Lyeden Jars

you could always do it a different way.... fill the bottle with a conductive media... lead shot springs to mind since that is how I first saw leyden jars being made. Given your need for the wine bottles, and the bnudget, you can probably think of a conductive media which you can fill the bottles with

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Skip the jar completely. Get yourself some old glass windows, which people are always throwing in the garbage. Clean the glass completely, and stack it with aluminum foil. Will have ALOT more capacitance than a jar of the same relative size.

You could have a very huge capacitor for the cost of 1 roll of aluminum foil and 1 bottle of windex.

I've seen a webpage where someone did this, except with printing plates. He got the plates a bit too close to the glass edge and it tended to arc over, so watch out for that catch...

Tim

-- "I have misplaced my pants." - Homer Simpson | Electronics,

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In article , Jim Stewart wrote: :Winston wrote: : :> Kamus of Kadizhar wrote: :> :>> I'm trying to build some Leyden jars :> :> :> (Snip) :> :> Powdered toner from your laser printer mixed with glue to form your :> own brand of conductive paste? :> :> Here is a lifetime supply of conductive ink precursor for U$0.99 :> :>

: :Can you show me that toner is conductive? : :Since the toner is applied electrostatically, I'd assume :that it's an insulator.

The individual toner particles have an insulating coating. Caswell Plating

sells a "conductive powder" to be used as surface preparation for electroplating non-conductive plastic. I _suspect_ that this powder is nothing more than copier toner. Their instructions tell you to wash off the protective coating with acetone before applying. That coating is designed to melt in the fuser section of the printer/copier, so you might be able to achieve a satisfactory result just by heating the bottles after coating them. You would need to coat the inside of the bottle with a thin layer of glue, paint, or perhaps shellac or varnish so that enough powder would adhere to the surface. Caswell recommends plumber's PVC pipe cement thinned with acetone.

CAVEAT: I've never bought any of this powder from Caswell or actually tried any of the above process, so this is all supposition on my part.

wrap jars with foil, fill with water, add a little salt.

don't use window glass if you are making a tesla coil - it won't hold up very well and it's lossy.

When my halogen bulbs burn out on my car they leave a clean shiny metallic coating on the inside of the bulb. If you could find out what process causes that you might be able to reproduce it to coat your jars. Sorry i can't be more specific.

Bascially, what you're seeing in a burnt-out halogen bulb is the result of an EXTREMELY crude and uncontrolled example of the coating method called "sputtering". Halogen bulbs run *HOT*. Hot enough to literally "boil off" atoms of the filament metal. The halogen gas the bulb is filled with is supposed to (and at least to some extent, does) cause the metal vapor to re-deposit on the filament, rather than the glass, achieving two results: 1) Longer life (since the filament stays a filament, rather than turning into a coating on the glass) and 2) Brighter output, which is a direct result of the reduction of plating on the glass to block the light. When they burn out "slowly", it's often due to "micro-leaks" that let the halogen out, and "plain air" in, which in turn allows the "plate onto the glass" process to start happening, and continue until the filament is eroded so far that it's unable to maintain physical integrity and breaks.

A "mechanical" burn out (A hard jolt, etc) won't show the plating, because the atmosphere in the bulb has remained constant, but the motion from the impact has broken the filament.

Ah, interesting angle! Lerch what'shisname did that on a larger scale, aluminizing his own telescope mirrors... what you do is suck a good vacuum then boil some metal. The vapor condenses on the walls.

Masking and getting a layer thick enough for pulse discharge would be a problem.

Tim

-- "I have misplaced my pants." - Homer Simpson | Electronics,

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Foil outside, shot inside. Lead shot runs about $12-15/25 lb bag, you should have enough to do a number of bottles, depending on size, out of one bag. BBs also spring to mind, not as heavy, copperplated, probably not as cheap. A book on electrostatic generators I've got has construction details for Leyden jars made with shot filler, they used beaded chain for making contact with the top ball. You could also use salt water for a filler but you'd want to make sure that all your pieces were non-corrosive and cork the thing up well, electrostatics and humidity don't get along. IIRC, one of my really old "electrician's" books has details on making Leyden jars that way, too, I think they floated mineral oil on top of the salt water. I think they used dry cell carbon for making contact inside. #6 dry cells are antiques these days, I don't know what you'd use to substitute.

Stan

Showing your age maybe? ;o) I don't think there's been a time since they were widely sold that they haven't been available. Note "Heavy-duty" batteries lack the "alkaline battery" note on them!

Tim

-- "I have misplaced my pants." - Homer Simpson | Electronics,

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It's probably just lubricant for high precision machinery. But it would make a great non-stick coating for foundry work. You could paint it onto clay crucibles, steel with a very mild rust, tools, etc. Would probably make the worlds best kiln wash. Boron Nitride also works good for that stuff and it's more inert but graphite would work very well.