@ Joe:

I should have been more clear on my photo of the circuit, sorry.  I just went from minus side of cap to minus side of led.  The reason for the open plus side wire is so I can use it as a crude mechanical switch.  When I connect it to the plus leg of the led, it lights.  When I charge it on the cell, I can leave it open. (unconnected)  What you can't see in the photo is that on the minus side of the cap. I soldered a very small extension.  This way I have somewhere to connect my alligator clip to.  When I want the led on and to be charging the cap. I just pinch the circuit closed by connecting the led plus leg to the wire using the alligator clip from the lead from the plus side of my cell.  It holds it together ok.  I didn't think about it but I guess this is wired in series afterall.  It is such a simple circuit that I can get easily confused.
If this does not answer your question, please let me know.  Thanks.

Bill

Hi all,the book was boring, of course.
I woke up with the next idea.
I am in the middle of making cement "cups" out of big yogurt tubs. I will fill these with earth and use the pots to hold individual electrodes. Maybe there will be enough separation to get some added voltage.

Hans, isn't your last drawing what we have done before? as soon as we put a second set of cells into the earth the voltage goes down , usually to zero. Maybe I missed something in your drawing?

Joe, I think Bills circuit IS parallel. he has the neg leg of the led attached to the neg side of the cap and the pos side of the cap is hanging out in the picture, but it will attach to the pos end of the cap.

I wish my components would get here soon, (I plan to make something with the wires soldered so it is easier to tell.)

Bill,
I wonder about this charging the cell thing. You are only using 12 volts and getting an effect, maybe  the AC wires from the grid really are charging the earth? I am out in the country. The grid is here but my set up is easily 100 ft from any power company wires. I get better results with the same better elements, but I don't get the numbers you are getting. I don't remember ever getting a reading higher than 1.09v. ? I will check.

but when i put the cap hooked to my leads and then the led directly off of it it does light constantly so thats where my ideas for a biger resivor so to say came from, the rate at which the cap is charged is pretty fast
                                                                                                                                 Joe

I missed that you also got a led to light. (so many posts so little time) How many volts are you getting?

Maybe we just need to make a home made cap so we can hold enough voltage. ?

I may try this charging thing too. I never saw much last winter when I was playing with static E. Could be I was doing something wrong or my materials (Al foil and plastic cups) were too weak. Hmm. More likely I totaly forgot to get out the led set up.

Magnesium rims what a great thought! I think I have them on my own car. (late 80's)

jeanna

Hans I will look carefully
I didn't realise it but I missed a whole page before I made my last post
(Yes, 9 volts from Bills battery not 12.)

Theres the Spirt !... Mr amos bill said he it stays bright for a while and is still lit dimly at 45 minutes not seconds.. just a note

The LED is 20mA, so on the EB does it seem to be bright?  Can you take a shot of it hooked up?

 

Right, and it works on Bill's and I guess joe's but I am not getting enough, I better try again, maybe I missed something before

I would probably put in many of them side by side (parallel) and a second row in front of them (series).  Ramp the volts and current.

good, please try. I have not been able to increase this by adding in series, yet, please come and join the fun.

jeanna

Wow, I went out on an assignment and came back and look at all the posts.  I will answer some now and work backwards and post other answers later.

@mramos:

I have a video of the led burning at night on youtube.  It is somewhere way back in this thread (the link) or later, I will post another link to it, or you can search youtube for 0WildBill0 and or earth battery experiments. Sorry I don't have the link handy at the moment.  You can dead short the cap.  No charge on it.  Then hook it and the led onto the cell and the led lights and the cap also charges.  Leave it hooked to the cell for about 1/2 hour + or - and then, take the circuit inside (disconnected from the cell) and it has burned bright for the better part of 30 MINUTES, and gets pretty dim by 45 MINUTES and will light for over one hour but not very much light at all. (Sorry for the emphisis but I am proud of this, ha ha)  What really amazes me is that it lights the led AND charges the cap at the same time.  I can also run 2 leds off of the cap when inside the house and disconnected from the cell. Not near as bright as one though.  That is why I want to get more caps just like this one, if I can find any.  Let me know if you can't find the video and I will look it up and post another link.  I am glad that we have EE guys like you here as my knowledge of electronics is getting much better, but still limited. (Very limited)  Thanks.

@ Hans:

I tried that same set up a while back and here is the thing.  Even if I go from + on the left cell to - on the right, I can measure voltage there, between the two cells.  Not as high as the polar alignment but the electrodes appear to think they are a cell and just not alligned as good.  So, when I did that, I got a dead short (or I believe I did) between the left cell + and the right cell -, the same with the right cell + and the left cell -.  Does this make any sense?  Both cells are polar alligned.  What I have not tried was to place them all on the exact same meridian as opposed to left and right. (but still polar alligned)  What I am afraid this might do would be, we would have a + to the very north and then a  - south say 5 foot away (on the alignment) and then another + and then another -.  This would appear to go against keeping the plus material to the north and so on.  I have not tried it but can.  Did I explain this in any understandable way at all? Thanks for the updated sketch.

@ Joe:

The carbon + goes to the cap + and the mag. - goes to the cap. minus.  I guess this is parallel isn't it?  That exposed + wire makes it look more confusing than it is but if I soldered it to the + leg of the led I could not charge with and without the led on.  I could just put in a switch but I didn't want to add anything that might increase resistance at this point.

I went to three stores today and ALL were sold out on the magnesium firestarter blocks!!  The word must be getting out. Ha ha.

Bill

So Bill,

I soldered a plain green led - no resistor- to my double cap and it is NOW under the tree in a parallel arrangement between graphite pencil and mag block. I took a reading which is showing 1.6V _ this is very high for me as you know, but this tree is about 5 ft from my power meter and line to house (just beyond the mag block in the same S position).
I am letting it sit for 20 more minutes. I have not yet seen the light on, but the meter says it is going

Did you EVER hook this up for a shorter time?

BTW my super caps are.045F which is a whole lot less than yours even in series. (which I read yesterday is like parallel with resistors).

OK I just got nothing again. I put it out as just described. It was hooked up for 25 minutes. I never saw the light and now that it is disconnected, I get a reading of 0.040v across the leads.

So Mramos and Jeanna both get zero and Bill and Joe get a light.

Bill, have you been able to get the light on with another cap yet?

Joe, what is your arrangement that got you a light. what kind of cap were you using? a resistor? Was that on the tree?

jeanna