Bonetti Machine clip #2

A Bonetti Machine (Sectorless Wimshurst) used for research into the Testatika device.
Overview of construction, energizing, some sparks.
The big grey box to the right is just the power supply for the machine's motors, which are automotive radiator cooling fan motors. Any 12-volt supply will do the job.
The high voltage is generated solely by the motion of the disks.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Testatika
• Wimshurst
• Bonetti
• free
• energy
• high
• voltage

[backwoodsBrophil]

Nikola, Bravo! spared no expense with those capacitors, very nice machine. I've built a few van de graafs, now I'm determined to construct this apparatus. What material are those disks made of?

[TinselKoala]

Thanks, the disks are acrylic plastic (Plexiglas or Perspex), "FF" grade for uniformity. Polycarbonate (Lexan) works but is too flexible for large thin disks. You can use just about any dielectric material; even old LP phonograph records have been used with success--especially the red ones.

[TinselKoala]

Thanks!

This machine has disks that are 310 mm in diameter, and has made sparks from sphere to sphere of 270 mm (roughly). I think it's capable of 500,000 volts on a cold dry day.

The brown cylinders in the two vertical stacks are the capacitors. They are TDK doorknobs, 40kV 2000 pF each, for a total capacitance of about 166 pF at 480,000 volts. The spheres and prime conductors add another bit, so figure 200 pF for the machine.

Say 25 Joules in one of the maximum sparks.

[CrashByron]

this is a very nice machine you've made. What are you using for capacitors/leyden jars? It looks like high voltage doorknob capacitors?

[ignilc]

awesome, what's the longest spark you got out of it?