| Lightning Freon Tank Experiment proving matter state change causes charge seperation. A Continuation from Lightnings Source. http://www.oocities.org/wwindmills/index.html |
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| Copyright
by Evan L Mills 4 July, 2008. All rights reserved. Class of 58 Bountiful High, Utah Contact me, Lynn at wwindmills@comcast.net |
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In the lightning postulate put forth at, http://www.oocities.org/wwindmills/index.html I briefly mentioned seeing
sparks of static electricity produced from rapidly condensing freon.
This page will elaborate on that phenomenum and offer it as duplicable
evidence that evaporation and condensation causes the charge
separation responsible for lightning storms. While employed at Hill AFB in Northern Utah, I worked on the scope assembly which was part of the celestial navigation computer used by the B52 bomber. The Celestial Navigation Computer used stars to navigate by so as you can imagine it was a very sensitive instrument. After an overhaul and repair the analogue parts were cleaned thoroughly in a freon degreasing tank pictured in fig #1. |
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 fig #1 |
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| The tank had coils on the bottom that heated the liquid freon in the tank causing extremely rapid evaporation. This evaporation produced a freon cloud above the liquid. Near the top of the tank there were refrigerated coils that condensed the freon cloud back into a liquid state and returned the liquid to the bottom of the tank. The particular Freon we were using was an extremely volatile substance. If left to evaporate from a sponge water ice would form as the freon evaporated. When a hand was lowered into the freon cloud in the tank the freon would rapidly condense on the relatively cool hand so as you can imagine when a basket, pictured in fig #2, was lowered into the vapor cloud the resulting condensation would return a deluge of liquid freon off the basket of parts back to the liquid in the bottom of the tank. | ||
 fig #2 |
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| When cleaning parts the operator would stand in front of the tank on a rubber mat which electrically insulated the person from the floor though not deliberately. The mat was solely for the comfort of the mechanic. The tank was grounded and rested on a cement floor. When the basket of parts was lowered into the vapor cloud I noticed that a continuous stream of static sparks would begin jumping from my free hand to the tank. The reaction would only support a spark gap of about 1/8" and the sparks would only jump the gap when the basket was lowered into the freon vapor. When the basket was raised up and out from the vapor cloud the sparks ceased. | ||
 fig #3 |
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| The volume of the freon condensing onto to the basket and draining back into the tank was tremendous. Maybe as much as 1/2 to 1 cup per minute. Just a rough estimate. The large volume of condensing freon that it took to produce a spark of just 1/8 inches long would account for the fact that this phenomenum was dismissed over a hundred years ago and not revisited in earnest again. It is no wonder that it takes some thing as massive as a rapidly condensing thunder storm to produce the kind of massive charges needed to produce lightning. This experiment is dramatic evidence that evaporation and condensation involves charge separation. The experiment is repeatable and should not be discounted until some one verifies it or debunks it by repeating the experiment. It is my contention that this principle of charge seperation by matter state change, solid to liquid, liquid to gas and visa versa applies not only to lightning storms but also any time the is a matter state change there will be a corresponding charge sepeeration. If you would like more information or have questions or would like to add your thoughts you are welcome to contact me. I would like to hear from you. I am Lynn at wwindmils@comcast.net | ||
 fig 4
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