Nathan Stubblefield Earth battery/Self Generating Induction Coil Replications

[georgemay]

Just came across perfect graphite rods for our experiments.  About 1/4" diameter and up to 8B soft.
http://www.pearlpaint.com/shop~ocID~5999~parentID~5992~categoryID~5988~layoutIndicator~vertical.htm
Check you local art stores.
George

[Pirate88179]

@ mramos:

Wow!  1.0 Farad?  Would this act "like" a battery as mine appears to do?  I have seen ones like these online but I hessitate as I don't know enough about caps to know why mine works like it does, and the others I have do not.  Also, my carbon rod was ordered from a company called Airgas.  They are here in town and I think on the web. Friday, I will at least post their phone number and/or website.  I believe I paid around $20.00 USD for my original rod which was 1" od x 17" long.  that included shipping.  I have cut it in half now for series experiments as I did not have the funds for another one.  With 1.0 Farad, I think I could store a lot of volts, correct?  Would that be about 4 times what I am storing now?  Also mramos, a question.  Why is the "larger" in size cap rated "smaller" in Farads?  I have a cap here the size of a D cell battery and it is rated way lower than my little supercap.  Is there something in the design of the supercap that allows it to perform almost like a battery?  I had posted where Sears, and others, are using caps now instead of batteries for their cordless screwdrivers.  Recharge fully in like 5 minutes as opposed to 3 hours.  Forgive my ignorance, but this is how I learn.  Thanks.

Bill

[jeanna]

I have caps.  Will these do it. 

Mramos,
The 2 that I have soldered together in "series"  are exactly the smaller one on the right

The one I just got 2 of are exactly the one on the left. I got 2 hoping one each will do. I will order more if they work.
I am glad to have the same thing to try. It might help understanding.
I got these things from allelectronics.com shipping $7 flat charge.

I didn't get any light today. I purposely used a led without a resistor so I could see even the littlest bit. The resistor is key to a useable light. That is why I think Bill's cap somewhere inside has that function built in, although so far I haven't seen one for sale.

My set up is with 2 caps in series which I think ups the volts and halves the farads, though I can't figure it out now and a 1,000 ohm resistor. So it takes a moment to show the light when I put it up to a battery and it lasts for about 30 seconds bright then continues for another 20 getting less and less.

jeanna

[jeanna]

I was just looking in the catalog they sent me along with todays order. The Memory back-up "supercaps" says this: "High capacitance capacitors. Slowly release charge to provide back-up power in temporary shut down situations." 

So, they have a design feature just made for us!

jeanna

[jeanna]

 

Also, in parallel, capacitors add in value.  So Jeana, put the two caps in parallel with each other, then the cap pair in series with the LED.

I will try that. What is so cool about Bill's circuit is that in putting the load in parallel to the cap is that he was able to charge the cap and run the load simultaneously.  I have now done that with a battery which has about 2 volts charge in it, but not the earth battery yet.

Please explain what it means add in value. in amps? or volts? or maybe something else?

Thanks,

jeanna