Re: Awesome Quarter Shrinking Capacitors on EBAY

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Original poster: "Jim Lux" <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net> 


----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2003 8:27 PM
Subject: Re: Awesome Quarter Shrinking Capacitors on EBAY


 > Original poster: "Chris the great" <downnessisgoingup-at-hotmail-dot-com>
 >
 > I'm sure if we all pitched in a few thousand (or million) each, we could
 > make the TESLA LIST 500TJ (500000000000000J) pulse disharge capacitor
 > (rated at 10million volts).  We could fire it off every week, since it
 > would probably take that long to charge up.
 >
 > Note- something like that would probably NOT be a good idea, since the
 > spark gap would be, ummm, loud enough to destroy houses, and the capacitor
 > would probably be the size of a small town.  But I can always dream.
 >
 >
 > On a more serious note, how much power will this thing use?  I imagine
 > something over 100kJ to do something like that......
 >
 >
 >
 > >From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
 > >To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
 > >Subject: Re: Awesome Quarter Shrinking Capacitors on EBAY
 > >Date: Sat, 04 Oct 2003 18:23:07 -0600
 > >
 > >Original poster: "RIAA/MPAA's Worst Nightmare" <mike.marcum-at-zoomtown-dot-com>
 > >
 > >Haven't actualy tried it yet, still a work in progress. Plan to have a HV
 > >website soon. Anyone know where I can get a manhole cover without the
city
 > >complaining or have an idea on how to hold it still? The usual wooden
dowels
 > >that work with quarters no longer apply obviously and this thing at full
 > >power would probably launch 100# slab of metal over 100 feet in the air
 > >(that would hurt coming down).
 > >

You could buy cast iron disks almost anywhere.. heck, you can buy manhole
covers.. look in the yellow pages under "foundry"... Alhambra Foundry is a
big supplier in the L.A. area in days gone by...

Uhhh.. 100 pounds 100 ft in the air is a fair amount of energy (about 14 kJ
to be exact.. mgh  45 kg, 30 meters, 10 m/sec^2 and all that), but I suspect
it takes a bunch more to deform something of that size.

Considering that the usual quarter shrinker takes several kJ to deform a
quarter which is a) a lot smaller, b) softer metal with a lower elastic
limit...

You're talking MJ here, and not something that the casual experimenter will
be able to afford (considering stuff like getting the energy to the work
piece and things... why rail guns don't scale well)... A sledge hammer (many
kilojoule hits) or explosives (MJ/kg energy density) are your answer...

Frankly, a few tens of kJ is more than impressive enough and getting much
above that will seriously constrain where you can practically operate,
unless you happen to own a few tens of acres for a test site. Rapidly
dissipating a few tens of kJ in any kind of urban or suburban setting tends
to attract unwanted attention from the local gendarmes.