3 ms·
These are pretty easy to make, using an old CRT monitor as the HV power supply. I made some in the early 2000s. Back then there was a lot of chatter about h
by opwieurposiu 6y ago
These are pretty easy to make, using an old CRT monitor as the HV power supply. I made some in the early 2000s. Back then there was a lot of chatter about how "asymmetric capacitors" could provide reactionless propulsion. Of course it turned out just to be an inefficient and dangerous way to make a desk fan.
- phkahler 6y agoTownsend Brown. I knew a guy who spent years trying to replicate that stuff. Wonder what became of him?
- dharmab 6y agoA team at MIT made an ionic wind glider a couple of years back that flew across a room. https://news.mit.edu/2018/first-ionic-wind-plane-no-moving-parts-1121 https://news.mit.edu/2018/first-ionic-wind-plane-no-moving-p...
- beerandt 6y agoI always used neon-light transformers. Dirt cheap or even free, since bars often had promotional ones they didn't pay for, or ones with broken glass that they were happy to be rid of. I also clearly remember thinking that these were a lot safer to use than old CRTs, but I have no idea why and don't recall the reasoning for it.
- Doxin 6y agoIIRC CRTs store charge in a rather large capacitor. Neon transformers don't. So touching unplugged CRT internals could shock you across the room, whereas neon transformers don't have that risk.
- beerandt 6y agoI believe thats correct. Because now that you say that, I remember that part of substituting it for a CRT adding a bunch of homeade brine capacitors, which were basically just glass jars wrapped in foil and some various scrap metal conductors. Less risk of injury in case of an accidental discharge, and easier to purposefully discharge when bringing everything back to ground. At least that's I convinced myself of back then. On the other hand, in hindsight, we were pretty dumb, and still built a lot of really irresponsibly dangerous stuff.