Note it may be necessary to insulate correctly not only the spinwheel's tips but also the whole rotating arm, plus the exposed part of the spindle, to stop the ion flow. After all it is not necessarily the balls which collect the bulk of the ions as we have been assuming. With some luck the smoke test with the rotor blocked will tell you where those ions discharge on the rotor, I wouldn't be surprised if they went to the nearest part of the rotating arm.
Michel ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kyle R. Mcallister" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, June 03, 2007 2:09 AM Subject: Re: [Vo]:ion currents in pingpong balls > > William Beaty wrote: >> But... there would be no ion flows near the rotor if the pingpong balls >> were truely insulating. A cloud of opposite ions would just gather around >> the pingpong balls, then all air flows (ion flows) would stop. So I bet >> the pingpong balls are terrible insulators, and electrons are going >> through them fast enough to give ion currents and air flows. > > Re-reading Miklos' page and his posts to Newelectrogravity supports > this...he says that the device works better if the feed wire to the > pingpong balls has a section of "bad" insulation. Look at the first > image on: > > http://www.fw.hu/bmiklos2000/unipolar.htm > > I'd bet that is why it works better with "bad" insulation there instead > of "good". More ion current, more air flow. > >> If you haven't yet dissassembled your device, try REALLY insulating the >> tips of the rotor wires: snip off the sharp parts and cover them with >> big blobs of silicone caulk. Don't use pingpong balls at all. If that >> greatly slows things down, then ion-flows were almost certainly the cause >> of the thrust. > > It is still hanging around, literally. I will add this to the list. > About to go on some travels, will get some incense while I am out, > preferably something that smells nice and not like a house of ill repute. :) > >> Note well that where kilovolts and microamps are involved, rubber and >> plastic are NOT INSULATORS. They are resistors. A large area of thin >> plastic (as in a pingpong ball) is a poor insulator. Better that you >> should fill each pingpong ball with oil! :) Or, just get rid of the >> pingpong balls entirely, and cast the wire tips into thick spheres of >> solid plastic or silicone. > > I have quite a bit of silicones around here, I'll use something to do > this. Not sure if I will get to this today, but I will do it. > > --Kyle >
