Volta's Hailstorm meets Avramenko transmission line...

[scraven]

Since Mr Konstantin Avramenko has been a little more popular these days (Thanks to Dr.Stiffler) I thought I'd share some thoughts I've been having about his alternating charge transmission line.
In AV's patent it is suggested fleetingly that due to the nature of the transmission line an electrostatic generator could be used as a power source. After having that idea sitting in the back of my mind it occurred to me that Voltas hailstorm could be used as a kind of charge oscillator for an AV transmission line.
For those that don't know, Voltas hailstorm is an affect produced by loose particles flying around in a capacitors dielectric field. Before the cap is charged the free particles have a neutral charge. As the positive plate charges up the particles fly up, pick up a positive charge then drop back down to the negative plate where they discharge... and so on until the charge supplied to the capacitor drops to a sufficient level where by the dielectric field is no longer able to attract the particles.
Turning this electrostatic toy into an oscillator is fairly straight forward and can be crudely demonstrated with aluminum foil and the appropriate dielectric spacers. By  sandwiching an aluminum flap in between the plates of the capacitor and the dielectric you will have a very simple version of Volta's hailstorm (see attached pic). Also  the amount of charge that flows onto the transmission line 'flapper' (hehe) can be limited by a di between it and the positive plate. Have a muck around with it - its fun, easy to build and makes a cool buzzing sound (sweeet). The best I can get from a sudden discharge off a TV screen pulse (quite a sudden zap) is about five seconds of oscillation. Oscillation speed can be changed be a combination of field strength (less di) and plate proximity (less distance). Of course you have to find a good balance so as the cap doesnt short right out. Its also worth mentioning that these would be pretty broadband oscillations (due to a relatively heavy amount of charge being pumped each cycle).
See the pic for a little clearer view at what I'm getting at here.