Stubblefield coils (bifilar) and speculations

[Pirate88179]

@ Jeanna:

Well, you are right about the spacing.  The cord I used is about the same diameter as the wires themselves.  Before I even thought about sewing a cover for those small wires, I think I would try to find out who makes shoelace material and try to buy a roll from them.  I know the speaker wire tubes are a lot of money but possibly, the shoelace material, which is cotton pressed flat, but it is really a tube, might be a lot more cost-effective.  I can't think of anything else at the moment that might work.  I once was going to use thin cotton thread wrapped around one of the wires but then I realized that I would still probably be winding the thread onto the wires even now.  That would be thin but, damn, a nightmare to do.

I still want to perform a small scale experiment using one insulated wire on a coil.  This should not work but, we should also not get ANY volts from a newly assembled dry coil either and yet we do.  I will probably use insulated copper wire as it is readily available just to see.  Even if it only worked like 60%, it would be so much easier, and cheaper, to wind much larger coils to more than make up the difference.  Why didn't Stubblefield do this you might ask? 

Well 1. it might not work.
2. The insulated wire available in those days was insulated with cotton.  This may be the only reason.

Bill

[resonanceman]

Silk is easy because it is sooo thin and strong. I gave Gary a link a while back. Thaisilk I think.

http://www.thaisilks.com/index.php?cPath=1_2

I didn't  end up  getting any silk
I checked my bank account and decided  eating  was more imporatant  than  silk .


gary 

[jeanna]

2. The insulated wire available in those days was insulated with cotton.  

Bill, don't you remember Hans told me he took apart a lot of antique wires in his research on Keely and he said mostly they used silk??? It keeps coming up. He really said silk to me. I never asked him how he knew it was silk and if he knew the technique to tell them apart. I just assumed he knew what he said. Maybe he didn't.??

I still want to perform a small scale experiment using one insulated wire on a coil

Please describe. wet, dry, copper, iron? etc.


Maybe nylon langerie strap string would work. Nylon is a good absorber. not like cotton, but it absorbs plenty of water. I used to know a company that made shoelace. You bought 1,000 yards but it only cost about $15. I bet it wouldn't be too hard to find a jobber somewhere.

I wonder if it would be easier to thread many feet of copper into a tube or wrap and stitch a 40 inch long strip of thin cloth around the wire. I am not sure the tube would be much easier . You'd have to load the whole wire first if you were going to use the tube.

thank you,

jeanna

Thanks for the link, Gary

[jeanna]

BTW
That coil stopped oscillating after about an hour. It now says .495vdc and steady.

I am wondering if this is part of the moist thing. If the coil is only moist, maybe the coil is more likely to have an unstable current which would make the swing back and forth easier to start.

I don't know. It doesn't seem like a way to design something. just a thought.

jeanna

[Pirate88179]

@ Jeanna:

As I said, I will probably use insulated copper wire as it is more readily available and cheap.  as for cotton insulation, my grandfather owned an electric supply business in CA for many years dating back to before WWII. He actually fought in WWI and had worked with electricity all of his life.  All of the old wire he showed me from those early days was cotton insulated.  This is not as early as Stubblefield, but not too long after either.  Some even used paper.  Probably not a good dielectric on a damp day.  I am not saying they didn't use silk, I just have no knowledge of this.  I am sure Hans knows silk when he see it so possibly both were used, or silk first, then cotton?  I will try to google to see.

Bill