Ok, Terry-Joe, here-you-go:
This is a suggestion for only the *precharging* without the plates
being necessary (at first). I am doing this as well just now, but
a little differently.
Save the plates for next weekend, and if you have any preliminary
results with this - everything there should work out better with
the plates as your water will be activated (hopefully with
nanobubbles, but quien sabe?).
The charging regime should (in theory) be different (and
optimized) from the usage regime (which is more like the original
Brown's gas-JC idea).
This idea is based on a long charging regime that will limit H2 to
nearly zero, therefore it can be left unattended for a several
days (weekend?) charging period.
Start with a Pyrex beaker - very thin walls if possible. This is a
decent hydrophobic material and will slowly pass some current in
the milliamp range.
Place a conductive strap on the *outside* of the beaker, for the
anode. Use a rod cathode. No chance for a short. This is in case
you want to use a canabalized wall transformer (from an old modem)
instead of batteries, which is what I am doing, coincidentally.
Start with distilled water and 12 volts and see if you can get any
current draw at all. You want to get it up to about 50-100
millivolts after a few hours, but it should start out about 10
millivolts. If not, put the batteries in series and try 24 volts.
If this beaker is too thick you may get nothing without even more
voltage, or adding some electrolyte - but give it a few hours.
Mine just started and it is drawing 15 millivolts but it is an 18
volt transformer and a very thin-walled beaker.
The idea is that (only in the precharging regime) you want to
achieve a slow circulation of water around the beaker-wall - and
hopefull this is where the nanobubbles will form. Mark the initial
water level with a piece of tape. Place another control beaker
next to to the charging beaker and mark it also. If all goes well,
the water level in the charging beaker should be higher at the end
of two days than in the control (both will loose water to
evaporation and it is unwise to close the active beaker in case
the conductivity should rise)
BTW ... and to show how authoritative this idea is - it all came
from a solitary walk at a deserted Point Reyes shoreline, where a
sea lion was following me, but 100 meters out - from outside the
breakers. He seemed to be saying: "us sea mammals have known about
nanobubbles for a long time" (they don't use good grammar ;-)
