Blue links lead to the fully translated html versions of the page, purple links lead to pages whose start pages (as well as introductions and tables of contents at least) are already set up, green links lead to extern sites, grey means that no file is available yet).
/Notes in this color and between two / are from the operator of the German mirror site and translator/.
The Oscillatory Chamber - i.e. an energy storage of huge capacitance, and a magnetic propelling device
#D. Principles of operation utilised in the "Oscillatory Chamber":
#D1. Principles of the Oscillatory Chamber's operation:
Principle of operation of the Oscillatory Chamber is based on a well-known oscillatory circuit with a spark gap. The discovery of such oscillatory circuit with a spark gap was achieved in 1845 by the American physicist, Joseph Henry. He noticed, that when a Layden jar was discharged through coils of wire, the discharge and a spark were oscillatory. A few years later Lord Kelvin, the great English physicist and engineer, proved mathematically that the discharge in a circuit so constituted must manifest itself in the oscillatory form.
* * *
"Fig. #D1" below illustrates a conventional configuration of the oscillatory circuit with a spark gap, i.e. the configuration discovered by Joseph Henry. The most distinctive characteristic of this configuration is that it is constituted by connecting together into one closed circuit the configuration of three vital elements, namely L, C1 and E, which have the form of separate devices. These elements are:
(1) Inductor "L", containing a long wire wound into many coils, which provides the circuit with the property called an "inductance".
(2) Capacitor "C1", whose property, called a "capacitance", allows the circuit to accumulate electric charges.
(3) Electrodes "E". Their two parallel plates "ER" and "EL", separated by a layer of gas, introduce a "spark gap" to the circuit (through this "spark gap" sparks "S" are jumping).
The oscillatory circuit with a spark gap represents an electric version of the device which produces one of the most common phenomena of nature, namely an "oscillatory motion". The mechanical analogy of this device, well-known to everyone, is a common "swing". In all devices of that type, the occurrence of oscillations is caused by the action of the Conservation Energy Principle. This principle compels the initial energy provided to such an oscillating system to be bound in a continuous process of repetitive transformations into two forms: potential and kinetic. In the case of an oscillatory circuit the "potential energy" is represented by the opposite electric charges "+q" and "-q" carried within both plates of a capacitor - see "Fig. #D1". The electric potential difference introduced by the presence of these charges causes the flow of an electric current "i" through the circuit. In a swing, the same potential energy is introduced by slanting the arm of it away from the vertical position. As a result, a load (e.g. a swinging child) is raised to a particular height, later forcing its own acceleration down into the equilibrium position. The second from of energy, the "kinetic energy", within the oscillatory circuit manifests itself in the from of a magnetic flux "F" produced by the inductor L. In a swing this kinetic energy appears as the speed of a load's motion.
* * *
It is known that an electric spark alone introduces a high electric inertia. Therefore a spark is able to replace the inductor in providing the inductance to the oscillatory circuit. But there are two conditions of such a replacement, i.e. (1) that the spark must possess the appropriate active length, and also (2) that its path must follow a course within the range of its own magnetic field. To achieve both these conditions, it is impossible to repeat the solution used in the inductor, for the simple reason that an electric spark is reluctant to wind itself into the form of consecutive coils. However, the same effect can be achieved in another way. The required inductance can be supplied by a whole stream of sparks jumping simultaneously along parallel paths. Each single spark in such a stream will be the equivalent of one coil of wire within an inductor. Therefore, if the number of sparks reaches the required level, all sparks will together provide the necessary inductance to the oscillatory circuit.
In "Fig. #D2" below my modified version of the oscillatory circuit with a spark gap is illustrated. This modified version makes the use of the electrical inertia of the stream of parallel jumping sparks. The most distinctive characteristic of this version is that all three vital components of Henry's circuit, i.e. inductance L, capacitance C1 and spark gap E, are now provided by a single physical device, which simultaneously performs three different functions. The modified device consists of only a couple of conductive plates PF and PB, attached to the inner surfaces of two opposite walls of a cubical chamber made of an electric insulator and filled with a dielectric gas. Each of the plates is divided into a number of small segments, each segment insulated from the other ones (in the diagram from "Fig. #D2" these segments are marked by 1, 2, 3, ..., p). Each pair of facing segments marked by the same number, e.g. "3" or "p", forms a single elementary capacitor. In turn, after receiving a sufficient electric charge, this capacitor transforms itself into a couple of electrodes exchanging the electric spark, e.g. "S3" or "Sp". The total number of all electric sparks jumping simultaneously in the form of a single compact stream provides the device with the required inductance.
To summarize the modification described above, one can say that the three separate devices, each of which has provided the conventional circuit with one selected property, are now replaced by the single device (i.e. a pair of plates each subdivided into a number of small segments) simultaneously providing all three vital properties, i.e. L, C and E.
* * *
The final form of the circuit considered here is shown in "Fig. #D3" below. This is the form to which the name "Oscillatory Chamber" has been ascribed. The Oscillatory Chamber is constituted by combining together two modified oscillatory circuits indicated as C1 and C2, both identical to the one presented in the previous paragraph and illustrated in "Fig. #D2". Therefore the Oscillatory Chamber consists of four segmented plates, i.e. twice as many as in the modified oscillatory circuit in "Fig. #D2", indicated here as PF, PB, PR and PL (i.e. plates: front, back, right and left). Each of these plates contains the same number of segments "p", and faces the other identical plate, together with this other plate forming one of the two cooperating oscillatory circuits. Both of these circuits produce the four streams of sparks marked as SR-L, SF-B, SL-R, and SB-F, which oscillate between opposite plates. These sparks appear in succession, one after the other, having the mutual phase shift between them equal to one quarter (1/4) of a period "T" of their entire sequence of pulsations (i.e. "(1/4)T").
