electrostatic motor

Gerald O'Docharty ( (no email) )
Fri, 10 Apr 1998 19:16:53 -0400

I was just looking at an old picture of a Dirod type electrostatic
generator I made about 20 years ago. It made me remember about a
peculiar behaviour of the machine. It was constructed so that it was
driven by a belt from a motor, but it could be turned by hand with the
belt off and still work. Well it could be spun this way by hand and sort
of 'wound up' to a point where the voltage was at maximum before
breakdown. If the axle was let go at that point, it would spin on its
own in the reverse direction untill the static charge was used up, often
20 or 30 revolutions or so. I could have theoretically connected a high
voltage DC supply to it and it would have run indefinitely. Has anyone
seen a practical application of this? Do the plastic disc e-s machines
behave the same way?

I don't have that machine anymore, the fellow I loaned it to died and I
didn't want to ask for it back. It would be simple to build another
though.

-Gerald O'