Finally : cheap DIY selfmade solar cell with common materials !

[tishatang]

Hi All
Today I made a discovery of a solar cell made prior to 1913.  This is from a book called THE BOY ELECTRICIAN by Alfred P. Morgan pub 1913.  Search for it on scrib.com.  On page 185 of the doc which is page 355 of the book is this brief mention of a solar cell made of violet glass and dissimilar metals. About the size of a common window.  Old stuff I know like a thermocouple.  But claimed one day in sun could light 30 light bulbs for three days!  Can a modern solar cell that size do that?  Have we been led down the wrong path?  If they could do that in 1913, where is that tech today, other than suppressed?  Only said Massachusetts inventor.  Maybe someone can find patent?

Download this book for your library.  A complete DIY manual to make everything.  About 200M of interesting look into the past.

tishatang

[mdmiller]

probably this
http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=EppFAAAAEBAJ&dq=527379

Patent number: 527379
Filing date: Feb 16, 1894

APPARATUS FOR GENERATING ELECTRICITY BY SOLAR HEAT MELVIN L. SEVERY
also see his patent 620855

[jeanna]

The idea is that the aluminum and carbon black surfaces do not come in contact with each other so they are electrically isolated.

Sunlight enters the tube at the top, strikes the aluminum cone surface and ejects an electron from the metal surface (ionization energy of aluminum) which is deflected sideways (due to the cone shape) and strikes the carbon black inside surface of the tube.

..... The idea is that the ejected electrons would flow the circuit from carbon black back to the aluminum metal.

I am getting erratic readings right now when the tube is pointed toward the overhead fluorescent lights, some as high as 0.6 volts. ...
...

Hi RR2,
I missed that post last summer. WOW.

I am wondering what 'kind' of voltage this is?
Is it dc?
If so, can you make 3 and put them in series just to know?

It could be dc to begin with, but as it moves around it could oscillate, so I am curious.

Someone told me RF is not usually in the mv but is normally in the uv so, I bet you have something.

thank you,

jeanna

[ResinRat2]

Hi Jeanna,

Sorry, if you kept reading to the later post here:

http://www.overunity.com/index.php?topic=6699.msg198923#msg198923

you would see it was caused most likely from moisture from my hand and contact with the probes.

There was no voltage from that unit. ( much to my dispair.)

RR2

[MasterPlaster]

Another good demo.
(in German)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxjLASCU46s&feature=related