Crystal Power CeLL by John Hutchison

[PaulLowrance]

Welcome aboard DB

Is this the kind of Tourmaline you're looking for,

http://www.pebooks.com/shop/gemstones5.html

If you live the US then these stores are all over the place, at least out here. Maybe they ship internationally as well. If not, then there's always ebay. You can find lots of Tourmaline at ebay from sellers who ship internationally. Sometimes you need to contact the seller to get the international shipping price.

I guess there are various types of tourmaline though,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourmaline

It seems all are piezoelectric, which is always good, and some is pyroelectric.

As you probably know bismuth has the highest naturally diamagnetic properties. Looks like you're starting out with some interesting elements. Some bismuth crystals are just so beautiful,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bi-crystal.jpg

Keep us posted.

Regards,
Paul

[DB Hollandus]

Welcome aboard DB

Is this the kind of Tourmaline you're looking for,

http://www.pebooks.com/shop/gemstones5.html

If you live the US then these stores are all over the place, at least out here. Maybe they ship internationally as well. If not, then there's always ebay. You can find lots of Tourmaline at ebay from sellers who ship internationally. Sometimes you need to contact the seller to get the international shipping price.

I guess there are various types of tourmaline though,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourmaline

It seems all are piezoelectric, which is always good, and some is pyroelectric.

As you probably know bismuth has the highest naturally diamagnetic properties. Looks like you're starting out with some interesting elements. Some bismuth crystals are just so beautiful,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bi-crystal.jpg

Keep us posted.

Regards,
Paul

Thank you all for the heartwarming welcome.

I am living in Norway but is not hard to buy tourmaline here either (or online) but what it all boils down too is that I'd like to have it as finely ground as possible... I've just sent an email to two manufacturers in china asking if they can sell me a 250 gram sample because they usually only sell large bulk. Maybe they are willing but still if someone knows a stone-cutter or a web shop selling small amounts then I would be grateful for that.

Bismuth is really interesting indeed! It has all the properties (and place on the periodic table ;-)) that I think that might be just right for the mix. It is also easy to melt-and-dip, pour in molds or to grow really pretty crystals out of and it is also quite o.k. to grind.

I don't like to use too many compounds in a mix but I am inclined to experiment with berlinite too but I'll keep that for later.

Good point Jeanna about the failures. I'll post what does and doesn't work. (I really love and admire your lamp by the way... I am planning to play around with that too after I've received some essentials in the mail).

Best regards,

DB

[ian middleton]

G,Day all and Merry Christmas to everyone.

Welcome aboard DB.

It would be good to find a supplier of finely ground Tourmaline, that would save me alot of hard work. But hey, grinding the stuff for 2 to 3 hours is character building, isn't it?

A quick update on the button cells. After repeated shortings they keep coming back stronger and stronger. Each one recharges itself to 1.15V ( they started off at 0.9V)
As soon as the tribe goes home after Xmas I'll start on Bill's manhole cover 

Paul, I have done a quick test with the peizo I have and yes there is a small but measurable current on the DVM but nothing on the AVO8 for obvious reasons.
Some sort of Brownian motion comes to mind but other than that I have know idea why these things should do this. Has anyone tried putting one of these things in a vacuum?

Ok I'm off, still got half a bottle of whiskey to get through.

See ya!

Ian

[PaulLowrance]

Hi Ian,

Isn't that amazing! A lot of people have verified this with piezos, including EE
s & physicists by profession, and also with diodes. It completely violates conventional physics, period. 

In terms of conventional physics, the only way a simple passive highly shielded piezo element can produce DC is if there's a continuous *change* in pressure on the piezo. In order to do that the pressure needs to keep going up and up and up, or the opposite. Brownian motion can't do that.

[ian middleton]

G'Day all,

Thought it was about time I made a report.  I've made a few improvements to the cell matrix which look very promising. But before I go into that here's a bit of history.

Cell production started up again at Muppet labs on 15th November 2009. I now use a new naming convention which far easier to follow. I can't keep calling every cell "eric".
So the first cell off the line was cell 1-2009. The month of construction is written on it's log sheet (birth certificate ). I've thrown in a picture of all the cells made since November 2009 to the present.
Many of these cells you have seen in one of my last posts.

The cell at the back of the picure ( cell 4-2009) is currently running a digital watch. It is the one in the hermetically sealed stabilized environment control system. ( Takeout box).
At the start of it's job running the watch, on 9th Dec 2009, it's voltage was 1.09V.
Today,12th Feb 2010, it's voltage has increased to 1.176V. So I don't think that watch is going to stop any time soon.
The mix for this cell is very simple and it has become the great grandfather of my more recent and far more powerful cells.

For a long time I used the "pyrite cell " as a benchmark for cell voltage. To this day it is still @1.187 V and that was made on 2nd March 2008. It is still capable of pulsing 100uA into a short circuit. Well all good things have to come to an end. Along came Cell 7-2010. It's open circuit voltage is 1.42 V and can supply around 1mA into loads of 1Kohm down to 220 Ohms.
This constant current regardless of load resistance puts 7-2010 on a par with Marcus Reid cells. Can't say about John Hutchinsons cells because to the best of my knowledge he has never posted any current values for them.
Recently I have become a fan of Plaster of Paris and Portland cement for reasons I'll go into in a bit but first I have to thank jeanna for heading me off in that direction over a year ago. .

This year all cells, 1-2010 thru 10-2010 use a combination of plaster of paris ( CaCO4 ) and portland cement. I wanted to exploite part of the chemical reaction that goes on when cement sets. This has to do with the formation of a mineral called Ettringite. Ettringite is formed, in the presence of gypsom ( plaster of paris ) and portland cement. It is very largely water locked up in molecular form but as you know water is a tremendous dipole. I thought it may be possible to align the Ettringite crystals as they were forming using a weak electric current. This formation can take up to 10 hours or more and is certainly not complete for several days. The current needed to align the ettringite is supplied by the chemical reaction betweem the aluminium -ve and the sodium silicate in the mix. A 1 Mohm resister is used for the load.

Well I'm not sure if the theory is sound but something seems to have worked, take alook  at the LED photo. 2 x 10-2010 cells running at 2.04 mA @1.713 V. I have now put these cells to work running a travellers clock. A 0.9mA pulse is required each second to move the second hand. See photo. These cells respond well to being pulsed.

Now there some who follow this thread ( imagine a guy with a patch and parrot on his shoulder ) who may have already sussed out the next logical step to take these things. Lets see if we are thinking along the same lines 

Also the powers of regeneration of these cells has been vastly improved, for example, cell 10-2010 (2) was short circuited for 36 hours. When the short was removed the O/C voltage increased to over 1.155 V in less than 30 seconds and after an hour was still increasing past 1.343 V. A quick short across the meter produced a surge current > 50 mA.

I'll leave it there for the time being but I'll be back with more results soon.

Take care all. Cya.

Ian