OPEN THREAD

Welcome

This thread is for use to post conversation through comments.   NOTE :  click on pictures for better view.

__ This blog is under continues reconstruction!  .. Much to learn and discover!  ..  

  For greater literary fun in comments,  See wordpress smilies above.     

Bing and google translator links page has been added to the smilies category above.

Update 17 May 2012.  Completed installation of copper foil on shell condenser , see below.  pg

I will be adding to both the posts and category pages.  Something new nearly every day, often updates to existing stuff.  So snoop around, explore.  pg

PG working on his experiment.

A light wood and paper covered dish to be covered with fiberglass polyester skin and metal foil.

At hand is a homemade high voltage condenser to be used with the Tesla coil spark gap.

“The new age will begin with a net that covers the world”

Hopi Prophecies

Welcome to the new age

“We must assume behind this force [in the atom] the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter. ” –Max Planck, accepting the Nobel Prize for Physics, 1918

  When I energized my great coil, it was with trepidation that I waved bare 8 foot fluorescent tubes in my naked hand,  they lite up, and there was no apparent effect on me.  pg

 

http://www.teslauniverse.com/nikola-tesla-quotes  An other place to explore and use.

http://www.rossilivecat.com/all.html  Good place to find A.Rossi comments on Ecat.

Working on the shell condenser

Getting the form Right

Raw FRP shell condenser shell form

Condenser shell form

The raw FRP ( Fiberglass Reinforced Polyester) shell form needs to be repaired and trued before the actual condenser can be created. Due to working alone there are starved areas in the FRP where there is not enough polyester resin to float the fiberglass. These white streaks are weak areas and need to be ground out and refilled with FRP before the shell can be built up and trued. There are many high areas that must be ground down to a minimum thickness and all other areas built up to obtain a smooth and true curve with little or no ripple under the capacitance foils.

After the minimum thickness is true and strong and stable, the low areas that remain can be filled with resin fillers and further trued. It took most of 6 weeks to get to this point. Now the edge must be trued to the center point so the curvatures are even and smooth.

Electron fields concentrate at points of sharpest curvature and we want the fields to maximize at the disk edge with the least loss. The more true and smooth this surface is the better the quality of the capacitance layers to be created on it.  Any high areas can result in thin dielectric and possible failure. Any low areas will result in loss in capacitance.

marking the shell form for truing

To obtain a true edge a wire is connected to the top center point and used to draw concentric circles that are tested with the template that is a cut and marked piece of heavy corrugated card board. The use of this shows the areas that need to be ground down or built up to achieve a true shape. After nearly 3 gallons of filler the surface is very true. Now layers of polyester resin are applied and sanded to create a smooth surface, each more smooth and true then the last.  Now I need to clean the work area as everything is covered with a thick layer of polyester dust. 

Now to add the coils

The great coil and plasma jet in place

The 130 turn spiral wound high voltage coil has been cut out of the old device and mounted under the disk frame with the plasma jet pointed down.

The black coil around the spiral coil is the 24 turn  primary coil,  and the white coil above it is the bundle of driver coils for the twitch coils.

Inside of the central frame cage is the shell field driver coil that is connected to the groundplain in the rim and to the surface field cap on top of the coil and the outer skin of the shell.

Center coils inside disk

The shell field coil is induction driven 165 turns of 12ga tw covered wire and should create a 100,000 volt field on the shell capacitance due to the 600+ volt per turn field strength.

The shell field coil and twitch coils are loosely coupled to the main field and are jointly connected to the groundplain to make their operation independent of any back EMF from the spiral coil and primary driver that are connected together as an autocoil.

The primary and spiral coils should drive the plasma jet pincushion to about 100,000 volts.  At some time the primary coil can also be connected to the groundplain if needed for testing.

Twitch coils in place in disk edge

The primary coil is a bundle of 24 turns of stranded 12ga THWH inside polyethylene tubing and is powered by the 15,000 volt spark gap set. This should set up a 600+volt per turn field inside of all the coils

The twitch coils are mounted and connected to the groundplain.  2 turns per twitch coil are bundled into the white twitch coil driver necklace above the primary coil to independently provide 1200 volts to each twitch coil LC set. The twitch coils are 90 degrees to the other coils so are nearly independent of the main field.

The FRP shell is ready for the addition of the copper foil segments that act as the inter layer of the shell condenser. Each segment connects to one side of the twitch coil behind it

FRP shell with cap in place

Every other segment is connected to the groundplain and bottom of the shell field coil. A coil/shell cap with carbon fiber whip has been created and covered with aluminum foil to act as the connection from the top of the field coil to the shells’ upper aluminum covering.

