Hi,
some time ago I investigated the effects of ion wind in air.
Possibly you know this effect: A needle is charged to 5 kV or more and
this needle will blow a stream of charged air, that is rather strong.
I made experiments and blew the air into a water surface so see how
strong the flow is and how it is focussed.
I found it to be sharpely focussed, it seems that the air molecules
follows the lines of the electrical field.
I also investigated the tip of the needle in darkness and I have seen a
faint blue glow around the tip.
Directly at the tip there is a dark zone. This is nothing new, it was
Michael Faraday who first investigated this and described it, but he had
no theory to explain it.
My explanation is this: Lets assume the needle is negatively charged.
Air molecules are charged by this and repelled by the tip of the needle.
Because the resulting air stream is rather strong, and the active area
of the needle tip is very small, there will be a vacuum at the tip at
the needle. This is the observed dark zone.
Basically this is a Lenard "tube", but without glass and without diaphragm!
For a good vacuum it is necessary to have a electrostatic repelling
force that is stronger than the air pressure. Of course this is only
possible with a µm sharp needle.
It should be possible to optimize the shape of the needle tip to get
better vacuum.
Now lets do this experiment in a pressurized deuterium athmosphere. At
20 bar pressure, it should be possible to use voltages above 100 kV
without sparks developing.
If a vacuum develops at the tip of the needle, electrons should be
accelerated to 100 keV and more, and without any diaphragm inbetween
these should then hit surrounding deuterium atoms and release the energy
into the atom.
Possibly the needle could be heated, to improve electron emmision and
efficiency.
A similar experiment "pyroelectric fusion" was done by Putterman and
this is scientifically proven.
It works and produces neutrons.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyroelectric_fusion
The problem is, pyroelectric crystals cannot make much uninterrupted
energy, the other problem is, Putterman did this in a low pressure
athmosphere, and so the probability for electron-atom collision is low.
Could it be possible to do this with better efficiency in a high
pressurized athmosphere as described above?
The big unsolved problem is: If this really produces measurable energy,
then it will also produce really dangerous amounts of x-rays and neutrons.
The other problem is, where to get deuterium in pressurized bottles ;-)
best regards,
Peter
