Crystal Power CeLL by John Hutchison

[Feynman]

Nice find Freezer!


@all
Another thought... on activation voltage, if you want to use higher voltages, you can use an old CRT monitor as your high voltage power supply.  I think they throw off like 22-26kV. 

[ian middleton]

G'day all,

WARNING!!!

Although the idea suggested by Feynman, to use the EHT from a TV or CRT, is a good one, be very sure of what you are dealing with. The EHT psu for a TV is designed to supply up to 30mA current.
30mA @ 25 kV is a heart stopper. I've taken a few hits from these things and I got lucky.

So if you do try it , please be very careful.

I'll have some results for you soon.
Back to da lab. 

Ian

[ian middleton]

G'day all,

Apart from a couple of days at the beach it's been busy busy busy here @ muppet labs.  So it's about time I unloaded
some results ( good and not so good).

As I posted before, on 3rd april I made my first Rochelle salt cell. There is a picture of it after I pulled it apart.
The maximum voltage I got out of this thing was 68 mV and now I know why. If you look carefully at the picture you will see
that the heavier pyrites has settled to the bottom of the cell ( the end with the terracotter plug ).
I measured  voltages along the exposed matrix. There were points near the top end that gave 250 mV, 280 mV and even a point that gave 0.4V. As I measured toward the heavier pyrites end the voltages fell, 45 mV, 15 mV and even -20mV. I beleive the overall output of the cell was an average of all these voltages. So it seems a consistant mix is very important.

The next picture shows a number of cells made in the last week. You will see one there marked "salt2"

Salt 2 built on 4th april puts out 167mV at the moment but has been steadily rising.

It consists of   Rochelle salt, Bentonite clay and crushed iron pyrites and shows a distinct peizo electric ringing on a scope. A light tap with a pen gets 200mV peak to peak.  Because the Bentonite holds moisture, it will be a few weeks before this cell can be evaluated.

Today I made 5 cells. These are the first of what I call the " microcell series " . they are half the size of the cells shown.

In the screen capture of the data logger there are 3 traces. The time frame for that trace is 4 hours 30 mins.
The data logger puts a 1Mohm load on each channel.
Microcell #1 is purple and as you can see the voltage has been rising.
Microcell #2 is white and the voltage seems to have settled at 1.52 volts, although I think it will drop overnight.
The yellow trace, 1.07V is from the pyrites cell made on the 2nd of March. This cell has been shorted for extended periods of time and still manages to come back. I posted the mix some time back but if you can't find it, I'll repost it.

Microcell #1 is a benchmark cell. That is, it is as basic as it can get using rochelle salt.

Untreated rolled aluminium tube.
untreated copper electrode
rochelle salt.
Polarized for 20 mins, bubbles formed around the electrode due to electrolysis.
Initial voltage 0.386V, dropped to 0.27V after 12 mins then rose to 0.32V after 5 hours.

Microcell #2

Untreated rolled aluminium tube.
Heat treated copper electrode to form copper oxide.
Rochelle salt.
Polarized for 2hours. Maximum polarization voltage 84.7 V
Initial cell voltage 1.78V , now holding at 1.52V

The only difference between cell 1 and 2 is the treatment of the copper electrode. Interesting

Microcell #3

Sanded rolled aluminium tube
heat treated copper electrode
rochelle salt
0.2 gm  Carbon.
Polarized for 2 hours. Maximum polarization voltage 51.1 V
Cell voltage after 10 hours ( no load )  1.344V  Shows slight peizo effect across scope.

Microcell #4

Untreated rolled aluminium tube
Sparkler as electrode 
Rochelle salt
Polarized for 30 mins, maximum polarization voltage 60.0 V
Large peizo effect across scope
Initial voltage 1.297 V  now down to 1.225 V after 7 hours ( no load)

Microcell #5

Sanded rolled aluminium tube.
Acid washed fine quartz sand
Heat treated copper electrode.
Polarized for 25 mins , max voltage 9.68 V
Slight peizo effect across scope.
Initial voltage 1.524 V , down to 1.521V after 4 hours.

Well thats enough from me today. Any comments and suggestions always welcome 
I'll be making a bunch more tomorrow so we'll see how they go.

Catch you later

Ian.

[Koen1]

Wow great stuff Ian! 

thanks for posting that.

I'm hunting for a roll of that aluminium plating because my previous
tube supplier claims not to be able to supply the tubes I used
at an affordable price anymore. His price has risen 500+%
since the last batch I bought there, and I don't have many left.
Where did you say you got it, a builders supply shop or something?

Also, thanks to Freezer  , I should be receiving a little supply of germanium soon.

Still catching up on the stuff I missed while I was on my trip, but should
be able to get some hands-on experimenting done in a day or two again.
finally!

Let me attach a picture I took at Reids lab;
it shows a digital barometer/thermometer that runs off 3 of Reids cells
wired in series. They are not the most powerfull cells he has made,
they are fairly "standard" Reid crystal cells, and the setup it only
meant to show that the cells do work. Enjoy.

[Pirate88179]

@ Ian:

Impressive work, keep it up.

Bill