Let us assume that the initial charging of the Oscillatory Chamber is provided in such a way that at the moment of time t=0 the stream of sparks marked as "SR-L" will occur first, and then after a period of time equal to t = (1/4)T - the stream "SF-B" will follow. Let us also assume that right from this initial time t=0, along the vertical (magnetic) axis "m" of the chamber already prevails the magnetic flux "F" produced by this device. This flux pushes sparks against the wall located at their left sides. After the initial charging of the C2 capacitor, at the time t=0, the active stream of sparks "SR-L" will appear, which will jump from plate PR to plate PL. These sparks produce their own magnetic flux "ΔF" which is totalled to the flux "F" already existing in the chamber. The flux "F" bends the paths of all these sparks, pushing them close to the surface of their left plate PF. At time t = (1/4)T the potentials of plates PR and PL reach an equilibrium, but the inertia of sparks "SR-L" still continues transporting charges from PR to PL, at the cost of the kinetic energy accumulated in the magnetic field. Thus the stream of sparks "SR-L" enters its inertial stage. At the same instant (t = (1/4)T) the operation of the second circuit begins, and the active jump of the "SF-B" stream of sparks is initiated. Similarly this stream produces its own magnetic field "ΔF" which adds to the entire flux "F" already prevailing in the chamber. The flux "F" pushes sparks against the surface of the plate PL located on their left side. So in the timespan t = (1/4)T to t = (2/4)T = (1/2)T, there are two streams of sparks present in the chamber ("SR-L" and "SF-B"), the first of which (inertial) transfers energy from the magnetic to the electric field, whereas the second (active) one transfers energy from the electric to the magnetic field. At time t = (2/4)T = (1/2)T the plates PL and PR reach a difference of potentials equal to the initial one (at t=0), but with the opposite location of charges. Therefore the stream of sparks "SR-L" disappears, whereas the stream "SL-R" jumping in an opposite direction is now initiated. This stream is pushed by field "F" to the surface of plate PB. At the same instant (t = (2/4)T = (1/2)T) the plates PF and PB reach the equilibrium of potentials, so that the stream of sparks "SF-B" passes into its inertial stage. In the timespan "t = (2/4)T = (1/2)T" to "t = (3/4)T" there are again two streams of sparks, i.e. "SF-B" and "SL-R", the first of which - inertial consumes the magnetic field, whereas the other - active produces it. At the instant t = (3/4)T the sparks "SF-B" disappear and the sparks "SB-F" are formed (pushed against plate PR), whereas the sparks "SL-R" are passing into their inertial stage. At time t = (4/4)T = 1T the sparks "SL-R" also disappear and the sparks "SR-L" are created (pushed against the plate PF), whereas the sparks "SB-F" pass into their inertial stage. With this the whole cycle of the sparks' rotation is closed, and the situation at time t = (4/4)T = 1T is identical to the one at the initial moment t=0. The process that follows will be a repetition of the cycle just described.
The final effect of such a way of sparks' jumping, is that a kind of rotary electric arc is produced within the Oscillatory Chamber. This arc is composed from 4 bursts of sparks that jump in succession around peripherals of a square. It is this rotating electric arc that produces a powerful magnetic field which constitutes the output from this chamber.
#D2. Evolution of oscillatory circuits into Oscillatory Chambers:
The Oscillatory Chamber in fact represents only an altered version of an old oscillatory circuit that was discovered by Joseph Henry in 1845. Here is how this old circuit used to loook like:
Img.706 (#D1) : It shows a conventional form of an oscillatory circuit with a spark gap, as it was discovered by Joseph Henry in 1845. Its three vital elements (i.e. capacitance "C1", inductance "L" and spark gap "E") are provided by three separate devices, i.e.: by a capacitor "C1", by a coil "L", and by a pair of electrodes marked "E".
***
This conventional Henry's oscillatory circuit can evolve into the Oscillatory Chamber. The first phase of this evolution is the replacement of all three vital elements with only a single device, i.e. a couple of conductive electrodes "PF" and "PB" joined to the inner surfaces of the two opposite walls of a cubical chamber made of an electric insulator. Here is how the same Henry's oscillatory circuit looks like, if it is transformed into such a modified circuit (chamber):
Img.707 (D2) It shows two flat electrodes marked "PF" and "PB" assembled on opposite sides of a cubical chamber, and performing all functions of the Henry's oscillatory circuit. Originally it is shown as part (b) from Figure F1 in [1/5]. These "PF" and "PB" electrodes are subdivided into several separate segments, marked "1, 2, ..., p". In the real chambers these segments are reduced to thin conductive needles insulated from each other. The side dimension of the cube is marked by "a".
***
If two such modified oscillatory circuits, shaped like two opposite walls of such a cubical chamber are joined together, we receive an Oscillatory Chamber. Here is how this chamber looks like and operates.
Img.708 (#D3) shows an Oscillatory Chamber formed by combining together two modified oscillatory circuits "C1" and "C2" identical to that one presented in Img.707 (#D2) above. . The consecutive appearance of sparks labelled as "SR-L", "SF-B", "SL-R", "SB-F" oscillating along the surface of the left-side walls creates a kind of electric arc circulating around the inner perimeter of this chamber. In turn this rotary electric arc produces a powerful magnetic field.
= > #E.
