045 An Unusual Wimshurst Machine

[danpaulisbitski]

I love this guys attitude. He is like a kid in a candy store! God bless.

[AndreaDingbatt]

This looks like a whole lot of Fun!!
Thank you Robert, you are always getting the grey matter working!!

[realcygnus]

Nifty ! I used to have & copy virtually every type of spark gizmo you can think of. BTW, even just old vinyl albums work good for DIY Wimshurst's. By FAR the simplest AND most effective "non-electric/electronic" high voltage DC static generator I ever made just consisted of some rabbit fur(most synth is fine) rubbing against a spinning 4-5" diameter piece of PVC pipe about 18" long. Use end-caps too with drilled out holes to place a round wooden dowel thru for a shaft, though actual bearings of some kind would prolly be even better but not at all required. The collector was just a piece of 3/4" copper pipe(same length as PVC pipe) adjacent/parallel to the PVC pipe, with a gap of about 1". A thicker walled is prolly preferred?, though no doubt that even a thin walled 1/2" pipe would also "work". On the copper pipe was a strip of ordinary aluminum foil(also same length) about 2" wide but folded in half to 1" just literally electrical taped along the length of the copper pipe. Put as many(100+ish doubled by the folding) randomly oriented & staggered "fingers"(like a comb) cut into the tinfoil strip like half way thru its width, aimed at the junction where the fur rubs the spinning PVC pipe. Technically the tinfoil's fingers are the actual "collector". The Capacitor(Leyden jar) was just a 6-8" diameter round tupperware bowl with aluminum flashing covering the inside & outside of the bowl minus about a healthy 3/4th" from the top. Also get some flexible copper tubing about 1/8th to 1/4" diameter & put a length of it just a little longer than your tupperware bowl is high, thru the tupperware lid. Solder/"put"(even just tape or somehow pressure fit) 2 or 3 lengths of any kind of wire from that center tubing to the inside flashing(Pretty sure even just 1 solid/smooth connection would be fine). Also flatten a portion of another piece of the same thin flexible tubing & connect it to the outside flashing by with tape and/or via rubber-banding it around the outside of tupperware bowl such that it is also electrically connected to the outside flashing. But leave this piece of the thin tubing long enough to bend it into a long & easily adjustable arc over the top of the entire capacitor. Now just get 3 as round of cabinet knobs without sharp edges as you can find. If you can't find any with no sharp edges just do some hand filing/dremel polishing. Sharp edges are typically the enemy with all of these parts & connections. But this design is effective enough that filing/polishing isn't strictly necessary. "Put" 1 knob on either end(whichever is most convenient) of the copper pipe collector near the fur & on both of the other 2 ends of each of the flex tubing ends(connected to the inside & outside) of the capacitor. Place the entire capacitor's center ball/knob very near the ball/knob on the large copper collector pipe near the fur. This is mostly just to see a small spark gap as an indication that it is indeed working. But you could just opt to lose the 1 knob(on copper collector pipe end by the fur) by just directly connecting the large copper collector pipe to the cap's center knob or inside flashing plate with a length of wire instead. But its nice to see that its working(when in motion) just by having those 2 knobs very close to each other instead. Now just play around with the distance between the 2 balls/knobs on the cap itself, by bending that longer outside arc made of the thin tubing. Like any similar contraption the closer they are the more frequent the discharge but shorter the sparks & the further they are seperated the longer the spark(up to some max dist) but it occurs less frequently. Obviously, you also need to build a frame/chassis & a functional hand crank(if not using a motor to spin the PVC pipe) out of wood or PVC or a plastic milk crate or whatever non conductive materials you have on hand. A motor is nice as opposed to hand cranking but either is OK. Also, I'm pretty sure, If I'm remembering all of this OK, that also covering the large spinning PVC pipe with rubber(balloon, floor mat material etc.) may help at least a little, though it works fine without it. I never really tested that, it might have just been a dry day. & I'd guess that the flashing can indeed just be replaced with HVAC tape(like as per this vid). However the total charge/energy may matter on the thickness/total amount of/mass of all of the metal involved, at least to some extent, as well as just the surface area of the cap plates alone. & surely the type of & thickness of the tupperware/dielectric plastic is rather significant. But just play around with whatever you have handy. Anyway, such a gizmo can easily produce 6-8"+ sparks about once per second consistently(even in humidity) !

[Grateful.For.Everything]

This is really cool! Thank You so much for going through all that to show us how to go about it.

[DanielGBenesScienceShows]

Robert, that’s a gorgeous and fun machine!! But I would have LOVED to see you widen the spark-gap to test its full potential. Of course, that would inevitably uncover “opportunities”, as stressing a machine always does. Perhaps in an update video?

[ronniepirtlejr]

Robert you are a mad scientist!
I love your work!
You teach with Charisma & passion.
When you love what you do, it's not really considered work is it?
You make science a blast!😎👍

[hmstormo]

*Learn much about the Wimshurst machine, thanks*

[thesustainabilitysoonerchannel]

Robert, this steampunk phase of yours is both fascinating and joyous to behold. It's marvelous to see how you're using modern and easily obtainable materials to harness Victorian era technologies. Thx mate!

[AsydApieRnsdRadf]

much appreciation for the work you put in each project ♥

[johnsullivan]

Awesome! I love these devices. Thank you for another great video!

[Ian-kz]

I enjoyed the video there's a lot more to it than 1st meets the eye.

[TheMichaellathrop]

So I am imagining a wood fireplace with a heat exchange driving a sterling engine both to turn a fan to help cool it's self and heat the room but also to drive a wimshurst and maybe sneak in a thermal electric layer in the sterling... not sure what I'd try to power with such an unwieldy monstrosity but I imagine it would look awesome ticking along above a wood fire... really more of an art piece than any kind of practical mad science.

[lorenbush]

My favorite wimshurst type machine is the Testatika, if it really puts out what it claims it is really cool.

[whatthefunction]

There should be one of these in every house

[TheGulfcaptain]

Now hook up your fractal capacitor system and see what usable voltage / current you can get out of it besides pretty sparks. That would be fantastic!

[Fusimester]

As it slowly began to roll, I immediately thought of the stargate. 🙂

[thatwontwork]

Some really great info in here thanks for sharing!!

[francescotrevisan]

interesting, I had also been wondering about supporting the plates from the edge. Great to see your build. But it looks like the actual efficiency of the machine is quite low, the sparks are very short considering the diameter of the disks. Fun video, tks

[ronniepirtlejr]

You can continue to charge the plate over and over and over, building up a charge until it cannot hold anymore ( in layman's terms)
However, if you run an electrode from the backside of the plate, up inside a metal sphere, the charge on the plate will transfer inside the sphere. Then you can grow the charge into an almost infinite amount.
It will become a very lethal charge!
Again Robert In layman's terms. 👍 😁

[Theowlwas]

I swear I saw this video like three days ago.. but the thing up there says it came out 7 hours ago... I'm in a time loop!