Next, add the shell condenser  copper foil inter layer on the shell form.

x

Inter Layer of copper foil

x

x

x

WOW!  This is starting to look impressive! If nothing else this is a work of Art or at least of PG.      When the outer shell is finished this will be stunning! even if it doesn’t move.

NOTE: Be sure to click on the pictures for a better view and more information in comments.  pg

A Cheap Greenhouse

Simple hoop house.

Hoop house, a cheap green house

Inside hoop house

A cheap Hoophouse

An inexpensive greenhouse that goes up fast is a hoophouse made up of PVC pipe and clear polyethylene covering .

This is  a rebuild of a hoophouse that I originally created in the winter of 96-97  and after 6 years removed when I built the main dugout greenhouse.

This year I recreated it with some improvements to reflect experience of the earlier use.

As before, this is a very nice place to work in the winter and early spring.  Also a great place to sit in and visit with friends when the weather is too nasty to be out in the nearby Veranda.

Construction

hoop house hoop anchor

To create this hoop house, I used 1 and 1/4 inch PVC  schedule 40 pipe, 10 foot lengths, these were glued together with “T”s or “X”s and spaced 48 inches apart.

The hoops are anchored with 3/4 inch steel pipe driven into the ground on 48 inch centers in rows 12 feet apart.

By supporting the hoop ends 8 inches above the ground I raised the center of the hoop  to 7 feet of clearance under the stiffeners and made the house feel much larger. Lateral stiffeners are run from end to end to stabilize the ends and spread the loading in wind and snow. One on each side and one in the center. The hoop stiffeners are 2×8 – 48 inch long, cut to match the hoop curve, and “duck” taped to the hoops.

hoop house end clamps

After the ends are created and stabilized to be square and plumb, cover them with the sheet plastic and fix it with “duck” tape on or around the pipe and staple into any wood framing.  For best results tape the plastic and then staple through the plastic and tape. Only after every thing else is done do you attach the main covering.  It is best if you have help for this part as the wind will come up as soon as you start this.  If you tape and staple the covering to the windward side you can pull and attach the covering on the leeward side by yourself. Work from the center towards the ends to draw the covering smooth.

Note: the end clamps are made of 1 and 1/2 inch PVC scheduled 40 pipe split in half and screwed to the end hoops to clamp the end plastic and covering plastic tightly to the end hoops.

 

hoop house rug door

This door is a piece of old rug that is heavy enough to cover the doorway but can be moved or tied aside for ventilation. This place will get hot in late spring.

“DUCK” tape, cloth tape, originally made by the DUCK tape company now generally called duct tape as it is often used in duct work. you will need a large roll and the good stuff is worth the extra price.

After the covering is done, add wood battens to the stapled and taped edges to make the coverings wind tight around the bottom edges.

Cheap 6mil poly will last until the hot weather makes it brittle, good quality greenhouse coverings will last 5 years and cost about 3 times the cheap stuff. These hoops are the original ones. It is best to bend the hoops in warm weather as they are very hard to bend when cold.  pg

Defkalion Letter

I received a Email letter from Defkalion this week.

The Defkalion corp. is the Greek group that was formerly working with A. Rossi a year ago.

When Rossi was first contacted, I was directed to their site as a contact point for obtaining a working device. The reply I got gave me a bad feeling about their views on conducting business, so I dropped that connection and considered warning Rossi of my bad feelings. Soon after that he ended the arrangement on his own.

The letter I received was to offer me a chance to invest or buy into the technology for only 40.5 million Euro for a license to manufacture and market their devices in a market area.They wanted to do only the R&D and sell factories. A quote from the letter.

“Defkalion will become the first global player in LENR using its proprietary technology to commercialize its new products and diversify into new Research & Development efforts for new applications. It plans to have a fully operational prototype ready by July 2012.”

I don’t believe that they have a working device yet as one of their earlier this year comments on their site said that they were testing 1,000s of combinations to discover the correct combination for the fuel cartridge. This was soon after Rossi refused to sell them his cartridges. They have made and canceled several dates that they would publicly demonstrate a working device.

I have seen nothing yet that would lead me to believe that Defkalion researchers have a grasp on the needs for a useful LENR reactor.  pg

Primary driver

Primary Coil Driver

Primary Coil Driver

Primary Coil Driver

The primary coil driver set is assembled and ready to go. Left to right, Ganged condenser to drive the primary coil, spark gap attached to aluminum heat sink, chokes for suppression of back EMF to protect the neon transformer and most important part an OFF switch! see spark gap condenser test

The yellow wire is high tension ignition wire. This will allow me to operate the power supply 20 feet remotely from the very high voltage coils and any fields generated on the surface of the disk.

