yaknow Bill,

What I think is that the cap you first used has some kind of resistor built into it. There are so many really creative people working in electronics anything is possible.

If you were to create a circuit that has a resistor in line with the cap and that continues to have the light attached in a way that looks parallel like the one that you have already wired, you might get the same bizarre result. It isn't how the books tell you to do it.

I'm on my way outside to try the battery again. It finally stopped storming here and I will report later

jeanna

Jeanna:

As far as a built in resistor in the cap. I can't really say.  It is so small already I don't know where they would put it but, anything is possible.  What size resistor would you suggest for my large (almost "D" sized) capacitor?  I have many that I have desoldered from various circuit boards in case I needed them someday.  Did you learn anything outside from today's experiments?  I leaned that it is very cold and raining!!!!  Now I have my led collection and can't do much until I can get outside and play.  I do have a few ideas though.  I also ordered some flashing leds and was playing with one on my existing circuit.  When linked in parallel, my cap will still light the original led and, the flashing one as well.  Fairly bright too.  This is inside using only the volts stored in the little cap from a few weeks ago.  Once I have something, anything, interesting to show, I will make another video.  I still want to play with my array on my tree as I am getting 1.25 vdc just from it.  Now, if I could just find some uranium.... ha ha.

Bill

my understanding of caps was that they released their voltage into a load until they were used, if this is true then that would make your smaller cap more effecient than your larger i dont doubt that but all caps have a farad mark on them like 22uF which would me micro farads? any hoot the amount of usable voltage stored in a cap is marked by farads. perhaps you could take a quick look at the caps and see what they say? i will look into it in more detail later unless someone beats me to it. for now im too busy no fun for me.

Finally some results. Replication results
here goes:
Materials and orientations
"Cu"  means => North and (+)2 1/2 foot long Cu pipe 3/4" pipe hammered 1 1/2 ft down
"Gr"  means =>Graphite carpenter pencil 3 in down
   
"Mg"  means =>South and (-)  Magnesium firestarter 3 in down
"Zn" means => South and (-) Zinc rod 1/4 in diameter hammered 1 1/2 ft down

Cu - Mg 1.305v
Cu - Zn   0.98v
Gr - Mg  1.243v
Gr - Zn   1.020v

So, for me Cu - Mg is the winner but not as deep as yours, Bill, and not as far apart either. I have asked the welding teacher for some graphite rod. I may need to order one too. It was very close.

Oh yeah, I also put the probes on 2 pieces of copper and I saw some voltage. It is dark now and tomorrow I will check out the copper to copper voltages and also what they are at different distances. (unless it rains of course.)

@Stefan
I just re-read some of the earlier posts. Did you ever find a glue sealer for graphite powder? The local hardware store has powdered graphite but no rods.
I have some sodium silicate from another group of experiments I am doing on earthen cements. (geopolymers.org) I wonder if this which only dissolves in a strongly alkaline solution will bind the graphite together. hmm. maybe act as a conductor at earth voltages too? This is probably too many variables, but maybe worth a try.

jeanna

QuoteIt is so small already I don't know where they would put it but, anything is possible

have a look at the 555 timer. there is a lot of talk about it on electronics tutorials pages. It has many capacitors drawn in the silicon inside the chip. this is very small

I'm not recommending that you spend too much time on those tutorial pages, but maybe a glance will show you how different your circuit is from the others.

Look up 555Timer  you will get a lot of explanations of what it is and how it works. but the capacitor is always parallel to a resistor and the load is in line just before or after the cap/resistor.

I have some undecipherable notes from the day I got a led to shine off a supercap. I will transcribe exactly what I made as it appears in my notes. (If I can find something intelligable)  I'll do that in a couple of hours.

jeanna