The main problem which this construction has thrown up, is the proper manufacture of the plates. Assuming that the charging voltage is to be 1800 volts upwards, in order to create an effect, the contours of the electrical plates will need to be well-smoothed, so that corona leakage or other electrostatic effects do not rob the device of power. One thing which has caused me endless problems was the cutting. I tried to puch out each plate, but they tore. The cookie-cutter approach yielded no results either - edges too sharp. What it seems I am reduced to is doubling the size of the plates, and cutting each by hand - long winded but safe. Should be able to see results after 60 plates - higher capacitance anyway.........

13/9/2000 - Project begins - looking for a way to improve the cutting of the plates - any suggestions?

14/9/2000 - What about a "rolling pin" style approach? The proper outline could be put onto a suitably large cylinder and simply rolled over the aluminium placed on a soft base (polystyrene?) to create the imprint. Still trying to eradicate the problem of rough edges.........

17/9/00 - Someone has been in touch with me recently, suggesting using a blade mounted on a CADCAM plotter to cut the plates. I may give this a try, as it seems good, but the blade would have to be very sharp to prevent the foil bunching up in front of it. A laser cutter would be brilliant for this sort of thing!

19/9/2000 - Seems like the laws of chemistry have conspired against us to prevent an easy way of making the GC work. Dave Rosignoli was recently in touch and provided some much-needed aid. He mentioned that he made a (non-functional) GC by layering loads of sheets of foil together and then using a saw to gently cut through the stacked sheets. He encountered the same problem as me in this endeavour - the sheets become joined together at the point of cutting. Peeling them apart without tearing them after they have been so joined is fiendishly difficult. He then brought around the idea of using indian ink as a paint-on plate material. This in turn got me thinking about semiconductors.
I had begun my GC "adventure" by producing a cardboard template which I naively thought I could cut around to make plates. I thought about using graphite, ink, other metals. Then it occurred to me - what about dipping this template in a decent glue, and touching it to the dielectric material? That done, I could blow a powdered conductor (or semiconductor) onto the gluey dielectric, and be left with an imprint of the plate! Graphite could be ground to a very fine powder, and is available cheaply from art shops. Gluttons for punishment could try using charcoal carbon for better conductance, but a huge mess worse than home HV-potting gone wrong.
Drawback of course is that it IS a semiconductor, so the already low current will be reduced to virtually nil. Even so, since the GC is reputed to run off a van de Graaf (10uA?), this shouldn't matter. Voltage seems to be the smoking gun. This could be one of our best chances yet!

20/9/2000 - Dave Rosignoli was in touch with me again today, and made some very helpful comments regarding using heat techniques to bond graphite or other conductors to a paper or plastic surface. To view the full content of this email, which I found most informative, please click here.
I had another splendid idea of my own, inspired this time by a failed experiment of Steve Dufresne's. When testing a T.T. Brown dome, he found that high voltage punctured his aluminium dome. What about using a high-voltage generator as an arc-welder to gently cut out the GC plate shape! If you placed a plastic sheet over the metal, with a groove in the plastic in the shape of the plate, the HV would earth itself through the plastic and metal at the weakest spot (the groove), neatly melting a clean line through the aluminium. A bit hairy from an electrocution point of view, and you would have to ensure that your high-voltage generator's transistors didnt get too hot from extended use, but this seems most promising! Just make sure the aluminium is well-earthed!

6/10/2000 - Moved to university - tough times, but I'm back now. I tried this one because I was short on energy and time, but still wanted to get something productive done. I cut two plates from the GWC design, and sandwiched a polyethylene dielectric between them. Upon powering them with 30kV, the unexpected happened. It attempted to try to lift itself! I was very enthusiastic at first, thinking I had a great thing going, but it was not to be. I did this experiment based on Bill Beaty's idea of 2 plates lifting 7 grams, (dividing stack thrust by number of layers). The plates tried to lift themselves, but I quickly saw they were floating a few milimetres off the desk on a cloud of ionisation. Antigravity it IS, but not the sort we're after. Oh well, suppose I was just being lazy and wanted to try the thing out quickly.

The next plan will be to test it with 60 plates I think, and see what happens though. Moral of the story - beware ion wind!

12/10/2000 - I am now into the actual construction process proper of the evil GC, up to the 19th layer so far. I intend to test with batteries as soon as I get to 60 layers, then with the HV afterwards (save me time, effort, swearing, lost hair.......). I am using individual foil segments glued to the dielectric then linked using separate pieces, just like the files on the original device. I just have a feeling that this thing works because of some stupid mistake made by building it as simply as possible. The dielectric I am working with is good ol' black polyethylene sheet.
The method for cutting is to have a template of the right sized segment, then concertina layers of foil and newspaper over one another till there are 9 layers. Once that is done, cut with scissors (and have a wastepaper basket handy, this makes a LOT of mess). I have scored each plastic layer with compasses too, so I know where to place the segments. Glue is UHU adhesive. Glue the layers down, the link them with narrow foil strips. Repeat again and again and again and again...............

25/10/2000 - How might this device tie in with what we know about (A)ether? This got me thinking about tying electrogravity together with Aether vortices, in the case of this device. The document which was sold to avid GC builders advocated staggering and overlapping the plates. If we assume that the Aether is affected by electrical forces, then a staggered formation would lead to the energy flowing in a kind of spiral through the GC. This in turn would have a "stirring" effect in the Aether, creating a vortex. Is the thrust a manifestation of Aetheric vortices? Since Trifilar conical coils (tested by JLN) have proved that Aether vortices are at least possible in practice as a means of creating propulsion, the vortex-GC approach holds some merit. In any case, construction continues - suggestions welcome as always.