[NewCandle] New stuff for new year?

[Kyle R. Mcallister]

Howdy all ye newcandle people.

Been a while since I posted, and I'm sorry. I figure some explanation is 
in order, given the enthusiasm I showed for the Schlicher thing a few 
months back. Nope, haven't forgotten it, I can even see the antenna from 
my chair here.

And plus I just got through cussing them out over on Vortex, and proving 
once again my status as a young curmudgeon. He he he. So I owe youse 
guise a post.

I've had severe medical problems over the past several years, and 
they've gotten a lot worse the last few months. I actually went to the 
doctor yesterday, and he and his nurse had a conniption fit. I guess 
maybe they were justified. Being 5'6" tall (or lack thereof), and 
weighing in at 112 pounds is apparently not good for me. Given that I 
eat like a horse, it isn't making sense either. My blood glucose levels 
were less than 70, and they think I'm anemic. And these spells of 5 min 
to over 3 hours long, every few days, of vertigo, nausea, profuse 
salivation and then intractable fatigue and weakness after they end, is 
not a good thing either. I'm on an anti-vertigo medication now, to try 
and help the major thing, but the rest needs tests...which isn't easy 
given a lack of medical insurance. So, there I am.

But I'm still here. And I've got a few new toys to play with, that 
perhaps I can put to some use for the group. We need new energy sources, 
that is a fact. It's time someone cooked something up, or at least 
tried. So, here's my contribution. Ain't much, but it's what I got.

Two multipliers, putting out somewhere around 70kV apiece, which can be 
varied by controlling input voltage with a poor man's variac (lamp 
dimmer). You can put them together, one being negative, the other 
positive, and get nice 5" long sparks between a pair of steel spheres. 
What can we use them for?

I've been interested in the reports that Thomas Townsend Brown (yes, 
that guy, but this isn't propulsion related) made in effect, electrets, 
that produced an integrated power greater than that used to make them. 
Probably there's a catch, but why not try? Even the great John 
Hutchison, master of camera tricks, has messed around with them. Maybe 
there's a kernel of truth to this. It won't make coal-fired power plants 
go away, but if you can make something that powers a 10W cluster of LEDs 
effectively forever, that's something, right?

If anyone's interested, I have at my disposal, the following things that 
might be useful for doing some heavy-electret experiments:

Paraffin wax (dunno what for, it sucks to use for electrets in my 
experience)
Carnauba wax (on order, gimme a week or so to have it in hand)
Beeswax. (I'd say, none of yo' beeswax, but I'm doing this open source 
and on list, so it is yo' beeswax too.)
White rosin powder, donated by the good people at Monaco Violin.
Ammonium nitrate (Ferroelectric according to CRC)
Litharge (PbO...lead monoxide), Townsend LOVED this stuff. It's pretty 
and red, and /IT KILLS YOU!/ It must be good, then, yeah?
Barium titanate powder. Not a ton of it, but maybe six or eight 
measuring cups' worth.

Got some glycerin too, as this can bind litharge into a cement-like 
concoction. Brown apparently used litharge-glycerin in petrovoltaic 
research. One wonders if the heavy dielectric (litharge in this case) 
can be 'fielded' while the stuff hardens. He also mentions using PZT and 
tungsten carbide, but I don't have either of these, and don't know where 
I could get them.

Any interest? Suggestions?
--Kyle