Re: Ion Motors / Electrostatic Pendulum

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <acmq-at-compuland-dot-com.br>

Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "Christopher Boden" <chrisboden-at-hotmail-dot-com>
>...
> I noticed you use only 2 electrodes in your setup. Get another ball and
> place it opposite the pendulum so that they arc at the top (Apogee?) of each
> swing. I have my dendulum swinging a continuous 2' or more. I'm wondering
> the effect if I connect it to the 13.8kV 10kVA Pig :) I'm setting up a
> permeant version of this in a tiny, windowed room.
> 
> While nowhere near a dynamic as a Coil, this simple machine is facinateing
> to watch......relaxing......like a Geek version of an aquarium :)

The setup surely works with two fixed terminals too (I didn't try yet).
Curiously, it works in the same way, but driven by electrostatic
forces, if I use an electrostatic machine as power source. But only
if the current is very small. With higher current the pendulum just
remains suspended close to the fixed ball while sparks flow. The heat
of the arc is not enough to push it away.
 
> Now....how can the energy of a coil be turned into electromotive force?

Doesn´t seem very practical.
 
> Ion motors work, the B.L.P. works...but they are both VERY inefficiant
> devices. 90% of the energy is being wasted as heat/light.

Not necessarily. Ion motors were developed for use in space. Maybe
a Tesla coil can be used in the energy conversion to power an ionic
drive.

> I'm NOT trying to
> get into that "Free Energy From the Aether" stuff. I believe in the laws of
> thermodynamics (my room is a textbook exampe of the 2nd). I would just like
> to see something with, perhaps 50% efficiancy. I'm not interested in getting
> out more than I put in or anythinhg like that (Though I'd be happy to see
> someone do it :) Just because it hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it can't),

It can't. Otherwise you would see it happening in some natural process,
and Nature would be so mad that we would not be here...

> and there are a LOT of interesting things we're still learning with coils
> and energy. Unusual breakouts from unpowered coils and such. And I have a
> sneaking suspicion Mr. Wysock has something really big brewing over there on
> the left coast.
> I'm quite content to help push along some progress in the lower power side
> of things. Even if we get nothing more than an electronic toy like a better
> ion motor......I happen to love toys. :)

If you want to try a "practical application" for a Tesla coil circuit,
in the fringe of the technically infeasible (as several famous Tesla's 
ideas) try something as an inverted Tesla coil (high-voltage input - 
low-voltage, high-current, output). The main objective would be to
capture
energy from lightning, but you can avoid the huge technical problems 
with a device that just demonstrates the basic idea, taking an arc from 
a conventional coil and converting the energy back to an usable form.

Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz