electrostatic charging via condensation?!

[William Beaty <billb@eskimo.com>]

Here's something I received recently:

> wrestled with this idea for years. Ever since the day I was standing on
> a rubber mat degreasing air craft parts. The freon in the tank was hot.
> There were refrigerated coils around the top of the tank to condense the
> freon vapors and return the liquid to the tank. As I placed my left hand
> into the tank, torrents of freon condensed on and ran off my hand. As 
> long as the left hand was in the freon vapors a small spark steadily
> jumped from my right fore finger to the tank.

More at :
http://members.tripod.com/~LYNN_MILLS/index-2.html    Lynn Mills

This is a very strange phenomenon.  Condensation is not known to cause
electrostatic charging!  If it did, then the opposite charge must go into
the air, in order to balance the charge which appears on the condensing
surface.  As Lynn points out on the above webpage, if condensation
involves electrostatic effects, then perhaps this is the true explanation
of the mechanism which produces lightning (and perhaps tornados.)

Perhaps a simple electrostatic generator could be based on this effect. 
Hang a cold metal plate over a hot liquid while measuring the microamps
out of the plate to earth-ground.  Or boil some liquid in a suspended
metal pot, and measure microamperes to ground. 

Electrostatic generators based on the latter effect already exist.  These
were called "hydroelectric generators" in the mid 1800's.  They took the
form of a steam boiler suspended on insulators, with a jet of steam
escaping from a specially constructed nozzle.  Electrostatic effects from
a flash-cloud?  The body of the water tank would attain an extremely high
voltage, with an opposite charge presumably on the steam cloud.  They were
thought to operate via collision of water droplets with the inside of
their wooden nozzles, but perhaps this explanation is wrong, and these
devices hold a mystery. 

I wonder, does the effect work more strongly with freon than with water?
If so, then that would explain why no one has stumbled across it by now.
If it is very feeble when water is used (and only would become significant
for enormous amounts of condensation), then tabletop testing might not
reveal it, even though it would easily drive thunderstorms.  If the key is
to use an insulating liquid, then perhaps Kerosene would also work (easier
to obtain!)

((((((((((((((((((((( ( (  (   (    (O)    )   )  ) ) )))))))))))))))))))))
William J. Beaty                                  SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
billb@eskimo.com                                  www.eskimo.com/~billb
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