@sm0ky2
I have been away for the weekend, hope my answer below is in time.
@ electricme
are you entirely covering the copper pipes?
like no contact with the ground at all?
what about the nails? any insulation on them?
OK, here is what I do.
Solder to the top and side of the copper tube a wire about 12 inches long, then on the other end of this wire, solder a zinc nail, I grab a file and file off the zinc first before soldering the wire on it.
If you can, use a very hot soldering iron, 80-100 watter.
The PIPES first.
Insulation.
The whole outside of the copper pipe is wrapped in a single layer of insulation tape by overlapping the electrical tape.
Just grab a roll of insulation tape and begin to wrap the pipe from top to bottom, we need to completely insulate the copper pipe on the "outside" only.
Next.
If you leave the bottom of the pipe exposed to the earth sourrounding it, then it will short out, or cancel any charge accumulated.
This is why when you put a series of copper or aluminium pipes in the earth, it only shows up as a single low volt out.
To stop this "leakage", you have to also insulate the bottom of the tube.
So if you start wrapping the insulating tape at the top of the copper pipe, then take the turns in a downward direction, don't stop when you get to the bottom, always leave a generous couple of turns of the tape to tuck inside and up into the copper pipe.
Just to make sure there will be "no electrical leakage, tear off several strips of insulation tape and put this across the bottom opening of the copper pipe.
It seems to "fix" this electrical leakage.
When you have come this far, the copper pipe and zinc nail now becomes an EARTH BATTERY CELL.
The EBC is now planted UPRIGHT in the earth
Do NOT allow any earth to make contact with the outside of the copper cell.
NEXT fill the INSIDE of the copper pipe with DIRT, that's right, DIRT.
NEXT, carefully insert the zinc nail directly inside the copper pipe you just filled with dirt.
OK the Nails
DONT insulate the nails, you want as much area available to interact with the inside of the copper tube.
It also stands to reason, the more metal you have, the higher the grunt will be.
A 6" tube with a 4 inch zinc nail puts out peanuts, by making each cell larger will improve the output.
I think you will find this is the answer to making a series earth battery.
I haven't the means to get big copper pipes or big zinc bars right at this moment so this is going to be a good experiment for anyone who would like to take that on in this forum.
Now WATERing this thingie lol.
This is trial and error, to little water, and the voltage drops, too much water and the voltage drops, I use in the vicinity of 20CC to 50CC of water, a couple of teaspoons.
I will take a few photos showing the stages as I make a cell shortly and post here. In the meen time take a look at this link I made
http://www.overunity.com/index.php?topic=7769.270jim