Electrostatic lifters

[W1UJR]

Electrostatic lifters are fascinating devices that have become popular construction projects for experimenters all over the world. NASA's recent patent on a type of lifter design has only spurred interest in these devices.

What is a lifter?

The basic device merely consists of a lightweight (typically balsa wood) frame, to which is attached a wire and a sort of aluminum foil skirt. The photos below illustrate this. The wire is charged to approximately 30,000 volts by means of a power supply and very thin wire attached to the corona wire. The aluminum foil skirt is coneccted to ground by a thin wire as well. When the device is powered it developes downward thrust and levitates.







http://www.electricmuseum.com/exhibits/lifter/index.shtml

[WA1GFZ]

Bruce,
The guys I work with built one a few years ago for bring your kid to work day.
And I thought you were going to have something related to cam shafts.

[W1UJR]

Bruce,
The guys I work with built one a few years ago for bring your kid to work day.
And I thought you were going to have something related to cam shafts.

Naw, I hate cars, have nothing to do with them outside of the office.

I did think that this was cool, but gotta wonder at the zorch potential.
That 30KV is not a high freq like a Tesla coil, right?
So anyone touching or even getting very close to the unit risks a shock.

Frank, glad to hear of your NY Resolution to get back on 160, hope to catch you on other than the Gray Hair Net.
I've been listening out on 160 most evenings, perhaps I'll catch you on.

-Bruce
-Bruce

[k4kyv]

Don't some people wear hats made out of these?

[WA1GFZ]

Well Bruce,
The class e rig made about 10 seconds of a beautiful waveform then died.
Looks like something in the pre driver or driver let go. I tested the heck out of it but crapped out in the rack. I'll tear it down again and make it right. The short time the thing was making power I saw about 400 watts of carrier and it was very clean. So that means the final modifiactions worked. I may have bumped something during assembly. It is nice to be back on but now I want to get the big rig working again.
fc

[W1UJR]

Don't some people wear hats made out of these?

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