Does anyone here know whence one might obtain plans and/or parts for a
Wimshurst machine?

(And, yes, I did look on Google first...)

--
Paul

"Paul C. Dickie" wrote in message
...
Does anyone here know whence one might obtain plans and/or parts for a
Wimshurst machine?

(And, yes, I did look on Google first...)

--
Paul

Read homemade lightning by r a ford, it includes how to make your own
Wimshurst machine.

MrCheerful

On Tue, 6 Jan 2004 05:59:50 +0000, Paul C. Dickie wrote:

Does anyone here know whence one might obtain plans and/or parts for a
Wimshurst machine?

(And, yes, I did look on Google first...)

Didn't look very hard then, did you? :-))

http://www.xs4all.nl/~gelderen/index.html

In article , Wanderer
writes
On Tue, 6 Jan 2004 05:59:50 +0000, Paul C. Dickie wrote:
Does anyone here know whence one might obtain plans and/or parts for a
Wimshurst machine?
(And, yes, I did look on Google first...)

Didn't look very hard then, did you? :-))

I probably used the wrong keywords. Now all I'd need would be the
centrifugal switch...

--
Paul

On Tue, 6 Jan 2004 05:59:50 +0000, "Paul C. Dickie"
wrote:

Does anyone here know whence one might obtain plans and/or parts for a
Wimshurst machine?

Find your pair of glass disks. Then the rest is easy.

Andy Dingley wrote:

Find your pair of glass disks. Then the rest is easy.


A decent glass merchant will band saw the disks easily enough - I
recently had some 10mm disks around 150mm in diameter which were round
within 1 mm.

Edging them properly round is also pretty easy, but rather slow.

Steve

On Tue, 06 Jan 2004 13:53:02 +0000, Andy Dingley
wrote:

On Tue, 6 Jan 2004 05:59:50 +0000, "Paul C. Dickie"
wrote:

Does anyone here know whence one might obtain plans and/or parts for a
Wimshurst machine?

Find your pair of glass disks.

The one we had at school had perspex disks

Then the rest is easy.

Once you've got the dead cat.

DG

"Paul C. Dickie" wrote in news:fAtyktJW7k+
:

Does anyone here know whence one might obtain plans and/or parts for a
Wimshurst machine?

(And, yes, I did look on Google first...)


Don't be such a wuss - build a Van de Graaf

mike r

On Tue, 6 Jan 2004 19:51:00 +0000 (UTC), mike ring
wrote:

"Paul C. Dickie" wrote in news:fAtyktJW7k+
:

Does anyone here know whence one might obtain plans and/or parts for a
Wimshurst machine?

(And, yes, I did look on Google first...)


Don't be such a wuss - build a Van de Graaf


Drainpipe Marx Generator.

--
Niall

On Tue, 6 Jan 2004 19:51:00 +0000 (UTC), mike ring wrote:

Don't be such a wuss - build a Van de Graaf

Or a nice chunky tesla coil.

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

In article 0, mike
ring writes
"Paul C. Dickie" wrote in news:fAtyktJW7k+
:
Does anyone here know whence one might obtain plans and/or parts for a
Wimshurst machine?

Don't be such a wuss - build a Van de Graaf

I did wonder about that, but concluded that the Wimshurst design would
look better on the exercise bike than would a Van de Graaf, even if the
latter would be more efficient. I'd not need to generate long sparks,
when relatively short sparks should be enough to encourage the user to
pedal faster...

--
Paul

In message , Dave
Liquorice writes
On Tue, 6 Jan 2004 19:51:00 +0000 (UTC), mike ring wrote:

Don't be such a wuss - build a Van de Graaf

Or a nice chunky tesla coil.

John Jessop's just sent me a nice little toy to repair

It's an ignition box for an oil burner - 8kV at 16mA - Van der Graaf
generators are for girls (except for the one they used to have at
Daresbury)

--
geoff

On Tue, 6 Jan 2004 23:01:06 +0000, geoff wrote:

It's an ignition box for an oil burner - 8kV at 16mA -

Jacob's Ladder then

--
Inbreeding - nature's way to ensure you always have enough fingers to count all your cousins.

On Tue, 6 Jan 2004 19:51:00 +0000 (UTC), mike ring
wrote:

Don't be such a wuss - build a Van de Graaf

When I was a kid, I read a series of library books on building your
own physics experiments. Anyone remember the titles ? - I'd love to
find them again.

I built a Wimshurst, VdG and a Wilson cloud chamber. They worked too,
apart from the VdG which never tracked the belt for long enough to
build up a good charge - needed a crowned pulley.

Some years later I built a nitrogen laser based on the SciAm design,
with the transverse discharge from a Blumlein generator. There's most
of a Tesla upstairs, waiting to be assembled. Ikea sell lovely
secondary formers as the legs of their kids' "Mammutt" (?) chair and
table - polypropylene with a useful taper.

