All,
Another update. Didn't get as much done today as I'd
like, as I did end up getting pretty sick.
Nevertheless, here's what I did and what I found.
I took the original 'target' plate, connected to
ground, and shielded it with a 7.75" square sheet of
.125" plexiglass. A 1/2" hole was drilled in the
center of the plexi, with the 1/4" hole in the (4"x4")
steel target plate centering in it. On the plexiglass
side, the 2" length of 3/4" PVC pipe was glued with
industrial hot-melt glue. The open end of the pipe was
propped against the steel HV sphere, the target plate
once again connected to ground.
Sparks now reliably fire through the PVC tube, through
the hole in the plexi, and strike the steel plate. The
flash of the spark is enough to make the PVC pipe glow
brightly, and the edges of the plexi fluoresce.
There *is* a force produced in very narrow beam
extending from the hole in the steel plate. It can be
felt up to about 18" away, and is very narrow, perhaps
only one to three times the diameter of the 1/4" hole
in the steel plate. However; it does NOT pass through
my one hand into the other (as far as I can feel). As
far as I can tell, and there is I admit more testing
required, it is a pulse of air blown out due to the
spark momentarily increasing the pressure within the
tube.
Unresolved issues:
1. If it is overpressure, why isn't it going out the
easier path, between the PVC pipe and the steel
sphere? It is not air tight...there's a decent gap
there that one could stick a screwdriver in. Much
lower air resistance there.
2. How does the air impulse, if that is what it is,
maintain coherence over a distance, in such an
apparently beamlike fashion? Is this like the old
WHAM-O air vortex launchers?
3. Put some smoke in the tube and see what comes out?
Smoke rings? Put smoke around the device as it fires,
an see what way things are moved around?
4. My replication is flawed, I now see. Morton clearly
drew the spark going out of the tube, curling over,
and then striking the plate. The hole in the steel
plate thus should be BIGGER than the hole in the plexi
spark shield. I'll have to try this and see what
happens.
5. Try with the positive supply? If no force from the
hole, then is something else going on?
--Kyle
