If you have ever over charged an electrolytic capacitor and then shorted the leads out you can see the wallop this little package can deliver in a short space of time.Some of the big ones left to themselves can build up a charge big enough to kill people.
These usually carry a warning to discharge them properly before use. A question though if there is no free energy where did this power come from?
The main purpose of a capacitor is to store electrical energy and their beginnings can be traced back to the Leyden jar when the only electricity was static energy produced by rubbing amber with wool
The leyden jar was a glass jar with tin foil coating layers on both sides of jar
Nicola Tesla once described capacitors as the electrical equivalent of dynamite.
The capacitor can be made of many materials some of which are listed below. it usually consist of two conducting plates sandwiched around an insulator. The thickness and type of insulator and the size of the plates determines the electrical charge it can hold.
Some typical materials used in construction
Electrolytics and bipolar electrolytics use a chemical substance to help store the energy
Resin dipped electrolytics which use a tanatalum dielectric
Polystyrene , Plastic Film Capacitors , Ceramics
oil, oil paper, aluminium, glass
I have seen one constructed using a book with tin foil plates alternately connected to each other on each page , for a tuning capacitor in a crystal set. The tuning was affected by putting pressure on the book covers and squeezing tight.
Most of the above are hard for the experimenter to construct, however there is one almost anyone can make and comes in two variants.
Acquire two jars nearly the same height but different in diameter
Place one jar inside the another.
Have a brass rod to both sections and then fill both jars with water. Leave the water levels down on jars so that water cannot flow into one another. If you want to improve the appearance, you could make a top of cork or,plastic to hold both jars together and bolt the brass rod through the top, both brass rods need to insulated from one another. Use both rods as capacitor connections.
The other variant is even easier
Get a collection of jars or bottles fill each with water each jar must have a common electrical connection to each others water.
Place all of them on a on metal tray and fill tray with water Place a connection on tray ,both wires now form the leads to your condensor.
Experiment with water by adding salt to water to improve conductivity. I think that we, are yet to know everything about water and we may be surprised what else we can do with it.
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Making a normal capacitor
If you wish to make a normal capacitor here are some ideas how to achieve it.
You will need some aluminium foil the type sold on cardboard rolls The more foil used the better the charge it will store.
You will also need some wax proof paper
You will also need any type of polymer resin as long as it is sticky. any paint shop should be able to sell you some.
First place a length of the wax paper down and coat with the resin
Next comes a layer of tin foil.
Then another layer of resin coated wax paper
Then the final layer of aluminium foil.
By the way it may be wise to have the wax paper wider than the tin foil.
Roll all the layers together tightly to form a cylinder, and using former core may be a good idea to wrap layers upon.
May sure there is way you can make electrical wiring connections to both foil layers and apart from this no other electrical contact is to be made between foil layers.
There you have it.
The biblical capacitor
In the Christian Holy bible there is a description of the ark of the covenant that Moses and the Jewish people built that some say was nothing more than one really powerful self charging capacitor.
Certain instructions with the metals and silk screens seem to confirm it.
There were also instructions to those that were to carry and manage and look after to the ark which seem like to me a Faraday Cage Protection scheme.
There is also a report in the bible that one unprotected individual touched the ark and was killed while trying to stop it from falling.
If you wish to check this you can find it in the Old Testament book of Exodus chapter 25 verse 1 to chapter 29
I heard a report that a American citizen had also built one but found it to dangerous to have around and thus dismantled it.
