I've seen Bill's motors run. They are very impressive. I wonder
if a generator in the same spirit might be appropriate? I know
Bill can whomp up amazing things, so I put this idea to him:
How about a gallon glass jug rotating with its axis horizontal,
rubbed by silk or plastic, and driven by a hand powered flywheel
(a twenty-five pound barbell disk) or, for the faint of heart,
simply an electric motor with a belt drive around that little
step that one sometimes finds just below the handle of a jug?
That would be better than a color TV for a lecture demonstration
in my opinion. Alternatively one can make a Leyden jar and keep
it charged with an electrophorus. Both pieces of apparatus can
be made easily from readily available materials.
I just revisited Bill's page for the first time in a long while.
Next time you're up here, Bill, let me show you a Kelvin water
dropper generator that will spin your motors at top speed. I
figured out a way to run it continuously off the water supply.
The Kelvin generator need not be feeble, as you imply on your
page.
Oh, yes. The color TV vs. the black and white. The color TV
screen can reach a higher potential against ground than can the
black and white simply because it supplies more charge at a
much higher energy to the screen.