Some relevant quotes of interest from Bill Beaty at: http://amasci.com/weird/unusual/airexp.html
"The "threads" can survive in a zero-field region. I made a crude "thread gun" and passed a thread through an accelerator ring composed of an aluminum bundt pan. I didn't expect this to work, since the hole in the pain is shielded and relatively field-free. Yet the thread did come out the other side. Once I've set up a thread- emitter, I find that I can cup my hands very closely around the path of the invisible thread, yet this does not eliminate the furrow in the fog. Evidentally the threads either have enough inertia to survive the zero-field regions temporarily, and to traverse several inches of zero-field space... or they need no fields at all once they have been created. Their behavior is not simply that of ionized wind. They act WEIRD! "
"At the tip of the fiber I could see streams of mist moving inwards in 3D from all directions, as if the tip of the fiber was the mouth of a tiny suction hose (like gasses surrounding a black hole!)"
"I can see a tiny time-delay when I wiggle a long fingertip-thread, so the speed of the effect might be around 10mph or so, not instantaneous "
"I connected a microamp meter in series with the plate. It indicated zero. When I let the other HV wire create one furrow in the mist, the meter indicated zero UA. When I brought the cable close, so there were maybe 50 to 70 furrows being drawn along the mist, the meter started flickering, indicating approx. 0.5uA. These ion-streams, if that's what they are, are each delivering an electric current in the range of 10 nanoamperes or less. Jeeze. No wonder nobody ever notices them."
"I made a crude oscilloscope using a "thread" as the writing beam. By applying 4KV 60Hz to a metal sphere adjacent to a "thread", I managed to spread it's fog-mark out into a 2cm line. When I move my hand in the DC field, the thread moves. When I move my hand quickly, the thread sweeps across the fog, leaving a beautiful sine wave mark which was produced by the AC voltage on the metal sphere. What if the power line waveform had glitches? They would be visible! It's an electromechanical oscilloscope with no vacuum required. If the "thread" was merely a stream of charged air, would a 60Hz e-field be able to move it sideways through the atmosphere like this?"
"While messing with airthreds at the Dale T. lab, I discovered that wet fingers produce them. Dry fingers only produce them if there are bits of clothing-lint or knuckle-hairs (or sharp burrs on fingernails.) However, when I wet one of my fingers to make shirt- lint adhere, I discovered that lint was unnecessary, and strong airthreads would form just from the wet surface. THIS IMPLIES THAT THESE THREADS ARE COMPOSED OF MICROSCOPIC DROPLETS. I bet this effect is the same as that electrospray or "spitting cusp" phenomenon that develops whenever a charged sphere electrode is held over a water surface. The water surface humps up and forms a sharp cusp-shape which spews droplets."
"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."
Best regards, Horace Heffner http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
