blowing dust machines Re: Pelletron / patent 3,469,118 / (1969) (fwd)

[Steven Roys <sroys@xxxxxxxx>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2004 20:51:18 -0800
From: Jim Lux <jimlux@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: High Voltage list <hvlist@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: blowing dust machines Re: Pelletron / patent 3,469,118 / (1969) (fwd)

> Dans un courrier daté du 19/01/04 19:38:48, hvlist@xxxxxxxxxx a écrit :
>
> <<
>    For historical purposes..
> I could mention that in France (?) at one time, consideration was
> given to an analogous machine, using 'dust particles' suspended in
> a closed, airflow driven circuit. (plumbing.).  Corona combs
> would have been sealed into the tubing, etc, etc.
>
> I've no idea if the machine was ever built/tested...>>
>
> This machine had been conceived around 1936 by M. Pauthenier and all. (La
> Sorbonne , Paris ) They proposed  to used a flow of charged particles
 glass
> spheres of a few microns in diameter), circulating in a closed insulating
pipe
> instead of the classical belt of the original apparatus. A blower produced
a 60
> m.p.s flow of these particles in the loop pipe. In 1937 a Pauthenier
> Generator produced a voltage of about 1,8 MV.
>
> This design was still described in first patents of Van de Graaff.
>
> For more details  cf my web site : page
> http://members.aol.com/lyonelb/sis.html
>

Vollrath, at Univ of Southern California, also did some work with using
diatomaceous earth. Some of his work is reported in R.A.Ford's book on
Homemade Lightning.  I tried fooling with it, using a shopvac and so forth,
and it works, sort of (I killed a perfectly good Fluke 8020a trying to
measure the current). Keeping the dust from sticking to the walls of the
pipe is the challenge.
>