Modified Electrophorus (precharged variable capacitor)

[conradelektro]

Hi Conrad,
ground connection should be a part of your working cycle,
like on the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MovlfZK7aO4

My two basic circuits eliminate the grounding (touching of the top plate) which every description of the original electrophorus mentions and also the video you cited.

A closed circuit is established in my two basic circuits (see the first post in this thread) by incorporating the ground plate. And indeed, one only has to move the top plate up and down ( no grounding or touching) when implementing my two basic circuits.

So, my two basic circuits work without grounding or touching ( no connection to ground at any time, my electrophorus is completely insulated from ground or from the body of the operator).

- Now imagine, one removes the ground plate and leads the wire to earth ground in my two basic circuits. Will it still work? This came to my mind recently, not tested yet. (Notice that many electrlphori are demonstrated without a ground plate, like in the video you cite.)

- But I played with an earth ground connection. My two basic circuits seem to work more reliably with a connection from the ground plate to earth ground. It is not dramatic, just an impression. It needs proper measurements which need a crank mechanism to move the top plate uniformly many times.

My two basic circuits are may be not basic enough. The ground plate is may be superfluous if one has a permanent connection to earth ground.

The casual observer often overlooks the fine points in an electrophorus. It is simple but not trivial.

My two basic circuits turn an electrophorus into a continuously working electrostatic generator; just moving the top plate up and down, no touching = grounding and no mechanical contacts like in the known doublers. It seems that many do not understand that point. It is the one and only ponit of my disclosure.And I have not seen that so far in the literature, which I find surprising and interesting..

Greetings, Conrad

[DreamThinkBuild]

Hi Conrad,

Thanks for sharing. Here is just an idea of using a silicone ring as a spring board. A 3v pager motor to create a oscillation. A silicone bake pan is around shore A 60 to 70. The ring can be made by casting a mold in clay or 3D print. If that is too much than an easier way is to go to the dollar store and buy a silicone muffin pan and cut the bottom and top off so you have a band to experiment with.

Maybe you could marry the idea with a dielectric generator like in this topic:
http://overunity.com/16139/eap-electroactive-polymers/

[conradelektro]

@DreamThinkBuild:

Vibration motors and EAPs, nice ideas, thank you.

There are so many things to play with.

Greetings, Conrad

[guest1289]

The earth's surface is negatively-charged,  like the ground-plate( electret ) when it's charged .
( The atmosphere is positively-charged  )

If you can cause the  charge-separation  in the  top-plate,  just by using a  grounded(earth)-wire,  instead of requiring a   flat-negatively-charged-ground-plate( electret )  of the same shape and diameter as the  top-plate,  that would be interesting.   
   If it doesn't work,  maybe you could use a   permanently-grounded( earth )-ground-plate( non electret ),  of the  same shape and size as the  top-plate,    instead of the  electret.
    - Or,  is there a way to only use the  charged-ground-plate( electret )  once,  to cause just one  charge-separation,   at the beginning of a period when it's going to continue running for a long while,   and from then on just use the   grounded(earth)-wire,  but that would require inventing a new  electrophorus process or cycle .    I type that if the  electret has reliability problems .

   Before I understood how the electrophorus works,  I wondered if perhaps it was extracting some electricity from the atmosphere,   for example,  when the  positively-charged-top-plate  is  moved  up and away from the  ground-plate( electret ),  I thought maybe that was causing the  ground-plate( electret )  to draw some atmospheric electricity into itself.     I now doubt it.

   Apparently, in complete darkness,  you can observe some very interesting behavior of the  mini-lightning emanating from the electrophorus,  to anything it can use to reach the earth.
http://www.pulse-jets.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3210&start=1245
   I only mention that,  because it would be very interesting to film the  entire cycle of a  traditional-electrophorus,  in complete darkness,  maybe to see if when you  are  lifting  the  positively-charged-top-plate  up and away from the  negatively-charged-bottom-plate,  if there is any mini-lightning,   there shouldn't be I guess.

   I was going to suggest,  that instead of replacing the  ground-plate( electret ) with a grounded(earth)-wire,  maybe you could use  atmospheric-electricity instead,  so that the electrophorus could work in an aircraft for example.   
   I didn't know the atmosphere is positively-charged,  but I have seen some electrostatic-motors  which are powered by atmospheric-electricity,  but that would be much less convenient than the other options.

   But, I wonder if the electrophorus could function in a  vacuum,  without any access to the earths surface,  AND,  another test with access to the earths surface.   
    Could it function as a totally independent closed-system  in a vacuum( the  electrophorus doesn't actually need to create sparks to function  )
    OR,  even  in a sealed-air container,    with,  or without access to the earths-surface.
   
   It'd be helpfull if there was a demonstration somewhere of the electrophorus functioning with access to the earths surface,  or without access to the earths surface,   represented by using  positive-balls and negative-balls as the charges,  just to be able to see for oneself how everything adds up .  Either as a closed system,  or an open system.

   Could it function inside of, or outside of, a spaceship floating in space.  I'm guessing it could function floating in space, if it contained sufficient material.

   I found these links very interesting
   http://amasci.com/emotor/belt.html
   http://www.alternative-technologies.org/articles/static/
   http://www.splung.com/content/sid/3/page/electrostatics

[conradelektro]

@guest1289 and all casual readers:

In order to understand what I write in this topic, one has to go back to page 1, to my very first post, and one has to understand the two circuit diagrams posted there. I call the first circuit "basic curcuit" and the second circuit "basic doubler".

The electrophorus in the two circuits has

- a round steel plate at the top, which is moved up and down by hand. It has a plastic tube as a handle and I often call it " top plate"

- a round acrylic plate, which is rubbed occasionally with fur or wool so that it is positively charged at its top surface. One could call this acrylic plate "electret" or "electrolyte" (like in a capacitor).

- a round steel plate underneath the acrylic plate which I often call "ground plate"


The "basic circuit" and the "basic doubler" are completely insulated from ground. Therefore they would work

- in an airplane,
- in a space ship
- in a closed box
- in vacuum and
- in space where it is not too hot to melt the acrylic plate.

Forgive me, if I can not prove that by experiment, but nothing speaks against this claim.


Now, to confuse you, one can speculate whether a connection to earth ground would be beneficial.

- I speculate (and will test) that the ground plate (the round steel plate underneath the acrylic plate) could be replaced by a connection to earth ground. This of course would not be possible in an airplane or space ship.

- I also speculate (and will test) that a earth ground connection of the ground plate could be beneficial in a minor way (and off goes the airplane and the space ship again).


So, if you want to understand and to contribute in an intelligent way, please look at the two circuit diagrams in my very first post in this topic. That is all I write about in this topic, nothing more and nothing less.

Greetings, Conrad