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Re: High Voltage Experiments

Original poster: Terry Fritz <teslalist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Hi Bill,

Tesla coils do tend to charge the surrounding area negatively (I think). Negative voltages tend to arc and ionize much easier so the coil sort of acts like a big rectifier to some extent. Antonio would know the details for sure. But the net charge might very well run a little nearby electrostatic motor. The output of the coils itself is heavy AC and very high power low duty cycle pulses so a direct connection would be "messy". But the effect/method you describe to run motors with a TC sounds very reasonable!

We are thinking that secondary coils that tend to shock long after they are apparently discharged are seeing an "electret effect". Coils coated with insulators seem to really show this effect well. One can rub one's hands all over the things or run a grounded wire all over them just to have them recharge after a short time.

There is also "dielectric absorption". "I" am not very familiar with that... I should be.... 0:-)

Cheers,

        Terry


At 12:12 AM 6/20/2005, you wrote: 
On Sun, 19 Jun 2005, Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: "Chris Rutherford" <chris1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Hi All,
>
> Has anyone ever tried using a Tesla coil as a power supply for an
> electrostatic motor?

I haven't tried it myself, but I've had emails from people who built the
"Pop-bottle motor" on my website, and they say that the motor starts
turning if one of its terminals is grounded and it's placed near a big TC
which is cranked down to where it stop emitting streamers.  Probably the
TC creates corona and is sending out more of one ion polarity than the
other (it's emitting DC electric wind.)  This isn't so suprising, since
old style gas rectifier tubes do the same thing.   A TC terminal in air is
probably a high-pressure version of a gas rectifier.  Stand too close and
your body might get charged up.

> Apparently there are some strange unknown phenomena
> related to high voltages and relativistic electron mass due to the high
> electron acceleration caused by voltages >500Kv.

Then there's the "leyden jar" effect with secondary coils.  Run a big
tabletop TC for awhile.  Then disconnect power, grab the secondary with
your hand, then touch ground.  Sometimes you'll receive a big zap!  This
even happens with secondary coils which have been sitting on the shelf.
Probable explanation:  the TC emits one polarity of ions, which are then
attracted to the metal windings of the secondary (the ions would see a
grounded conductor and be attracted by induction regardless of the AC
riding on it.)  But the insulation on the secondary stops the ions from
getting to ground, so there they sit.  When you grab the secondary, your
hand forms one plate of a capacitor, and the metal winding forms the other
plate.  Because the insulation is covered with charges, this is a charged
capacitor.


>
> Take a look at this paper from the 1920s. It is almost certain that Tesla
> knew of these properties as he made electrostatic motors and did
> experiments with high vacuums.
>
> <http://www.rexresearch.com/gravitor/gravitor.htm>http://www.rexresearch.com/gravitor/gravitor.htm


It's very possible that TT Brown mistook ion-wind effects for
"electrogravity" forces.  Is everyone here familiar with the "Lifter"
craziness?  To exclude ion wind from experiements, simply enclose the
device in a plastic bag from which air-jets cannot escape.  (This is much
easier than running the experiments inside a big hi-vacuum chamber!)



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William J. Beaty                            SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
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