[NewCandle] Brown/Hutchison batteries

[Kyle R. Mcallister]

Hi all,

Carnauba wax arrived today. So at least that's in the inventory now.

Alright, speculation for a moment. Anyone have any idea what exactly the 
deal is with Hutchison? Is he just a looney, has he got something, or is 
he a looney who has something? Keith, you seem to think he's on to 
something. Any ideas as to what?

Probably no one will know unless this is tried. I've got the power 
supply now, and the necessary ingredients to make C L Strong type 
electrets, and the pseudo-electret Brown cells. Brown seems to have 
liked using carnauba wax as a binder. Unless that's just what he had 
available to him, it seems to tie in some sort of electret-like action 
to the 'battery.'

He used various substances mixed into the wax, either tungsten carbide, 
litharge (lead monoxide), and I've seen mentioned elsewhere, barium 
titanate and lead zirconate tantalate.
Hutchison uses Rochelle salts (no problem if we want to use that, it's 
easily made)

Brown suggests heavy metal oxides or carbides. A recurring thread with 
both, when thinking of barium titanate, Rochelle salts, etc., is that 
these are ferroelectric substances. However, as far as I know, litharge 
and tungsten carbide are not.

In my opinion, a few things are clear:
A. the likelihood of this doing anything revolutionary are very small. 
But this is not expensive to do, and given the possibility (and my own 
curiosity) it is worth investigating in my opinion.
B. Brown's work with petrovoltaics and this 'battery' thing are not well 
enough investigated. Another reason to do so.
C. We won't know for sure unless we try.

I'm gonna go shovel my driveway now, and think about this for a bit.

--Kyle