to the other and
> excite the machine, the balls being separated considerably beyond sparking
> distance.  Continue working the machine, and notice that the flame is
> attracted to one ball but repelled from the other.  The one which attracts
> the flame is positively charged with electricity..."
>         Perhaps you could set up a single shot experiment with a large
> toroid to control breakout, and see if there is some consistancy in
> polarity.  If there is some evidence of polarity, perhaps rectification is
> occurring.
>         In a thunderstorm generated lightning bolt, the current normally
> undergoes a number of reversals (A.C.?), once a hot plasma channel is
> created, even though the initial pulse is essentially D.C., brought on by
> building electrostatic charges.  It seems that this is the likely mechanism.
>         Just food for thought,
> Regards,
> Mark S. Rzeszotarski, Ph.D.


Mark, 

You make an excellent point.  I have long noted the ease with which the 
two classic forms of elecricity, (dynamic and static),  interchange their 
roles and transform themselves from one to the other in the real world.

Richard Hull, TCBOR