Kelvin electrostatic drop generator?

[Koen1]

Hi all.

Do any of you have any experience with the Kelvin electrostatic "drop" generator?
Here's some links for those that don't know the device:
1) http://www.eskimo.com/~billb/emotor/kelvin.html
2) http://www.oberlin.edu/physics/catalog/demonstrations/em/kelvin.html
3) http://www.linux-host.org/energy/akelv1.html

I built a demo version years ago which worked, but at the time I did not
do many other experiments with it.
I was wondering if anyone has tried to make as many 'layers' of
the cans and containers as possible, to drastically increase output?
It seems the charge buildup is not dependant on the drop height,
but rather on the amount of water 'falling' through the static inductor
cans... Which seems to imply that very short drop height between
the consecutive containers and successive layering can increase
the amount of charge collected by the same amount of falling
water n-fold, without increasing the total height of the drop.
I was thinking of a version with very small containers and inductor cans,
with many layers, and the positive and negative side hooked up to
a zener diode to tap part of but not all of the charges on the cans...

Anyone?