Wimshurst Machine 150mm sparks

I made an upgrade to my Wimshurst machine and increased the diameter of the lower driving discs from 100mm to 130mm. This increases the speed at which the discs rotate compared to how fast you turn the handle. With the new discs and a reasonably dry day (about 60% humidity) I was getting sparks 150mm long (so around 150 000 volts). This is with the Leyden jars attached (each is about 1nF). The main discs are 500mm diameter. The wobbling is due to the dodgy table the machine is on and not the machine itself! The camera isn't always fast enough to capture the sparks which sometimes seem to fall between frames.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Wimshurst
• big
• sparks

[TheRabidMonkie]

You seem to have slight issues there, I noticed sometimes the spark was int he wrong place lol?

[asciimation]

Yes, it's odd that and it confused me as well. I think it's my digital camera. Sometimes it misses the spark and for some reason sometimes it looks like it is arcing across the machine. I thought perhaps it was shorting across the discs but in reality it isn't arcing anywhere near them.

[Mannycom420]

instead of 2 balls, try a ring inside a ring . maybe get a larger discharge? or multiple discharges? very good machine! good vid

Peace all!

[Pimpmastahanhduece]

thats awesome because you can throttle the voltage of the discharge by controlling the distance between the electrode.

[destinws2]

Fantastical. Respect from Alabama

[sheadijn]

At what rpm do you think the disk are spinning? how much effort does it take to spin them? does it develop more drag until it discharges? Very well done! I checked out your blog of your building it. Very nice job! I hope you do more things.

[highvoltagefeathers]

Excelent machine! I'm building one myself, but am having issues keeping the discs completely aligned. Will the device not function if the discs come into contact with eachother for a short period of time?

Thanks!

[TheRabidMonkie]

Also, I don't suppose you have plans for one of these machines do you?

[TheRabidMonkie]

The reason sometimes your camera wouldn't catch the sparks is because they're moving so fast, so the camera doesn't pick them up.

Also possibly due to the light in the room they are hard to see, try with lights off?

[MISTERCLEANER]

big spark,good work