Re: Ions

[William Beaty <billb@ESKIMO.COM>]

On Mon, 12 Apr 1999, Ludwik Kowalski wrote:

> I suppose that the same reasoning applies to a glass sphere. The
> formula E=k*Qtot/r^2 is applicable, if Q is distributed uniformly.

But this would just predict the amount of charge that causes corona
breakdown of the air, not the maximum amount of charge possible in the
glass.  If we keep the electron beams turned on, charge will still keep
building up inside the glass, even while the corona is supplying opposite
charge to the glass surface.  Only when discharges take place *inside* the
glass will we have finally reached a limit to the charge inside.  Since
the field at the center of the glass sphere would be zero, I expect that
the field just inside the surface would be maximum, and discharges would
begin at the surface.  But once they begin, they might act light any
spark, and travel quite a distance through the glass.  Would this shatter
the glass?

> But here is something puzzling. What happens when positive ions
> from air start to accumulate of the surface of the glass sphere (or
> cube)? If the insulator is ideal then the established neutrality, after
> the beams are turned off, is only apparent. You would have a
> more or less uniform "cloud" of net negative charge inside the
> sphere and a thin layer of equal and opposite charge on the
> surface. Is there any good argument against the formation of
> "the negative space charge" inside the irradiated dielectric?
> What can one do with "pseudo neutral" pieces of irradiated
> material?

And if we scrape the surface with a knife to physically remove some of the
air-ions trapped there, the large e-fields would immediately re-ionize the
air and deposit more ions.  Keep scraping the surface to generate corona
and ozone!  Throw your glass sphere hard at a concrete wall, and there
might be a loud bang and a bright flash.  What if the material were liquid
instead of glass?  How would highly-charged transformer oil behave, even
if it did have a layer of opposite air-ions on its surface which cancel
out the external fields?  Pumping the oil would create electric currents.
Stirring the oil would move the cancelling ions to the "wrong" places, and
more work would be required than for normal stirring, and there would be
discharges in the air as new ions were pulled in.

On the other hand, if the glass had been kept within a hard vacuum to
begin with, there would be no coating of ions, and the space around the
sphere would have an immense e-field.  Keep the charged ball in a vacuum
inside a larger hollow sphere, then roll the ball around and watch
lightning appear on the outside surface of the glass container, as the
changing fields force the cancelling ions to redistribute Pick it up,
shake it around, and you'll feel lots of "static" sparks.  Ooo!  You could
make a mechanical light source:  deposit charge in one sector of a glass
disk, keep it in a close-fitting evacuated glass container, and when the
disk is spun, discharges ensue.  Put the whole thing in a slightly larger
container of low-pressure neon gas, and spin the disk to light the light.

Make oppositely-charged pairs of glass objects, and perhaps the maximum
attainable forces would be stronger than ferromagnetic effects.  Use them
instead of electrets inside of electrostatic motors in vacuum
environments.  Quite the physics-toy, as long as you make and use them
high in orbit above the earth.  Hmmmm.  They might eventually be
discharged by pushing alike-charged cosmic ray particles away, while
pulling in unlike-charged particles.  A permanently-charged electrostatic
lens for cosmic rays.

I recall that Dr. Jefimenko was making electret-based motors and
generators with disk-shaped electrets.  Shouldn't electrets "discharge"
over time as they attract opposite charge onto their surfaces (on humid
days, for example?)  But then, how do electret microphones continue to
operate for years?  Even if they are inside an airtight case, wouldn't the
ions from background radiation supply a source of leakage?  Anyway,
suppose you placed opposite charges on half-sectors of a glass disk.  Spin
this disk to generate high-voltage AC fields.  Cut a close-fitting hollow
metal cylinder-disk down through its axis, place the halves around the
disk, then use the cylinder halves as terminals.  It would act as either a
motor or a generator, and if the charge on the disk was large, the output
torque might be very large.  If the interior of this container was
evacuated, then the charged glass disk might last for decades.


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