--
Smert' spamionam

On Tue, 6 Jan 2004 23:01:06 +0000, geoff wrote:

It's an ignition box for an oil burner - 8kV at 16mA

Oil igniters are fun, I'm sort of half waiting for the burner here to
fail so I can "play" with the ignitor and a couple off wire coat
hangers in V formation. B-)

- Van der Graaf generators are for girls (except for the one they
used to have at Daresbury)

Bet its still only went splat splat splat rather than BUZZZZZZTT. B-)

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

On Wed, 07 Jan 2004 00:37:09 +0000, Andy Dingley
wrote:

On Tue, 6 Jan 2004 19:51:00 +0000 (UTC), mike ring
wrote:

Don't be such a wuss - build a Van de Graaf

When I was a kid, I read a series of library books on building your
own physics experiments. Anyone remember the titles ? - I'd love to
find them again.

I think that you might mean "The Book of Experiments" by Leonard de
Vries. There were three or four volumes of these over the years - I
think the first one was in the late 50s.

I can remember, at the age of about 8, wanting to take books about how
to build radios from the library. The librarian obviously thought that
these were beyond me and tried to sell me on Famous Five or something
like that. So I opened the book and explained to her how a crystal
set worked. The following week she brought an old one in that she
claimed wasn't working and asked me if I knew how to fix it. This
set had a number of coils that you had to plug in to listen to
different bands but she didn't understand that. Anyway, I got it
working and she would listen to the Archers on it.

After that, she'd even buy in titles that I wanted.



I built a Wimshurst, VdG and a Wilson cloud chamber. They worked too,
apart from the VdG which never tracked the belt for long enough to
build up a good charge - needed a crowned pulley.

Some years later I built a nitrogen laser based on the SciAm design,
with the transverse discharge from a Blumlein generator. There's most
of a Tesla upstairs, waiting to be assembled. Ikea sell lovely
secondary formers as the legs of their kids' "Mammutt" (?) chair and
table - polypropylene with a useful taper.

Come on, own up - you're making an electric chair, aren't you :-)



..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

In message , Andy Dingley
writes
On Tue, 6 Jan 2004 23:01:06 +0000, geoff wrote:

It's an ignition box for an oil burner - 8kV at 16mA -

Jacob's Ladder then


Yup - now where's a coat hanger when you need one

--
geoff

In message , Dave
Liquorice writes
On Tue, 6 Jan 2004 23:01:06 +0000, geoff wrote:

It's an ignition box for an oil burner - 8kV at 16mA

Oil igniters are fun, I'm sort of half waiting for the burner here to
fail so I can "play" with the ignitor and a couple off wire coat
hangers in V formation. B-)

- Van der Graaf generators are for girls (except for the one they
used to have at Daresbury)

Bet its still only went splat splat splat rather than BUZZZZZZTT. B-)

Standing about 200 ft high? no ... this was a serious machine
--
geoff

On Wed, 07 Jan 2004 00:55:47 +0000, Andy Hall
wrote:

When I was a kid, I read a series of library books on building your
own physics experiments. Anyone remember the titles ? - I'd love to
find them again.

I think that you might mean "The Book of Experiments" by Leonard de
Vries.

No, I've still got that around somewhere.

These were large hardbacks, with red or yellow coloured bands on the
cover and a big B&W photograph. They were distinctly more serious then
Leonard de Vries and very '50s in style. Lots of "Experimental
Equipment for the Keen Schoolboy" atmosphere. Everything seemed to be
made from goldfish bowls, honey jars and lashings of Aquadag.

I can remember, at the age of about 8, wanting to take books about how
to build radios from the library.

Anyone else remember the series of radio-building books at that time,
with a couple of early geranium transistors and some of those
colour-coded plug-in coils that were sold in their own aluminium
screening can ? Colour photo illustrations too, now there was posh.

Come on, own up - you're making an electric chair, aren't you :-)

Nowhere to put it - I've got the hydraulics off a dentist's chair
cluttering up the shop at the front, and the ejector seat (MB H7) is
still sat out in the conservatory waiting for me to weld up a swivel
base.

--
Smert' spamionam

Andy Dingley wrote:

Nowhere to put it - I've got the hydraulics off a dentist's chair
cluttering up the shop at the front, and the ejector seat (MB H7) is
still sat out in the conservatory waiting for me to weld up a swivel
base.

You should have an open day sometime - a UK,DIY visit ???? You have some
very neat projects.

Steve

In article , Andy Dingley
writes
On Wed, 07 Jan 2004 00:55:47 +0000, Andy Hall
wrote:
Come on, own up - you're making an electric chair, aren't you :-)

One might cheerfully make an electric chair for some folk, if only one
could be *certain* they'd not decide to sit elsewhere when the chair was
connected to the mains...

