Method for converting HV (static) into usable low-voltage power.

[sm0ky2]

ive been experimenting with flourescent bulbs.

it seems they have a strange ability to charge up to enormous potentials when influenced by a static field.
this can be done without dischaging the potential of the original field.
and the charge taken on by the bulb can be much greater than that of the static field.

im not sure how to put this to good use, but i am able to light the bulb spuratically, and shock the tee-total piss out of myself.

there may be something of value to be gained from this.
i'll post any findings i discover, and welcome any advice/experience anyone may have on this subject.

[forest]

Great! Maybe it could be used to construct high capacity new HV capacitors ?

[Shanti]

Lol, ...

Just MHO: But it depends how high is your voltage and how much Amperage you have on your HV. All types of Transformers (also inverse Tesla Coil) are quite inefficient if you have very little Amperage on the HV Side (as from a static machine like a Wimshurst and Co).
But there is a device which can convert very high voltages with very low amperage to high current low voltages, and this with a very high efficiency. Farnsworth invented it, it's called an "electron multiplier". And it's even made quite simple. The only special thing you will need is a good vacuum pump.

The Basic principle is this. That with you HV you just have to deliver a stronge electric field. Thsi field accelerates electrons to a metal surface. At impact, the high energy electron will free some metal electrons too. Then these will again  accelerate due to the electric field, again to a metal surface, and so on. The number of electrons will increase exponentially. This works as long as the electric field of the HV source is stronger than the field of the electrons...So at a certain amperage, which is dependant on the HV voltage it will be in a balance and just as much electrons will be freed again as have collided.
You can this with a plate, tube, or also with a sphere circuit, whereas the sphere circuit is more efficient. BTW: The farnsworth fuser is based on this idea. He just used ions to oscillate in the field instead of electrons. And of course he then doesn't let them collide anymore with the outer surface...

There's also another possibility. Although i never tested it. Take an isolater with a high electrostricition value (Piezo-Elektret) and take a magnet with a high magnetostriction value.
Now if you deliver HV to the electret it will grow or shrink, so it will mechanically change. If you now put these electrets very firm between two magnets, then the magnets will also be mechanically pushed and pulled. Due to the high magnetostriction of the magnets the magnetic field will change considerably due to this. Now you can wind some wire around the magnets and the changing magnetic field will induce a low voltage higher current current. But i think with this you would have quite some considerable mechanical losses. So IMHO the Farnsworth device is the as far as I know most efficient device to convert such static field to LV. 

[forest]

ive been experimenting with flourescent bulbs.

it seems they have a strange ability to charge up to enormous potentials when influenced by a static field.
this can be done without dischaging the potential of the original field.
and the charge taken on by the bulb can be much greater than that of the static field.

im not sure how to put this to good use, but i am able to light the bulb spuratically, and shock the tee-total piss out of myself.

there may be something of value to be gained from this.
i'll post any findings i discover, and welcome any advice/experience anyone may have on this subject.

Please describe actual experiment. I have an crazy idea : what if you put fluorescent bulbs into saline solution without connection to it (need insulator or one terminal bulb only probably.
Then put a sheet or metal plate around saline solution forming one electrode of capacitor, the second electrode IS gas in fluorescent bulb with bulb terminal as second end of capacitor.

Something like that or similar would form a high grade HV capacitor if you explain how you charge bulb.

[Paul-R]

doesn't this Tesla patent relate?:

http://www.google.co.uk/patents?id=YitoAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4&source=gbs_overview_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false