EER Joule Thief using an earth battery to start a joule thief.

[jeanna]

OK ready?
I hope nobody is too squeemish...

The magnesium has great bites taken out of it all along its surface.
It broke into 5 pieces when I was handling it.
It is less wide throughout. This is amazing, I think. The ribbon is uniformly narrower except where it was out in the air.

I can see chunks of black crumbly magnesium in clods stuck onto it, but I cannot say if it is helping at all.

The copper has areas of thick clods that are greenish or blackish. Both look like copper oxides of some type.

The plant (or single leaf with root) looks green and fine.


This is the test that SHOULD most resemble the water battery because the copper and magnesium were separated by a peat pot with and the magnesium was more isolated from anything that could aid it in any ion exchange.
I was surprised it lasted as long as it did.
20 inches of each magnesium and copper.
a pinch of dolomite
no microbes until the last hour (because at that last hour I forgot I was testing this without them.)
============
EDIT
I looked back.
This plant battery with 20 inches of mg ribbon and running a germanium transistor jtc  has been on for 4 straight days and nights
4 x 24 =  96 hours constant running
==============

thank you,
jeanna

The pics:

[dcc]

Jeanna

That's what I was afraid of on the A ribbon.  Pretty fragile.  I did a test this afternoon using magnesium ribbon and copper vs magnesium ribbon and graphite using a water battery. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BnHIK1LnsA

The magnesium ribbon is already all black.  I think the firestarters would do better.

I used heat shrink tubing to attach copper lead wires to my mag ribbons.  That may help with ends breaking off a little.

My long wire magnesium/copper earth cells seem to be dropping off in power as well.  I thought it was because of the dry weather but it may be because of the magnesium ribbons.  I'm still getting 1.45 V but current is down 

I wonder how Lasersaber's long wire eb's are doing?

I sure wish the city of Murray KY would have let Nathan build the power station for them.  That would have cleared a lot of things up. *LOL*

[jeanna]

That's what I was afraid of on the magnesium ribbon.  Pretty fragile.  I did a test this afternoon using magnesium ribbon and copper vs magnesium ribbon and graphite using a water battery. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BnHIK1LnsA

perfect test.
thank you for doing that.
I remember gadgetmall's friend said something similar. The graphite looked better but performed worse.

But Bill gets great results.
Hey Bill, have you tried copper lately?

The magnesium ribbon is already all black.  I think the firestarters would do better.

Yes, I wanted to get the littlest piece of magnesium that would start a joule thief circuit. that way I had the output elements I wanted and I could see the damage easily, and calculate the time.

I agree that the firestarters are probably better, but harder to tell when only a small amount of corrosion has begun.
Now, I can make some tests.

I used heat shrink tubing to attach copper lead wires to my mag ribbons.  That may help with ends breaking off a little.

good idea. I don't own a hair drier any more.  Is there any way to heat the shrink without a hair drier. I have the heatshrink stuff....maybe I will stick it on the radiator .


thank you,

jeanna

[Pardon]

Jeanna i am using fire starter blocks not ribbon. i wish i had the ribbon

I rebuilt my cell that had a mag block wrapped in paper using copper wire. the most mamps i could get out of it was .07 not to good.

I connected iron/steel wire to the magnesium block and copper wire to an art supply store graphite rod. the graphite rod is about 1/2 inch in diameter by about 4 inches long. this so far is my best cell it puts out 1.31 volts and 3.10 mamps.

i have connected 4 cells in parallel and can now light a modified chilliqueen super jt. about 3/4 bright white led. or a regular jt but it's not as bright. i think this setup will run for weeks at a time.

Dennis

[dcc]

Jeanna

You can shrink shirink wrap tubing with a match or a propane torch or you might try your soldering iron or a clothes iron.  Just be very careful when working with magnesium ribbon.  If that goes up get away quick.  I don't know if it can be put out. 

Cheers
Doug