Jeanna, yes, I have the picture of the bridge.  I just wanted to see how YOU were hooking it up to YOUR coil.  Then I can see how I can use it in MY coils.  Remember, you are MUCH advanced in this, and I am only starting out.  Anything I can SEE in pictures is a great help.  Words are only words, but pictures are a thought come to life.
As for the Van de graf generators, I have some doubts.  You are probably right, but I keep thinking of all the Stubblefield Farm pictures I have seen,  and some other ideas pop up in my head.  I am most likely wrong, so I wont say anything about it  yet. 
If you make some of those globes then please post a photo of them.  Thanks.

Good to see you are still here Protonmom! Just to add a little to Jennas info.
You will see a Neg reading if the probes are reversed as to polarity. Check an aa battery with the negative or common probe on the positive end of the battery.

NS coil thoughts:
Stubblefield knew that being damp or wet increased the power. He may or may not have known why. Its the oxidation creating the rust which is iron oxide. Over time it increases in depth on the wire. Its the iron content that helps build up the field. Thats why the coils were so potent after many years. Being immersed in water keeps the oxidation going and the iron oxide formation at a constant rate. Same story on the core or bolt. The more iron content in the bolt the better. Back then the bolts may have had a higher iron content than todays steel bolts. Soft iron will give the max efficiency. You can heat up a steel bolt and steel wire and then expose them to water and air which will accelerate the rust quicker on the surface. Then wind the coil.
The coil: A current carrying wire will induce capacitance when 2 wires are running parallel close together like in the Ns coil. The wires should be wound as tight together as you can make it and its shape maintained tightly together. Hence the nut and bolt he used. This makes the em field more uniform also. Over time I would think the capacitance or charge would increase in the coil relative to the depth of oxidation on the wire. This seems evident when they pulled out these old telegraph coils.
Lasers experiment: Great work! The statement of surface area not being relevant is wrong in my opinion. There is more surface area being energized on the wire running east and west as the north and south telluric currents run into it broad side. This deserves attention. Running the wire east and west at 90 degrees to the local magnetic deviation may produce more power. A wild idea would be putting a Jt at the south end of the wire and "tune" the wire to see what happens. This may already have been mentioned.
Just a few thoughts fwiw!

Quote from: protonmom on January 25, 2010, 06:50:47 PM
Jeanna, yes, I have the picture of the bridge.  I just wanted to see how YOU were hooking it up to YOUR coil. 

I am afraid I do not have that going anymore.
It was for a joule thief secondary.
I connected the ~ sides to each secondary and the + diode side as jim drew it had the stripe in a certain direction, so I added another diode to that juncture then from that to the pos side of the cap. (not the boost cap since this was 60 volts or more)
Then I did the same to the - side with an additional diode reinforcing the direction there too.

Quote...
As for the Van de graf generators, I have some doubts.  You are probably right, but I keep thinking of all the Stubblefield Farm pictures I have seen,  and some other ideas pop up in my head.  I am most likely wrong, so I wont say anything about it  yet. 
If you make some of those globes then please post a photo of them.  Thanks.

About the vandegraff globes, it was just that it made me think that putting a capacitor there was what he was doing and using the globe too... maybe not, but the cap working seems right.

About not saying what you are thinking about.
I truly believe that the reason I learned so much so fast, is because I said my thoughts.
From there, I got a lot of ideas and feedback which allowed me to have more ideas and then I tried things I thought of from those ideas. The thread acted like a real think tank where ideas fed each other's ideas. When it got to be too many ideas, I just tried a bunch of them, etc.
So, please let me encourage you to speak your ideas.
Even if they are "wrong" they might spark an idea in someone else.
Remember we have not cracked this one yet!
So far all our ideas have been "wrong". but there is no such thing as wrong in an environment of experimentation... please remember that.
We are still interested in new ideas.

jeanna

IotaYodi...Hi!  Yes, I am still around.  I have been reading and trying hard to get caught up, but I think it is hopeless.  The faster I go, the behinder I get.

So, is the negative ALWAYS an indication of reversed polarity or could there be a problem with the dmm?  The reason I ask is because the numbers come out pos on most readings, and then neg on only a couple.  I think it was the 20m and 200m where it showed as negative.  I will check my fuse on the dmm tomorrow just to make sure.

Quote from: protonmom on January 25, 2010, 09:01:59 PM
IotaYodi...Hi!  Yes, I am still around.  I have been reading and trying hard to get caught up, but I think it is hopeless.  The faster I go, the behinder I get.

So, is the negative ALWAYS an indication of reversed polarity or could there be a problem with the dmm?  The reason I ask is because the numbers come out pos on most readings, and then neg on only a couple.  I think it was the 20m and 200m where it showed as negative.  I will check my fuse on the dmm tomorrow just to make sure.

With my experience with the EB and the EER I have seen that when you get a minus on the DMM it means you need to reverse the leads. (polarity)  when i was testing trees for energy, I saw this a lot.  Some trees were positive and other negative.

I hope this helps.

Bill