These are various discs I've made for experimenting with testatika theories.
The grids were based on my analysis of the 3kW
machine grids with incomplete information (i.e. some of it is speculation).
The metal used was 0.002" thick (44 gauge) stainless steel that comes in a
roll and was ordered from K&S Engineering,
stock number 6030. I couldn't have used aluminium tape because
I needed metal that was conductive on both sides in order to mesh various
pieces together electrically and aluminium tape is not conductive on the
sticky side.
Outer disc face grids - like 3kW machine's wire grids (June 2007)
Ideally the sectors on the outer disc face would have been made of wire
as with the 3kW machine's thick wire grids
but I couldn't
find a simple way of doing that. The advantage to wire is that it has no
sharp edges and so won't ionize the air as much. Instead I opted for
thin stainless steel and coated it all with resin. As of July 7, 2007 all
of the stainless steel of these grids, except near the axis, is insulated.
At some time I may expose some of it leaving only the sharp edges insulated.
Electrically connecting sectors near disc axis (June 2007)
As I strongly suspect is the case with
the 3kW machine I electrically connected all sectors near the disc axis.
To get a really good electrical connection I cut out a smaller disc to compress
the mesh together in a sandwich. This disc also acts as insulation. Any ions
that do form would mostly be kept within the mesh area.
Inner disc face - two/sparce strip sectors (June 2007)
I theorized that there are sectors on both faces of the front disc for the
3kW machine. My only supporting evidence for this is that the wire sectors of
the small machines are woven across the disc face such that they alternate
which face they're on. In keeping with that idea I also electrically connected
these inner disc face sectors with those on the outer face
as described below.
To create some asymmetry between the two discs, and because it really is
unclear whether there are sectors on the inner face of the 3kW machine's
front disc, I put only two strips per sector.
Inner disc face - four strip sectors matching outer disc face grids (June 2007)
There is good evidence that for the 3kW machine's rear disc there are sectors
on both faces of the disc. This is stated in Albert Hauser's visitor report
as well as strongly suggested visually in the Methernitha video.
I speculated that just as with the front disc, the sectors on either side
of the rear disc would also be electrically connected
and that they would be meshed near the axis as described above.
To create some asymmetry between the two discs I put four strips per sector.
My analysis of the 3kW machine shows that
there may be as many as six strips per sector or even that the face may just
be entirely covered with no matching to sectors at all.
Electrically connecting sectors from opposite disc faces (June 2007)
To electrically connect the sectors that are on either face of a disc I made
one slot (hole) per sector through the disc and pushed the end nearest the axis
of each inner face sector through the slot to the other side where it would be
in physical and electrical contact with the corresponding sector on the outer
face.
Mounted discs
Here are two discs mounted on my heavily modified
Wimshurst machine stand.