Primary Driver top view

 Driver set top view

When a neon transformer is used it must be protected from the possibility of a high energy kick back from the magnetic collapse of the field in the secondary coil.  A properly sized choke will easily pass current at the 60 cycle frequency of the transformer but strongly resist current at the high frequency of the primary LC  circuit of about 18,000hz.The frequency of the LC tank circuit (inductance/capacitance) of the primary is caused by the charge / discharge of the capacitor through the coil.

Primary Driver side view

Driver set side view

The spark gap is to force the charge voltage from the transformer to rise to the break down point of the gap,  current in the circuit has inertia so it will over discharge the capacitance and cause the current to reverse flow. This back and forth flow will continue until the voltage in the circuit is too low to cross the gap. If the circuit is designed correctly the gap will break down early enough in the 60 cycle to bridge the time that the transformer has low voltage from its’ 60 cycle output. This is electronics on a massive scale.   pg

Pruning

Pruning for the next Years crop

Unpruned Fig Tree

 Pruning a fig tree

This is a Desert King Fig. A type of white canning/fresh eating fig, very fast grower and good producer. Figs like heavy clay soil and some water for best production. This 15 year old tree really likes it here. Fig trees are started from suckers that sprout from the roots. I have cloned near a hundred trees from this one, and they start producing fruit in 3 to 4 years! Great gift for anyone with the space.  Great shade and fruit but very messy and draws birds. I cover it with a bird net in the early summer to protect the crop from birds. Then that must be replaced every year if you want fruit to enjoy and share. Because this is a fast grower it needs heavy pruning every winter, lots of brush to deal with! Other varieties grow much less but are slower to produce and produce less fruit. As they are slower they are later in the season to produce for an extended season.

Pruned Fig Tree

A pruned fig tree

For the production of fruit that can be easily harvested the fruiting area must be held down near the ground. As this is also a shade tree some compromise must be reached, In this case I want fruit 6 feet to 12 feet above the ground. Many fig trees produce 2 crops per year. The first, at bud points on last years growth in the early summer and the second, on the new growth in the late summer.  So there must be a method to your pruning. Every year I need to push the growth point down because it progresses up with every years growth. Every winter pruning starts with cutting the top down to the needed height and then thinning out the interior to achieve the needed effect.  Meanwhile keeping in mind the need to force new growth down lower for later years renewal.

Close up of pruned branches

Fig pruning

If you look closely ( click on images ) there is old wood that is grey,  and there is wood that is olive drab or gray green, that is last years wood and I leave 2 to 4 bud points for the early summer fig crop as well as a base for the next years growth. All other interior growth is cut away to thin growth points. You must remember not to get greedy, too many fruiting points will result in small fruit of poor quality. Too heavy pruning will result in heavy regrowth and little fruit. Fig trees are like apple trees You can’t kill them with too heavy pruning. So if you need to reclaim an old tree go for it, severely reshape the tree, it will reward you the second year.

Trellised Grapes

Grape vineyard

Every year the grape vines must be cut back to the main growth arms to restore the balance between roots and vines. Remember grape vines can grow themselves to death. and too heavy fruiting will result in small poor quality fruit. There are many different styles of staking and trellising the main trunk of a grape vine but the pruning follows two styles, One for wine and one for table fruit. This will depend on the variety used. These are wine varieties and are fixed to a 3 wire fence trellis with plants every 4.5 feet.

Pruned Grapes on Trellis

The rows are pairs 4feet apart with 8feet between pairs. For wine production the plants are heavily cut back to a few buds that will grow into canes with a few bunches per cane. Wine grape vines produce grape bunches on the 1st, 2ed, 3rd node points of the new canes and you want a bunch per foot of trellis.

For eating grapes, they produce fruiting canes from the 1st, 2ed, 3rd cane nodes so they must be pruned to canes and buds. Canes for this years fruiting canes and buds for next years canes.  My eating grapes are grown on an overhead trellis.

