Science Forums 2

[Dutchdivco]

Been exploring this myself, on another forum.Apperently an insulated copper wire, about 200 ft. long, suspended in the air with insulators, will build up one heck of a 'static' electric charge.Easily enough to charge a 12v. battery.Heres what someone had to say; "Any attempts to establish a system like this must be approached with the greatest of respect and caution. Casual and ad-hoc experiments can be extremely dangerous.

John Bedini told me of one system he and Ron Cole built in Southern California in the 1980's. It consisted of about 100 feet of copper wire, no more than 10 feet off the ground, suspended on glass insulators (think old Coke bottles). The capacitor was made from two sheets of 4' x 8' sheet metal separated by plate glass. The ground connection was industrial copper grounding rods pounded into the earth. A one inch safety spark-gap applied across the capacitor started roaring within minutes. The system was so dangerous that they dismantled it.

Just for clarity, take a look at some rural power poles some day. Every pole has a one eighth inch diameter copper wire running from the ground to the top of the pole. Its there in case a lineman had to go to the top and make repairs. Then, to work on the line, he just had to connect the ground line to the dead power line with a short jumper before attempting his repairs. Since the power was off anyway, the REAL danger was the electrostatic voltage that could still be present."
So, thats a LOT of electricity, 'freely' available, once you expend the $ to set up a system to "harvest" it.Similar to solar or wind, in that sense. Just have to figure out a way to harvest it SAFELY, without frying anyone.This is basically harvesting lightning, in a sense.Heres a suggested way to hook up such a system, to 'batteries', using an auto coil and spark plug.
"If you read the words carefully, the circuit goes like this. Between the elevated wire and the ground is the CAPACITOR. The discharge circuit then consists of (starting at the HV+ side) the spark plug, then the (+) and (-) terminals of a ignition coil (leaving the HV terminal alone), then to the (+) terminal of the battery, and finally the (-) terminal of the battery is connected to the side of the capacitor connected to the ground rod.

The ignition coil is just used to slow down the discharge impulse and convert the electrostatic energy into a magnetic field so it supplies the battery with some electrons to aid the charge."
I should pass on there were lots of warnings about how high voltage/high frequency electricity acts different, how some insulators become conductors and how it can jump air gaps, etc.Bottom line; can be dangerous! I am still intriqued with the idea, however. Jim