I'm sure some of you remember the small video about the Testatika and Luzi (or who the guy was) building the 2m diameter Testatika disc claiming that the grid-segments on the disc need to be slightly magnetized otherwise it wouldn't work.
Speaking of magnetized segments -and please note and forgive, just speaking without
having started any sperimentation yet!- I have some doubts in merit.
First doubt: those segments shown by Luzi really look CLEAR PLASTIC! I wonder that
nobody mentioned or noticed that before! I studied many many times the frames where
they're shown, they're definitely clear, transparent, flexible plastic like overhead projection
transparencies. From the translation he says "one could magnetize them" IIRC. I can't
figure out what special kind of "alloy" or substance is it, a clear plastic-alike that could
e magnetized... perhaps something like conductive plastic used somewhere in computers
stuff and which can be magnetized... why not just metal sheet ?
Second doubt: (from Testatika yahoo group, files section, visiter report from sept 1994
files, D.jpg) this and other reporst makes me wonder how much those reports are
reliable. A flexible lamella is drawn. "STEEL" is written on top. Ok, as I said that's
a clear plastic substance, definitely NOT steel. "50 lamellae per one side etc." is
written at the bottom. THE SECTORS (lamellas) ARE DEFINITELY 48, FOURTY EIGHT
for side, NOT 50 !" I accurately analized all the pictures available, starting from the
3KW machine disks I have replicated, proceeding thru the Elephant, the Bull and the
Tandem. They all have 48 per side (well, the Tandem has just 24 in place but already
the holes for the missing 24 ones). After all, anybody would find much simpler to
split a circle in multiples of 4. An exception are the two old small disks machines, they've
20 wires (which is always a multiple of 4).
So far I don't know to what extent the magnetization scheme drawn in the center
of sheet may be credible or just a guesswork.
In the said first machines we have not grid sectors but plain wire. It may well be
coated copper wire, like the one used for patches on PCBs. Ok, it could be plain
iron or steel wire as well. There's no way here for a complex magnetization scheme.
No holes for virtual particles to appear etc. So the principle is still simpler.
I have digged in some forums and and found out that with different magnetizations you can move charges on segments. So lets assume you have magnetized the sectors on 1 disk magnetized with one Magnetpole and the sectors of disk 2 with the other magnetpole one would have 2 different influencing segments without even using a neutralizer or anything else.
It might be possible that this could be a way to get the same electrostatic effects as a wimshurst - just without any contact.
What you're reporting should be studied in detail. I'm a bit hard in that, it's clear
that a magnetic fields influences the charges, but a simple sketch/scheme would be good.
Concerning the contact, I read that wimshurst can well work without contacting brushes
and neutralizers, if we supply the starting charge. Concerning neutralizer, well, the
Testatikas have plenty of keys around the disks (a fixed scheme of six in front and
corresp. six behind has been chosen for the Bull and Elephant), while wimshursts
have 4+4, so we can't exclude any neutralizer function there.
Note that I don't want to exclude completely the possibility of sectors being magnetized.
I'm just very unsure that it might be required so much, rather than just an improvement,
or even a side effect. I know that reports tell that the 3KW sectors appear slightly
magnetized, and also the "diode" caps. Well many things here usually gets magnetized,
like the iron filing when you drill a hole or file a piece of iron. I just don't want to see
magnets all arounds when, from what I suppose, the only "key" magnets are the various
horseshoes seen in the 3KW, the little 2-disks and the unfinished machine with Luzi and
his wife. (We don't see any of them in the Bull and Elephant, chances are that they were
really brought inside the big pots.)
I also can't figure out any magnets in the single disk machine, the one that Marinov
inspected stating that there're no magnet inside the pots. So the only place for a
hidden magnet may be the strange round object at the bottom, if any.
I had also a theory (or better, a very raw idea...) re. the fact that the little machine
must be oriented in a way in order to start. Like the homopolar generator, if we have
a disk axis oriented N-S and the disk rotating CCW (we looking north) some charge
could move horizontally at the top and bottom of the disk. I don't know exactly how,
but such a principle could help for the disk to get the initial charge or the initial
condition for starting.
Last ruminations from me, I promise