On Jun 5, 2007, at 12:02 PM, William Beaty wrote:
It is possible that all these phenomena are created by
Electrospray, where
a droplet clinging to a charged surface begins emitting a series of
microscopic charged droplets. An older form of ink-jet printer
was based
on this type of electrostatic droplet-series emission.
You wrote: "- if I tap upon the HV wire with a finger, the furrow in
the mist jerks after a short delay, maybe .05sec for 13cm, that's
five MPH (can't visualize KPH)". That's a sign the thread maintains
*tension*, which would not be possible if it were a string of like
charged drops. HV jet drops move much faster than 5 MPH, and can not
sustain beam continuity over long distances, yet: "Occasionally I see
a very "powerful" ion-thread, one which can extend itself more than
2ft ...".
More convincing: "- When I used a soda straw and blew upon a thread
with all my might, the dot in the mist only moved a little. The 5mm
dot was changed to a 10mm x 30mm blotch. INCREDIBLY BIZARRE! The air
blast either causes the thread to spread out into a narrow fan, or it
causes it to vibrate at high speed so that the thread tip traces out
an oblong blotch in the mist. These threads are robust! Not at all
like smoke, they are more like carbon-fiber spiderwebs under high
linear tension. "
Doesn't sound like charged ink-jet drops to me: "I've seen two
threads with 5mm spacing between them, yet they were 15cm long. If
they were highly charged, they would repel apart .... - I've seen
pairs of threads come from a fingernail top, extend down about 10cm
and apparantly follow the field lines, all the while maintaining a
distance from each other of about 1cm! They don't seem to repel each
other much."
Regards,
Horace Heffner