I have the following idea. Please bear with me.

From Plauson?s GB patent: http://www.nuenergy.org/pdf/GB157263.pdf

"In experimenting with "condenser motors" the construction of which forms the object of our copending Application No. 157,262 it was observed that the rotor, if one pole of the stator surface be connected with the aerials collecting aerial electricity and the other pole with the earth, not only could act as a motor, but if vice versa the rotor connection with the stator be interrupted and the rotor caused to rotate by means of another motor, that when the brushes supply an alternating current the periodicity of which is dependent on the number of the poles and the revolutions of the rotor.....
At the commencement it was thought that this apparatus could only be regarded as alternating current converters, but it was soon found that much more energy was necessary to overcome the friction. It was then found that the considerable expenditure of energy for rotating the rotor was caused by a conductor being moved through strongly electrostatic fields since the electrostatic lines of force must be cut at right angles and that further in the conductors a stronger current arose than was otherwise to be expected. This apparatus must therefore not only be regarded as a transformer, but also as an energy producer, with the difference that the excitation here is obtained instead of by means of electromagnets, by static fields of high pressure. The entire system may, to some extent, be compared with a dynamo in which the excitation takes place by means of a fixed constant magnet. It was further ascertained that this way of using the atmospheric electricity produced a sort of suction on the collector network, and that thus suitably greater quantities of current could be obtained".
Gernsback notes in his Feb.1922 article (http://www.nuenergy.org/alt/GernsbackOnPlausonFebruary1922.htm) that ?Plauson also invented a sort of electrostatic rotary transformer which gives alternating current without the use of condensers and transformers. Indeed its output is very great , as it actually ?sucks? the current down rapidly from the collector ballons?.

Does anyone here feel they understand Plauson?s description (see patent) of the "condenser motor" sufficiently to replicate it (I don?t). Would other electrostatic devices (Wimshurst?) be valid here?

A number of points:
1) It seems to me that this may well have been the inspiration behind Baumann?s Testatika. Other than comments having been made of its resemblance to 1920?s machinery, I seem to recall Baumann named the disks ?cloud? and ?earth? or similar.
2) I?d like to see this effect replicated as a wind generator, if viable.
3) Could Jefimenko?s machines (f3wm.free.fr/sciences/jefimenko.html) demonstrate the effect.
4) Would electrets be helpful, as in the previous point, or here http://www.keelynet.com/energy/reac.htm
5) I "see" the aerial/collector on my wind device as rotating with the vanes. What shape should it take? Perhaps a copper spiral as Rayburn(http://freeenergynews.com/Directory/RadiantEnergy/LawrenceRayburn/index.html) found.
6) The device needs to be cheap and easy to build to be worthwhile. Wind generators can be cheaply built which produce several 100 watts. This would have to beat their performance to be worthwhile.

Cheers,
Richard

 nightwynd,

to say " rated output of a wind generator is the MAX that it is capable of producing" doesn't sound right.  i haven't seen the ratings for everybodies wind gen. so some maybe that way, but the ones i have seen use a specific wind speed and how much it produces at that speed.  that speed differs from one manufacture to another.  the only way that would be the max is if the unit was designed to self regulate its rpm (not to go faster) that is developed at that wind speed.