Capacitor to store lightning?

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BennyF said:
And one more thing. I've never said anything about the voltage rating or the capacitance of the capacitor in my patent application,
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Yes, and this is something that has been explained to you, a circuit that works at 100 volts can't just be scaled up to work at a million,.... it's not just a matter of selecting different larger value components.


so you're out of line twice, once for claiming that my apparatus will be "insulated" (an inappropriate term), and once for implying that it has to be protected from arc-over when I haven't given any specs on the voltage or current levels in my application.
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So your patent is in no way relevant to the discussion about storing energy from lightning, because anything dealing with HT needs LOTS on insulation.

You're confusing the circuitry I discuss here, primarily a very large-scale cap bank, with the circuitry I intend to send to the US Patent Office, which is NOT a cap bank. Understand that what I talk about and what I don't are two very different subjects, and learn some respect.
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I'm confusing it because you brought it up in a thread entitled 'Capacitor to store lightning'. Have you been posting off topic all this time?
 
BennyF said:
Does this mean you've abandoned the concept of catching lightning in a "box", as you accused me of trying to do, despite the fact that I've never claimed that I had any interest in it?

There's no "box", Phil. None. I've been discussing capacitors, not boxes.
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If you intend to capture the electrical energy from a lightning strike in capacitors, they are going to have to be inside a well insulated enclosure, which is akin to catching lightning in a box. When I put it to you this way, via analogy, you realise how absurd it sounds, don't you?

But there is this mis-understanding in your head, that allows some arrangement of components inside the box, to allow it to behave as if it were not a box.

Anyway, may we see your electronics qualification?
 
BennyF said:
Both of JT's messages included outright insults and claims that he knew me personally. The text of both messages, and the text of Phil's recent messages, also indicated that he knew me and hated me.
Benny
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I don't think either of us have even come close to saying either of those things. He says he knows you from another forum, he never said 'personally' did he? Quote him if he did.

Are you saying you aren't the guy JTWash is talking about?

Or have you spoken about this elsewhere, and on other topics, as he says?
 
@Benny
Before you spend millions of dollars on full size equipment, why not try charging up a small capacitor with a spark.
Scale the whole thing down.

@BillyT etc.
Do you think he would be able to charge up the small capacitor that way?
And with what efficiency?

@Benny. How efficient do you think it would be?
 
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Captain Kremmen said:
@BillyT etc.
Do you think he would be able to charge up the small capacitor that way?
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Yes. Any source of high DC voltge will charge a capacitor. if C is small, say a micro Farad, even just repeatedly touching the center pole of it with a static electicity source, should eventual get a few hundred volts on the C.

Problem is that V = Q/c and their is not much charge Q available from most static electric sources so many touches to the center pole will be required.

The rotating disk SE machines can give significant Q with a few minutes of cranking them.
 
Captain Kremmen said:
@Benny
Before you spend millions of dollars on full size equipment, why not try charging up a small capacitor with a spark.
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I suggest Benny tries using a 'Van de Graaff Generator' to produce the spark, so we are dealing with voltages that easily exceed the breakdown potential of air. Of course, this isn't a parallel, as the sparks still only operate over a short distance, and don't have many paths to ground, like lightning, but still, it might teach Benny something about the process.

Such generators can be found at science parks and museums, if he searches around. Or he could make one, or buy and modify a 'stun gun', although I wouldn't recommend opening the casing, but rather merely attaching some electrodes and well insulated jumper cables to direct the current.

But of course for the experiment to mimic a lightning strike, he mustn't connect the capacitor and the source to the same Earth (0v) via a conductor, although both may be Earthed to a true Earth.
 
James R said:
People seem to be importing personal animosities and issues from other forums into this thread.

To new members: Please realise that you are in a different place now. If you want to continue old conversations, please do so back where you started them. We don't need your personal baggage.
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Thank you, James!

Benny, an admirer of Mr. Franklin
 
Apology

All - my apologies for crashing your board. I just didn't want to see another forum get trashed by BennyF/David. He has made it impossible to hold sane discussions on the financial forums due to his constant spamming. You guys have been lucky in that he can't switch up IDs due to his 'patent' talk on this forum. Switching IDs would blow his cover...

I was serious when I wrote that BennyF/David is destitute and posting from the Watertown Public Library. He has also been talking up his lightning patent for a few years over on the Yahoo boards as well:

"Yes, I own two chemistry textbooks and two physics textbooks so far. Yes, I have been doing research for a year and a half so far on a special project. Yes, I think the results will be good enough for me to obtain two U.S. Patents. No, I won't tell you anything about my two inventions, except to say that they involve chemistry and physics." - BennyF/David April 08


This article is the basis for his 'lightning catching' patent. If you go through his earlier posts on this forum you'll see where he got some of his ideas...setting up shop in Florida...hydrogen...patents....it's all here, and the Todd Livingston person mentioned in the article is also from the Boston area.

wired.com/cars/energy/news/2005/12/69709

Again, he has been at this lightning patent nonsense for years. He isn't serious about learning or even discussing what is so obviously wrong with his scheme, he wants attention and to feed his own ego. You guys aren't dealing or conversing with someone that wants to have an actual discussion, he just wants to be the smart guy, even when he knows little to nothing:

"I think you'd be surprised at how far you could advance the conversation if you simply stuck to your issues."

My current issue is converting lightning bolts into a safe and reliable source of electricity, but I'll join in on other conversations if the subject catches my interest.

"As for hydrogen, I don't have an opinion because I don't know the subject well enough to offer one up."

