Catt's Displacement Current

Jerry W. Decker ( (no email) )
Sun, 16 May 1999 14:56:12 -0500

Hi Folks!

A fellow in England told me about Ivor Catt and his duplication of the
Michelson Morley aether drift experiment which proved an aether. I did
a search on the web and haven't found the paper yet, but did find Catts
homepage at; http://www.electromagnetism.demon.co.uk/

I think this directly applies to the ball bearing and capacitor plate
experiment where a highly charged metal plate, separated by about 6" of
air from another plate (the ground side), has a ball bearing placed in
the middle...the ball bearing is claimed to roll out to the outside edge
where it rolls around the rim solely from the capacitive field. =

I don't know if its AC or DC, though it would appear to be AC with the
wave driving the ball. Some of us have been looking into this for some
time as it might be possible to extract energy from this setup.

Such a capacitor plate using Catts theory of instantaneous production of
electrical waves might be a micro version of how the planets orbit as
posted at; http://www.keelynet.com/spider/magfield.htm

He has an interesting paper on the true nature of displacement current
from;

http://www.electromagnetism.demon.co.uk/z001.htm

Displacement Current - and how to get rid of it

Conventional electromagnetic theory proposes that when an electric
current flows down a wire into a capacitor it spreads out across the
plate, producing an electric charge which in turn leads to an electric
field between the capacitor plates. =

The valuable concept of continuity of electric current is then retained
by postulating (after Maxwell) [reference 1] a "displacement current",
which is a mathematical manipulation of the electric field E between the
capacitor plates which has the dimensions of electric current and
completes the flow of "electricity". =

This approach permits us to retain Kirchhoff's Laws and other valuable
concepts, even though superficially it appears that at the capacitor
there is a break in the otherwise continuous flow of electric current.

The flaw in this model is revealed when we notice that the electric
current entered the capacitor at one point only on the capacitor plate. =

We must then explain how the electric charge flowing down the wire
suddenly distributes itself uniformly across the whole capacitor plate. =

We know that this cannot happen since the charge cannot flow out across
the plate at a velocity in excess of the velocity of light. =

This paradoxical situation is brought about by a fundamental flaw in the
basic model. Work on high speed logic design [reference 2] has shown
that the model of a lumped capacitance is faulty, and "displacement
current" is an artefact of this faulty model.

The true model is quite different. Electric current enters the capacitor
through a wire and then spreads out across the plate of the capacitor in
the same way as ripples flow out from a stone dropped into a pond. If we
consider only one pie-shaped wedge of the capacitor, =85., we can
recognise it as a parallel plate transmission line whose only unusual
feature is that the line width is increasing (and hence the impedance is
decreasing). =

The capacitor is made up of a number of these pie-shaped transmission
lines in parallel, so the proper model for a capacitor is a transmission
line.

=2E.snip...Since any capacitor has now become a transmission line, it is
no more necessary to postulate "displacement current" in a capacitor
than it is necessary to do so for a transmission line. The excision of
"displacement current" from Electromagnetic Theory has been based on
arguments which are independent of the classic dispute over whether
the electric current causes the electromagnetic field or vice versa.
------------
Theory C
http://www.electromagnetism.demon.co.uk/yatguide.htm
------------
More on displacement current;
http://www.electromagnetism.demon.co.uk/y7aiee.htm

Now we describe a problem which combines the two types of theory and
shows the difficulty mentioned in the title of this paper. It arose
about twenty years ago when fast-operating silicon chips were connected
to one another. =

We idealise the problem slightly. Imagine a coaxial transmission line
terminated by a matched load at the far end; and for simplicity let it
be evacuated, and of very low resistance. =

Apply a step voltage to its input; a wave travels along it with the
velocity of waves in free space. So after a time a current begins to
flow in the terminating load; that is, electrons start to move through
it.

The problem is - where did they come from? =

Not from the input, because electrons have finite mass and so they
cannot travel at the velocity of waves in free space. (Remember that we
are considering a step voltage, not an alternating one.)

One of us sent the problem to various people who might have been
expected to provide an answer, and the responses were mainly of two
kinds (ref. 1): =

(1) that the wave causes radial movements in the line as it passes over
them, and that electrons displaced in this way at the far end make up
the current; or =

(2) that electrons move along the line, with velocity less than the
wave, but push other electrons on in front of them, keeping pace
with the wave.
------------
the Catt Anomaly;
http://www.electromagnetism.demon.co.uk/w99anbk2.htm

Perhaps more properly called 'The E-M Question', the Catt Anomaly is an
elementary question about classical electromagnetism which experts
refuse to answer in writing. We will first consider the contradiction
between Pepper and McEwan, and the response of London's Institution of
Electrical Engineers (IEE) to the problem created by this contradiction.

=2E..snip...When a battery is connected to a resistor via two parallel
wires, a current flows which depends on the voltage of the battery and
the resistance of the resistor. Also, electric charge appears on the
surface of the wires, and we concentrate on the electric charge on the
bottom wire. =

In the case of a 12 volt car battery and four ohm car headlight bulb,
the electric current is three amps and the resulting power in the lamp
is 36 watts.

Consider the case when the battery and lamp are connected by two very
long parallel wires, their length being 300,000 kilometres. When the
switch is closed, current will flow immediately into the front end of
the wires, but the lamp will not light for the first second. =

A wave front travels forward between the wires at the speed of light,
reaching the lamp after one second. =

This wave front comprises electric current, magnetic field, electric
charge and electric field. Negative charge appears on the surface of the
bottom wire. All of this is agreed by all experts.

The question asked by the Catt Anomaly is where this charge on the
bottom conductor comes from, and the answers given to this elementary
question are contradictory, with the academic establishment split down
the middle. =

Half of the academics, led by McEwan, say that the charge comes from the
battery to the west and reaches its proper place along the bottom
conductor without having to travel at the speed of light. =

The other half of the academics, led by Pepper, say that it is
impossible for the charge to come from the west because it would have to
travel at the speed of light, resulting in the charge having infinite
mass.

Pepper says that at the moment when charge is needed to help the wave
front along, it comes to the surface of the wire from inside the wire,
travelling at right angles to the direction of the wave front.

=2E.snip...Traditionally. when a TEM step (i.e. logic transition from low=

to high) travels through a vacuum from left to right, guided by two
conductors (the signal line and the 0v line), there are four factors
which make up the wave;

- electric current in the conductors
- magnetic field, or flux, surrounding the conductors
- electric charge on the surface of the conductors =

- electric field, or flux, in the vacuum terminating on the charge.

The key to grasping the anomaly is to concentrate on the electric charge
on the bottom conductor. During the next 1 nanosecond, the step advances
one foot to the right. During this time, extra negative charge appears
on the surface of the bottom conductor in the next one foot length, to
terminate the lines (tubes) of electric flux which now exist between the
top (signal) conductor and the bottom conductor.

Where does this new charge come from? Not from the upper conductor,
because by definition, displacement current is not the flow of real
charge. Not from somewhere to the left, because such charge would have
to travel at the speed of light in a vacuum. (This last sentence is what
those "disciplined in the art" cannot grasp, although paradoxically it
is obvious to the untutored mind.) =

A central feature of conventional theory is that the drift velocity of
electric current is slower than the speed of light. [Published in
Electronics & Wireless World sep84, reprinted sep87. For further
information on the Catt Anomaly, see letters in the following issues of
Wireless World; aug82, dec82, aug83, oct83, dec83, nov84, dec84, jan85,
feb85, may85, june85, jul85, aug85.]
-- =

Jerry Wayne Decker / jdecker@keelynet.com
http://keelynet.com / "From an Art to a Science"
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