Finalizing Ed Gray's System Build

[Zarko]

There's a couple of ways to build a capacitor.  You can roll up some sheets of plastic and foil, or you can stack them up with alternating layers of foil coming out on one side, the rest on the other side.  Then crimp all the foil together on each side.  Either way, putting it in oil is a good idea, since a small air pocket can cause a blowout due to rf heating.  When you first add the oil, it's a good idea to 'burn it in' by running it at a lower AC voltage for a half hour, so the vibrations can shake loose all the air on the vertical plates.

The choice of dielectric is easy with the stacked version, since Crystal Clear sheet protectors for typing paper is a good HV insulator.  At 10 kV you only need 3 or 4 layers between each piece of foil, with a 3/4" boundary of plastic around the edges of the foil.  This is the same with the roll up version, but for that you need to tape the clear plastic strips you cut from the sheet protectors together with Crystal Clear shipping tape, which is the same type of plastic.  Then you can have some really long strips to roll up.  Either way, be sure your work surface is clean of dust and lint.  With the rolled cap, there has to be adequate insulation between the outside of one piece of foil and the other polarity foil you're wrapping around it.  If your cap blows out, just open it up and tape the burn holes on both sides of the dielectric, with more tape over the adjacent part of the foil.

When you calculate the value of your caps, they don't have to be really big.  The Great Dr. Tesla told us that a really small capacitor operating at a really high frequency can transmit much more energy than a big cap at a low frequency.  Edwin Gray did say that his circuit is a high frequency environment, so if your cap is too big you'll need a heavy power supply to drive it in resonance.  And remember, Joules equals Voltage squared times half of the capacitance.  Number of kilo Volts times half the number of micro Farads.  More voltage needs less capacitance.

[geotron]

What an interesting technique Zarko - my plan was to use the
oil itself as the insulating dielectric, while using entire rolled
up foil cylinders as the anodes + cathodes.  It would mean using
an insulating film, or paper on each roll and have the entire thing
as either an anode or cathode, then separated from the others by
the dielectric fluid.  ?  I'll try both ways.

My plan for the high-voltage supply involves the use of an
integrated chip to time the 12v across a transistor into the
transformers and cascade multiplier.

The way the diodes are facing seems abnormal to me, although
it is identical to the way it is shown on one of my reference
diagrams.  I've usually seen these with the diodes facing the
direction of flow out of the high voltage side. 

[Zarko]

Your cascade circuit looks alright to me.  It's just a question of which polarity you want on the output.  As you show it, the top plate of the cap by the converter tube will be positive.

But your rolled up cylinder caps will have a very small value, no more than a couple of pico Farads.  (A pico Farad is a millionth of a micro Farad, while a nano Farad is a thousandths of a micro Farad.)  The sheets need to be parallel along their entire surface area.  Even then the primary factor is how close you can get them.  Oil by itself won't work at HV with close spacing, so the film between the plates has to withstand most of the potential.

Also, the Overshoot Switch has to have a constant arc to be able to work fast enough if you get a destructive spike.  This constant arc is actually parallel to the arc in the Tube, since both sides of the power supply is connected to both ends of each arc.

[geotron]

If I understand correctly, the capacitor's output will be directed
into the bridge rectifier and then the tube where it will collide
with the blocking diode and charge the mesh until a pulse from the
low-voltage side occurs and radiates it away into the coils.

Concerning the use of plastic insulator material, I've saved a
couple of 18in fluorescent bulb lenses that are roughly 1.5mm thick.
Made into short strips and stacked with layers of metal foil, I'm
thinking it might get me a least a small radiant event.  They are
ridged on one side, textured for design, adding small empty spaces
where the foil will not touch.

Using a dielectric oil present between thin strips of metal suspended
upsidedown into a container, the distance between them adjusted to
a certain distance, my impression is that it might increase the amount
of energy it would be capable of holding.  Once I find some strips
of sheet metal or the like, I'll give it a go...  really unlikely to work?

geotron

[Zarko]

If I understand correctly, the capacitor's output will be directed
into the bridge rectifier and then the tube where it will collide
with the blocking diode and charge the mesh until a pulse from the
low-voltage side occurs and radiates it away into the coils.

Concerning the use of plastic insulator material, I've saved a
couple of 18in fluorescent bulb lenses that are roughly 1.5mm thick.
Made into short strips and stacked with layers of metal foil, I'm
thinking it might get me a least a small radiant event.  They are
ridged on one side, textured for design, adding small empty spaces
where the foil will not touch.

Using a dielectric oil present between thin strips of metal suspended
upsidedown into a container, the distance between them adjusted to
a certain distance, my impression is that it might increase the amount
of energy it would be capable of holding.  Once I find some strips
of sheet metal or the like, I'll give it a go...  really unlikely to work?

geotron

This probably won't work, based on the circuit in your post #9.  That circuit was experimental only and was replaced a couple months later by a completely different circuit, shown here:

http://www.overunity.com/index.php?topic=6675.0

and here:

http://www.esmhome.org/library/edwin_gray/plasmacomp.jpg

The new circuit uses the recovery cap to power the load and there IS a spark from the grid to the rod, due to the much higher trigger voltage from the ignition coil.

He's also charging the caps with a second power supply, which is a MW oven transformer at 1 kV.  See his explanation here:

http://www.energeticforum.com/60603-post1641.html

But if you want to try your idea you can get a roll of aluminum flashing for under $20.