Electrostatic machines for wintering chasers

[cdcollura]

Wow, I really wanted to know that person's name!

I saw a special on him back in 1986 on "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" ... I am even more impressed on his Tesla Coil system.

Not much different than the one I fire-off in my garage!

I can imagine the heat and shock-waves from the arcs create the patterns, which are second-to-none (never the same, very chaotic, abstract, and surrealistic) - Way cool!

 

[Susan Strom]

Not much different than the one I fire-off in my garage!

That stuff you made in your garage totally rocks. Truly.

Do you think that your Tesla coil could move paint or ink around? Wouldn't that be a cool experiment.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Well, I couldn't help myself. I just broke down and bought a large Van De Graaff generator from an online science catalog. It is almost 3 times larger than the one I bought last month.

More power!

8)

 

[Susan Strom]

That's beautiful, man <sniff>

8)

 

[Dan Robinson]

That's beautiful, man <sniff>

Yeah, the lengths and expense I will go to for this stuff :shock: I'm planning to rent it out and do demonstrations at schools to pay for it, that's the only way I could justify the cost.

...or I could just set it up on a street corner downtown with the case open for people to toss money into

 

[Dan Robinson]

The new Van de Graaff generator arrived this week. Its optimal operating days are numbered as the higher humidities of spring are on the way. Nonetheless, I did get a chance during the past couple of days of dry weather to give it a try.

The generator came with a mirror-finish spherical dome, an unconventional shape which looks really cool but is actually not the best type of VDG upper terminal. The conventional oblate (flat oval) shaped dome, the one the unit should have come with, is a better shape for larger sparks and less corona leakage around the support column opening. I wrote the company I ordered the generator from and they should be sending me the correct terminal sometime soon.

With some electrical tape, the corona leakage problem around the dome opening is mitigated to some extent, allowing the dome to charge up enough to produce some nice sparks. Actually, some of these in my opinion cross over the threshold enough to be called 'bolts'! Currently I'm able to get 5"-6" long 'solid' sparks to my arm and to the dome of the small generator. These sparks are very bright and ear-ringing loud! (see video clip below) Despite their size, these do not hurt much at all providing they strike my forearm, though they cause a pretty potent muscle contraction in my arm. The smaller Wimshurst sparks are much more painful (due to the 'complete circuit' current path and the capacitance from the leyden jars). Sparks to my fingertips are slightly painful, but due to the 'pointiness' of human fingers causing corona, sparks to fingers are cannot get nearly as big and long as these.

MPEG video clip, 1MB
http://wvlightning.com/2006/newvdg.mpg
(Indoor thunder - turn your volume up for the full effect of how loud these are)

Click the thumbnails below for larger versions:



This one even has a video 'ghost' channel like a full-size lightning bolt!



Dimmer 'gossamer thread' sparks up to 20 inches long jump from the dome to the base and from the dome to my shirt sleeves.

Here is a cool anvil crawler-like spark to the small VDG dome surrounded by 'gossamer thread' channels.



And of course, I had to try this.



Here are a couple of shots of the new generator along with the small one for a size comparison. (The small VDG (center) was the one I took to Denver):

 

[Susan Strom]

Originally posted by Dan Robinson
Despite their size, these do not hurt much at all providing they strike my forearm, though they cause a pretty potent muscle contraction in my arm.

That is one awesome machine. Hours of fun

That must feel really weird though on your arm, it makes the muscle contract? What does it feel like? Squeezing a tennis ball?

 

[Dan Robinson]

It's really strange, depending on where the spark hits it will contract a different set of muscles in my arm, hand and fingers. It is painless, kind of like a doctor using the rubber hammer to check your reflexes.

Most sparks cause the muscles that rotate and flex the wrist to contract, causing my hand to turn and flex. Other sparks will cause one or more of my fingers to flex, particularly the ones that hit closer to my wrist. A spark that hits on the inside of my palm will usually make my fourth (pinky) finger flex outward (you can see this in this video clip)

 

[Dan Robinson]

OK, I know I've worn this thread out, but I had to post these.

Daylight 'CG's to the head and wrist.