So let's discuss the process of converting natural gas to hydrogen. If you don't know anything about that, I can discuss it with other people who do. BennyF/David - 12/09


Best of luck to all of you!
 
phlogistician said:
I suggest Benny tries using a 'Van de Graaff Generator' to produce the spark, so we are dealing with voltages that easily exceed the breakdown potential of air. Of course, this isn't a parallel, as the sparks still only operate over a short distance, and don't have many paths to ground, like lightning, but still, it might teach Benny something about the process.

Such generators can be found at science parks and museums, if he searches around. Or he could make one, or buy and modify a 'stun gun', although I wouldn't recommend opening the casing, but rather merely attaching some electrodes and well insulated jumper cables to direct the current. ...
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That is an excellent suggestion. About year go I went to birthday party and one was a present - I could hardly believe it was so compact yet functioned - made in China I think, if not in Japan.

Everyone, me included, had fun with it. One very light weight object that came with it was a set of 8 or 10 thin Al strips joined at only the two ends. Immediately when touched it became sphere as each of the strips tried to get as far form the others as possible. Then you could keep it dynamically floating in the air above the Van de Graaff Generator. "Dynamically" moving the Van de Graaff Generator as if it were stationary, the "sphere" would simple move laterally and fall to the floor due to its weight, but its lateral motion was quite slow so most of the kids did this automatically without really understanding it was the same as dynamic balancing act as keeping an inverted broom upright on your finger tip.
 
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Billy T said:
I must admit you have at least ceased telling your circuits would step up millions of volts to billions of volts of stored energy which would allow large offices, if not whole cities, to permanently disconnect for the electric grid. I think you now understand volts are not energy and that earlier claim could only be made by a very ignorant fool. Sadly you continue to make equally ignorant claims.
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Volts aren't a measure of energy, they're a measure of voltage. Are you happy?

Now I'm not happy, because you mistakenly think I am making "ignorant claims". I'm not. Phil is accusing me of making ignorant claims, and you believe him because you want to believe him, not because there's any evidence in my own recent words. The discussion of a cap bank was an exercise in electrical theory. They do exist, they do have well-known electrical properties, and they're useful in certain situations. Therefore, they're eligible for discussion in a forum like this one.

My own undisclosed circuit is different. It's designed to charge one capacitor from an DC source whose only specification is the polarity of the two wires, but two or more could be charged in series or in parallel using the same method. You know, it might be better if I didn't mention it again until after I finish the testing on it. It's now off the table. I won't mention it until after I've finished testing it.
 
BennyF said:
Phil is accusing me of making ignorant claims,
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You denied capacitors block DC.

You claim to have a qualification in Electronics, but repeatedly fail to back that claim up with a certificate, as Mac and I have done.

and you believe him because you want to believe him, not because there's any evidence in my own recent words.
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Or perhaps he believes me because I have backed up my points, said things which are true, and proven my credentials?

My own undisclosed circuit is different. It's designed to charge one capacitor from an DC source whose only specification is the polarity of the two wires,
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And this patent will have no application wrt the storage of lightning. So why do you mention it on a thread entitled 'Capacitor to store lightning'?
 
Captain Kremmen said:
Benny
Before you spend millions of dollars on full size equipment, why not try charging up a small capacitor with a spark.
Scale the whole thing down.
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The whole thing is scaled down. The biggest capacitor I have, in terms of voltage ratings, is 1 KV. My testing will involve charging this one up with hundreds of volts and then using the voltage from this one to charge up smaller caps. Any voltage that exceeds the rating of those smaller caps will be grounded. The grounding method is what I'm trying to patent, so I won't disclose it, but a simple resistor divider can reduce a high voltage level to a fraction of itself, allowing a large voltage to charge a small cap.
 
phlogistician said:
Now, where is that qualification you allegedly possess? You keep failing to show us it. And don't give excuses it was 30 years ago. Mine was 25 years ago.
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Congratulations.

Your qualifications aren't relevant, and neither are mine. We're here to discuss circuits, not certificates. Please remember the difference between them.
 
BennyF said:
Congratulations.

Your certificate isn't relevant, and neither is mine. We're here to discuss circuits, not certificates. Please remember the difference between them.
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Yes, my certificate is relevant, as it demonstrates I have some education in the field of 'Electricity and Electronics'.

You so far have failed to prove you have similar, and the ideas you have posted indicate you have very little understanding of the subject. So if you have that qualification, I suggest you demonstrate such, and show us.
 
Billy T said:
That is an excellent suggestion. About year go I went to birthday party and [a Van de Graf generator] was a present - I could hardly believe it was so compact yet functioned - made in China I think, if not in Japan.
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I've seen one in use, and I know where I can buy one. I may take your suggestion and use it in my tests.
 
BennyF said:
Volts aren't a measure of energy, they're a measure of voltage. ...
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Calling volts energy was not too stupid - could have even been typing error.

What reflected your extreme ignorance was the idea that by your circuit stepping up the voltage by a thousand times you could have large offices disconnect from the electric grid. That violates one of the most well known and basic laws of physics - "conseravtion of energy" That was no "typo." - Just extreme ignorance.

As far as your more recent claims, on the characteristic of electrical circuits I have had to correct you more than half a dozen times. You only understand a DC circuit, think lightning is DC as the direction of current flow does not reverse, etc. Thus with no understanding of AC you make many false statements about lightning in circuits.

I have several times asked you to tell even one correct statement about AC (of lighting) in circuits you have made. None told yet.

SUMMARY: More than 6 false statements and zero correct statements about lighting in circuits have been made by still very ignorant BennyF. For example, your thinking only components called "inductors" have inductance, when even straight wires do.
 
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