To the left in this picture is an espaliered row of figs pruned low for handy fruit along the road way between the vineyard and the kitchen garden.  pg

Condenser / Sparkgap test

Condenser & spark gap with 15,000vac transformer

  Main condenser

Top picture is of main condenser, spark gap and neon transformer. This test of the main condenser was its’ first “smoke test” to see if my design would function as planed. Condenser is made up of aluminum foil lined PET plastic jars set up similar to Leyden Jars fixed end to end and paralleled to create a bank,  .0196mfd – 40,000vac condenser to power the primary coils through the spark gap. The power at this time is supplied by a 15,000 vac 30ma center tapped neon illumination transformer. ( built in 1940s)

Spark gap

  Spark gap

This second picture is of the spark gap and transformer. To the left is an electrode from a Leyden jar as well as a 4 inch pocket wrench. The spark gap is constructed from two engine XL spark plugs that have had the grounding electrode and some of the threaded shank removed. These are threaded into an extruded aluminum form,  so that the central electrodes face one other, to provide a base as well as a heat sink. The spark gap can be adjusted from as small as 3/8 inch to as large as 1 inch.

Spark gap without condenser

 Spark gap powered

This is being directly powered by the neon transformer with no load. The arc is small thready and produces a lot of heat and not much light. It is also quiet, just a light crackle.

You may have to look closely, click on the image or do an enlarge to see the arc.

This is the first time in 16 years that I have powered up this transformer, good to see that it still works.

Spark gap with condenser

 Spark with condenser

I hooked up the condenser in parallel and turned the thing on, real smoke test. WOW! very hard arc, very bright and white, lots of UV and very loud hiss, not much heat! I am pleased with this spark gap design and the output of my home made condenser.

The Tesla Coil Builders need to see this as the spark gap is the most difficult part of a tesla coil device.  I’m pleased with the outcome of this test, I will continue & assemble the primary driver   8-)  pg

Atmosphere Heat

Atmospherics of heat and water

Troposphere Atmospheric Heat

The Troposphere

The Troposphere is that part of the atmosphere that is the active area of climate and weather and is the focus of this post. Water is the main active controlling constituent of this level of the atmosphere. In the artwork to the left we see light blue, to signify water vapor rising and dark blue, water descending.  As water vapor cools it reaches the dew point and condenses to water and creates clouds, fog or dew on objects. Water vapor as a gas molecule is 68% of the mass or weight of oxygen and nitrogen molecules and rises in massive amounts of convection, this creates clouds as the vapor cools above the dew point level and condenses. Water vapor occupies 1600 times the space that condensed water occupies, thus creating low pressure inside the cloud being formed. Much of the water vapor originates from the surface as water evaporates from land and sea. The rest is evaporated water already in the air as clouds and precipitation.

Atmosphere heat depth from tropics to polar regions

Energy Transfer

Radiation or Conduction

 

Gravity and Aether

Homeopthy

Homeopathy is a form of alternative medicine in which practitioners claim to treat patients using highly diluted preparations that are believed to cause healthy people to exhibit symptoms that are similar to those exhibited by the patient. In the context of homeopathy, the term remedy is used to refer to a substance which has been prepared with a particular procedure and intended for patient use.

The basic principle of homeopathy, known as the “law of similars”, is “let like be cured by like.” This was first stated by German physician Samuel Hahnemann in 1796, and is not a true law of nature.

Homeopathic remedies are prepared by serial dilution with shaking by forceful striking on an elastic body, which homeopaths term succussion. Each dilution followed by succussion is assumed to increase the effectiveness. Homeopaths call this process potentization. Dilution often continues until none of the original substance remains. Depending on the dilution, homeopathic remedies may not contain any pharmacologically active molecules, and for such remedies to have pharmacological effect would violate fundamental principles of science. Modern homeopaths have proposed that water has a memory that allows homeopathic preparations to work without any of the original substance; however, there are no verified observations nor scientifically plausible physical mechanisms for such a phenomenon.

Oral homeopathic remedies are safe at the high dilutions recommended by Hahnemann, since they likely contain no molecules of the original substance, but they may not be safe at lower dilutions

Hahnemann observed from his experiments with cinchona bark, used as a treatment for malaria, that the effects he experienced from ingesting the bark were similar to the symptoms of malaria. He therefore decided that cure proceeds through similarity, and that treatments must be able to produce symptoms in healthy individuals similar to those of the disease being treated. Through further experiments with other substances, Hahnemann conceived of the law of similars, otherwise known as “let like be cured by like” as a fundamental healing principle. He believed that by using drugs to induce symptoms, the artificial symptoms would stimulate the vital force, causing it to neutralize and expel the original disease and that this artificial disturbance would naturally subside when the dosing ceased. It is based on the belief that a substance that in large doses will produce symptoms of a specific disease will, in extremely small doses, cure it.

From wiki on Homeopathy