crystal radio: the first real free energy device

[pomodoro]

Houston we have another problem! Unfortunately, the triode only works under vacuum. You can not modulate a grid in air. The best you can achieve is a thrysistor or thryatron action. Off or all On. Please dude, try the video experiment for yourself, im sure eBay has some cheap equipment. You will see that all the current is from the power supply. You owe it to yourself.

[telecom]

The triode works under vacuum because it relies solely on electrons for the current flow, while in this case its
the ions which produce the current.
Where can I get 8 kv power supply?

[gyulasun]

Hi Gyula,
thanks for the response, but its not that simple.
What the conductive path consists of ?- it consists of ionized air, positively charged ions and electrons.
This is what the current made of - out of the carriers of the charge.
So I conclude, that radioactivity creates current.
After all , what Pomodoro is trying to achieve with his experiments with the galena?
Extra current?
This is from the internet:
An electric current is a flow of electric charge. In electric circuits this charge is often carried by moving electrons in a wire. It can also be carried by ions in an electrolyte, or by both ions and electrons such as in a plasma.
https://www.google.ca/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C1LENN_enCA488CA488&ion=1&espv=2&es_th=1&ie=UTF-8#q=electrical%20current&es_th=1

Hi telecom,

You asked: "What the conductive path consists of ?- it consists of ionized air, positively charged ions and electrons."

I say yes and it is valid for the spark detector video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8GlzUjYazs ) and you can hear in the video that he says the alpha particles ionize the air between the Alu surface kept at -8000V (he names it a cathode) and the tungsten wires kept at zero (ground potential, and he also says a conventional electric breakdown happens.

So If we are in agreement so far, now I ask: would the sparks occur if there were no 8000V voltage (potential) difference connected between the Alu surface and the wires?

I assume your answer is no and I would agree with it, so this proves that the current that caused the spark (because there must be current flowing when a spark is created) must have come from the power supply that keep the 8000V voltage difference between the Alu surface and the tungsten wires. 
Agree with this? If not, please look up textbooks on breakdown voltage criteria between two electrodes etc.  and look up also why a HV power supply smokes components when a higher than the allowed current is suddenly drawn from it. (An occuring spark does draw current what is more the value of the drawn current aproaches that of almost a dead short across the output of a power supply .)

Then you wrote:  "So I conclude, that radioactivity creates current."   

I think this is a wrong conclusion from the video, I would say radioactivity helps create a better conductive path in a media (in air, vacuum,  solid matter and possibly in plasma)  by supplying particles (by radiation) into the media, and the particles penetrate the media or matter. 
In case of the spark gap of the video the alpha particles has the effect as if you decreased the distance between the Alu surface and the plane of the 4 tungsten wires.  This is because the 8000V voltage difference cannot break dawn for the chosen distance the video shows between the Alu surface and the wires but due to the appearing particles the air in the distance will have much more ions than before and air can become more conductive hence the electric field of the 8000V can break down.

If you disagree with this, then please try to contact the author of the video (Carl Willis) and ask him to insert an appropiate DC current meter in the ground wire and monitor the meter whenever sparkings occur.  I would be very surprised if the current meter would not measure a certain current flow when the alpha particle source is placed near the tungsten  wires as shown. He would actually measure the average of the several spark currents.

This how I see this. I cannot explain this more precisely and of course you are free to think differently, but then some tests would be needed to convince others about the correctness of your way of thinking.

Gyula

[gyulasun]

...
Where can I get 8 kv power supply?

see some links:

http://tinyurl.com/q4pvcso

http://tinyurl.com/makacby 

http://jnaudin.free.fr/lifters/labhvps/

Gyula

[telecom]

Hi telecom,

You asked: "What the conductive path consists of ?- it consists of ionized air, positively charged ions and electrons."

I say yes and it is valid for the spark detector video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8GlzUjYazs ) and you can hear in the video that he says the alpha particles ionize the air between the Alu surface kept at -8000V (he names it a cathode) and the tungsten wires kept at zero (ground potential, and he also says a conventional electric breakdown happens.

So If we are in agreement so far, now I ask: would the sparks occur if there were no 8000V voltage (potential) difference connected between the Alu surface and the wires?

I assume your answer is no and I would agree with it, so this proves that the current that caused the spark (because there must be current flowing when a spark is created) must have come from the power supply that keep the 8000V voltage difference between the Alu surface and the tungsten wires. 
Agree with this? If not, please look up textbooks on breakdown voltage criteria between two electrodes etc.  and look up also why a HV power supply smokes components when a higher than the allowed current is suddenly drawn from it. (An occuring spark does draw current what is more the value of the drawn current aproaches that of almost a dead short across the output of a power supply .)

Then you wrote:  "So I conclude, that radioactivity creates current."   

I think this is a wrong conclusion from the video, I would say radioactivity helps create a better conductive path in a media (in air, vacuum,  solid matter and possibly in plasma)  by supplying particles (by radiation) into the media, and the particles penetrate the media or matter. 
In case of the spark gap of the video the alpha particles has the effect as if you decreased the distance between the Alu surface and the plane of the 4 tungsten wires.  This is because the 8000V voltage difference cannot break dawn for the chosen distance the video shows between the Alu surface and the wires but due to the appearing particles the air in the distance will have much more ions than before and air can become more conductive hence the electric field of the 8000V can break down.

If you disagree with this, then please try to contact the author of the video (Carl Willis) and ask him to insert an appropiate DC current meter in the ground wire and monitor the meter whenever sparkings occur.  I would be very surprised if the current meter would not measure a certain current flow when the alpha particle source is placed near the tungsten  wires as shown. He would actually measure the average of the several spark currents.

This how I see this. I cannot explain this more precisely and of course you are free to think differently, but then some tests would be needed to convince others about the correctness of your way of thinking.

Gyula

High-intensity ionizing radiation in air can produce a visible ionized air glow of telltale bluish-purplish color. The glow can be observed e.g. during criticality accidents, around mushroom clouds shortly after a nuclear explosion, or inside of a damaged nuclear reactor like during the Chernobyl disaster.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_damage#Effects_on_gases