From: SFPhysics@aol.com
Date: Sat, 24 Apr 1999 20:04:31 EDT
Subject: Leyden Jars - big ones....
To: pinhole@exploratorium.edu
My Physics class made some capacitors/Leyden Jars. They decided to use
plastic bottled water containers. The weather, low humidity, was just
perfect for drawing 1," opps 2.5 cm, sparks from them. These were the small
bottles and not the large ones. The big 5 gallon glass Alhambra bottle is
being eyed by my more adventurous students!
One design point, in order to eliminate corona discharge points, put tape
around the outside foil on all exposed foil edges. We had one jar stay
charged for the weekend and still draw quite a nice spark on Monday. Each
jar was also given a pinch of salt to make the water more conductive though
we haven't done comparison tests to see if there is any difference.
BTW - we were charging them with my Van DeGraff......... only about
300kV.....
Al Sefl