If you build these single wire-circuits with diodes back to back, they behave just as shown. I've made these things using flyback transformers, but the explanation is totally conventional, and I thought well-known.
With high-freq AC, the space around the wire acts as a capacitor to ground. It's an old Nikola Tesla trick: don't forget that the large corona discharge a the top of a Plasma Sphere (or any Tesla coil) is fed by a single wire! Or, if you connect one terminal of a fluorescent tube to the output of a Tesla coil, would you be shocked if that tube were to light up brightly? So now I'm confused. What's the big deal? How is lighting a bulb at the tip of a Tesla coil so different than creating a brush discharge at the tip of a Tesla coil? And... if you place any metal object near the "floating" loads connected to the HV terminals, the effect works FAR better. For high frequency AC, conductive objects behave like a ground, with the grounding effect improved if the object is larger. For example, connect an NE-2 bulb to the top of a small Tesla coil, and it lights up dimly. Now wave your hand near it, and it gets far brighter. Yet your body isn't connected to ground. Well maybe your body isn't the size of the Earth, but compared to the tiny metal parts of the NE-2 bulb, your body looks like "ground." To make the effect shown in the video get very weak, just trim the diode leads way down so there is no floating "antenna." Or to make the effect much larger, connect a foot-long alligator cliplead to the floating leads of the diodes. On Tue, 16 Oct 2007, Jones Beene wrote: > Hold onto your hats ... We are getting close to Wonderland, Alice > > > > To silence the skeptics, Dr. Stiffler has just now added the Faraday > cage to his circuit.... > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZOxvveTWPA > > > Things are getting curiouser and curiouser... > > Jones > (((((((((((((((((( ( ( ( ( (O) ) ) ) ) ))))))))))))))))))) William J. Beaty SCIENCE HOBBYIST website billb at amasci com http://amasci.com EE/programmer/sci-exhibits amateur science, hobby projects, sci fair Seattle, WA 425-222-5066 unusual phenomena, tesla coils, weird sci
