RE: A photographic tutorial of Pancake Coil winding...with movies...(fwd)

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2007 08:59:07 -0500
From: David Thomson <dwt@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: 'Tesla list' <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: RE: A photographic tutorial of Pancake Coil winding...with
    movies...(fwd)

Hi Ed,

> I think that just about anyone who has played with a 
> coil much (at least one covered with some sort of varnish - 
> I've never tried it without it) have observed similar 
> [electrophorous] effects.  I believe the "wisdom on the 
> street" is that there is rectification because of the shape
> of the coil and the voltage gradient from it and that the 
> result is charge stored in the insulating coating. 

That sounds reasonable to me.  However, the question is why does the charge
fully restore after being discharged several times over a long period of
time?  Where does the restored charge come from?  Does the rectified
insulator material draw ions back from the immediate environment and store
them again?  And if so, can a potential be inherently stored in a material
such that drifting ions are simply handed a bunch of energy just for
attaching to it?  Doesn't any of this strike you as odd?

Dave