Gerald O'Docharty wrote:
> 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'