Nowhere to put it - I've got the hydraulics off a dentist's chair
cluttering up the shop at the front, and the ejector seat (MB H7) is
still sat out in the conservatory waiting for me to weld up a swivel
base.

Will the swivel base of the ejector seat have some sort of aiming
device?

--
Paul

"Andy Hall" wrote in message
news
On Wed, 07 Jan 2004 00:37:09 +0000, Andy Dingley
wrote:

On Tue, 6 Jan 2004 19:51:00 +0000 (UTC), mike ring
wrote:

Don't be such a wuss - build a Van de Graaf

When I was a kid, I read a series of library books on building your
own physics experiments. Anyone remember the titles ? - I'd love to
find them again.

I think that you might mean "The Book of Experiments" by Leonard de
Vries. There were three or four volumes of these over the years - I
think the first one was in the late 50s.


snip tale of lost youth

I'm surprised no-one's mentioned "The Boy Electrician" yet. I've got the
1960 reprint of the 1955 edition, which prophecies that computers will
use transistors, and list illuminated mirrors as an example of a
household appliance in the electrical age.

This book ensured that only moderately competent and lucky boys survived
to manhood: there isn't a safety warning in it, and the construction of
an open potential divider across the mains (AC or DC) was encouraged.

And there are plans for a Wimshurst machine.

I've just spotted the safety warning in it. After telling you how to
buy an X-ray tube and a platinum-barium-cyanide screen, you are warned
to be careful not to over-expose any part of the body.


--
Kevin Poole
**Use current month and year to reply (e.g. )***
Tiltbed car transporter trailer hire - £25/ day. Near Derby. May even
tow it for you.

"Andy Dingley" wrote in message
...
snip


Anyone else remember the series of radio-building books at that time,
with a couple of early geranium transistors and [...]snip

I think that particular design was discredited when it was found that you
could only receive Gardener's Question Time on such a set...


--
Richard Sampson

email me at
richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk

"Autolycus" wrote in news:bthvja$bsh$1
@news.freedom2surf.net:


This book ensured that only moderately competent and lucky boys survived
to manhood: there isn't a safety warning in it, and the construction of
an open potential divider across the mains (AC or DC) was encouraged.

And there are plans for a Wimshurst machine.

I've just spotted the safety warning in it. After telling you how to
buy an X-ray tube and a platinum-barium-cyanide screen, you are warned
to be careful not to over-expose any part of the body.

Gives Darwin a chance

mike r

In message , Autolycus
writes

"Andy Hall" wrote in message
news
On Wed, 07 Jan 2004 00:37:09 +0000, Andy Dingley
wrote:

On Tue, 6 Jan 2004 19:51:00 +0000 (UTC), mike ring
wrote:

Don't be such a wuss - build a Van de Graaf

When I was a kid, I read a series of library books on building your
own physics experiments. Anyone remember the titles ? - I'd love to
find them again.

I think that you might mean "The Book of Experiments" by Leonard de
Vries. There were three or four volumes of these over the years - I
think the first one was in the late 50s.


snip tale of lost youth

I'm surprised no-one's mentioned "The Boy Electrician" yet. I've got the
1960 reprint of the 1955 edition, which prophecies that computers will
use transistors, and list illuminated mirrors as an example of a
household appliance in the electrical age.

Available from here

http://www.lindsaybks.com/inq/index.html



--
Bernard Peek
London, UK. DBA, Manager, Trainer & Author. Will work for money.

Bernard Peek wrote:

Available from here

http://www.lindsaybks.com/inq/index.html

Probably also Camden books in the UK, don't have a URL yet.

Steve

"Andy Dingley" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 6 Jan 2004 19:51:00 +0000 (UTC), mike ring
wrote:

Don't be such a wuss - build a Van de Graaf

When I was a kid, I read a series of library books on building your
own physics experiments. Anyone remember the titles ?

No, but Scientific American used to have a regular feature with
practical things to do- there was a water drop spark generator
that I set as a Christmas A-level exercise when I taught physics. Made
about 90V to ignite a neon bulb. They also had a 'partly-baked ideas'
column. Not nuuty enough to be half-baked but not quite finished.

You might find back-numbers. This would be 70s and 80s I guess.

Peter Scott

Peter Scott wrote:

No, but Scientific American used to have a regular feature with
practical things to do- there was a water drop spark generator
that I set as a Christmas A-level exercise when I taught physics. Made
about 90V to ignite a neon bulb. They also had a 'partly-baked ideas'
column. Not nuuty enough to be half-baked but not quite finished.

You might find back-numbers. This would be 70s and 80s I guess.

The amateur Scientist colmuns are available on CD from www.sas.org

Steve