Ibpointless2 Crystal Cells

[PhiChaser]

I was going to sort of echo what Jbignes5 said about not having any water in the cells. My cells have a bunch of water in them, but mostly in a crystalline form. For example, my base material that I've been using for a while is Durham's water putty. It is a dry mix that is mostly gypsum which is what makes it 'rock hard' (no kidding, it says it on the can!). My 'additives' are Alum and Epsom salt (for the most part). So let's look at the chemistry (about which I know very little):

Gypsum -       CaSO4·2H2O <<Water (x2)
Epsom Salt -  MgSO4·7H2O <<And more water (x7)
Alum -    KAI(SO4)2·12H2O <<And still more water (x12!)

Crystalline water, right?

SiO2 is the chemical formula for quartz BTW, which you will notice has NO water in it. Silicon is pretty common though (heh heh). Sand. I'm sure my next ingredient will probably be fine silica. Anyhow...

I DO add liquid H2O to my cells as well, and the binder (limestone?) in the Durham's I think 'uses' it to lock the gypsum together (when it works out anyways...). Another crystal formation that probably doesn't conduct much but allows the other H2O crystals to form? Maybe 'drying time' is a factor. I've had some interesting results with just those three ingredients up there and water (using pultruded carbon and aluminum as electrodes).
Sorry to be redundant, this thread is long and most folks don't want to wade through 50+ pages of us LOL!!

Happy experimenting everyone!
PC

P.S. I got back from the dentist a while ago and the VOM is at 1.91v, about two hours from previous measurement. Maybe I will make some new cells... Some of the ones I made over the weekend I REALLY want to test but they aren't 'done' yet grrr...

[PhiChaser]

I unhooked my 4 cells about an hour(?) ago from the VOM to see what sort of amperage I would get. It wasn't very high, like 10-15uA when I hooked it up (that is to say it dropped from around 25uA to rest at around 12ish...). Now I go take a look and it is up to almost 25uA! Does current increase?!? I will keep it hooked up and see... BTW I'm using an old triplet analog meter that goes from 0 to 100 Microamperes (0-100uA).
Can anyone else confirm similar results/measurements?

Happy experimenting,
PC
EDIT: The meter goes (100uA - 0 - 100uA). I guess maybe if the polarity flips I will be able to see that? Anyways, a minor thing. The current continues to rise...

[triffid]

Pc ,great work on your cells!When I have something that lasts as long as six months(most of my panels are not two months old yet) I will use plastic ice cube trays  for more permanent power source setups.Right now Im using throw away plastic eye cartons.I do not know if a 200 foot length of insulated steel wire(i would not use copper) coiled up into a roll and placed into dry epsom salts would build up a charge from the tiny voltages that occur in the epsom salts itself.But if it did.Then that might be one way to go for a home power source.




A question or two.
would the capacitor build up to only 4 mvs? Or would it keep building up to a voltage that can discharge thru a sparkplug?
This is why it should be insulated as not to leak voltage back into the epsom salts.Steel wire is better than copper when it comes to magnetic induction.I believe that to be true.triffid

[triffid]

I think a certain amount of water is good for these cells.I did see increased voltages for longer periods of time with the aspirin cells because the starch in them held on to the water longer.Now I was looking at a vitamin C panel this morning and noticed another magnesium strip corroded(broken in half) off.So Note to self Magnesium strips may not be protected as much as I thought they were in the vitamin C cells.Maybe add tumeric powder to protect them ???Water is also a good absorber and re-emitter of  heat.In the beginning,It takes water to organize the dry ingrediates of these cells into a system where the acids make the connections between the metal cations(of the electrodes) and the crystal lattice structure of epsom salts.The voltages and the amps are higher in the beginning and grow less with time as the casimir plates vibrate closer and closer.Heat does help keep the casimir plates apart.My final cells will not be sealed with wax but maybe milk or starch.To avoid dripping wax all over the place when I recharge them.triffid

[PhiChaser]

Another interesting discovery today: I have a kitchen appliance, basically a high speed blender, called a Magic Bullet. Turns out it grinds stuff to powder absolutely awesomely!! Now I have bottles of nicely powdered epsom salt and alum . This will actually help me out in a couple different ways; One, it will make measurements of ingredients more accurate, and two, it will make a smoother mix which generally dries out harder and (hopefully) more 'stable'.
Anyhow, the amperage on my four cells is still going up. The meter reads about 38uA now...

PC

EDIT: Two (?) hours later: 50uA and still climbing!