On Jun 1, 2007, at 5:27 PM, Kyle R. Mcallister wrote:
Howdy folks,
Well, I bit (past tense of "I'll bite") so I made one of these
things and tested it.
Awesome! I just go away for a bit, and you pretty much have this
thing wrapped up!
It does work, as Miklos Borbas says, but some things need to be
addressed here.
1. The power supply I used outputs 10 - 30kVDC at around 5mA.
Higher current is available, but I limit it to this to be safe, and
besides, this device does not need even 5mA. Frequency and duty
cycle are variable. (pulsating DC, please note)
Good.
It was set at 1.7kcps at the time, so I used that. Using 60cps
didn't make much of a difference in performance, what little
decrease there was I would attribute to the fact that I used a
1000pF filtering capacitor in all the tests, and obviously, it is
going to like higher frequencies better. 8kcps didn't make a
difference either.
2. With no plastic covers (Miklos' ping pong balls), it works like
an electric pinwheel, just like we used to run from a Wimshurst
machine, at which point everyone was amused.
3. Cover the ends of the wires on the pinwheel with plastic spheres
(or cubes, in my case) and thrust is zero, or bloody near.
This is indeed sad.
4. Put "corona wires" fanning out from the axis of rotation of the
pinwheel, about 3 inches below it, and pointed so that they emit
radially, and not tangentially (so they contribute little to any
wind-caused thrust) and the thing begins spinning in the opposite
direction as before, towards the charged face of the plastic "covers".
Even more sad. Sigh.
I had a few hopes for this one, but it looks really bad. This is
just another ion driven gadget. The ball end indeed apparently
attracts (and is attracted by) the ions in front of it and creates a
wind over and around the ping pong ball. This wind might even be
demonstrated with some kind of super light telltale (down?) glued to
the surface of the ping pong ball. The "parachutes" used in the
experiment web site photos would have better been directly behind the
ping pong balls and orthogonal to the wire - so as to direct the wind
radially. That still would not stop the rotation, but would slow it
somewhat.
5. Aim the corona wires toward the faces of the plastic covers on
the pinwheel, and the thing spins faster. You can hear the corona
at this point, and things around the device readily pick up a charge.
6. Put a plastic bag around the thing, one HV wire going into the
top from straight above, opposite HV supply wire going into the
bottom of the bag from straight below, and the device still
rotates, but reduced somewhat. Move your hand within 12-18 inches
of the bag, and the device will turn to chase your hand. It will
also chase metal placed near it, plastic, styrofoam, just about
anything.
Yes, but that is to be expected. It is only the sustained circular
motion that is important.
7. Smoke isn't moved around very much by this device. It is
reasonably clear that most of the thrust is a field interaction
with the surroundings, air and what have you.
8. If you look at this thing linearly, it is basically a fancy
lifter. You have a covered, non-emitting electrode (the pinwheel
with the ping pong balls/cubes) that serves only to establish a
field around itself, and you have a sharp wire that ionizes the
surrounding air/medium, and it is then pulled towards the covered
electrode. I'll bet this would even work in oil, as the lifters do,
but I have no desire to dunk it in a bucket of SAE 30.
9. If anyone would like me to try a few other simple things, time
permitting, I probably can, but I don't plan to spend much more
time on this. I looked at it hoping maybe something oddball was
going on, it doesn't look like there is, so I'm going to go back to
other things that do act oddball.
10. This is a very good example of why I quit doing much with any
form of propulsion research that involved these kinds of
voltages....the field effects and ion effects make trying to
separate a possible genuine thing from all the artifacts a horrible
nightmare.
So true, it is troublesome. Even pure magnetic stuff can be
difficult from similar artifacts. Heat or buoyancy is often a
culprit. Still, I think it is well worth the look when there is a
logical reason. It is especially well worth the look when someone
else goes to the trouble and expense! 8^)
Good job!
Regards,
Horace Heffner
