Sulfur :-) -Andre ________________________________________ From: volt-nuts <volt-nuts-bounces@lists.febo.com> on behalf of ed breya <eb@telight.com> Sent: 24 July 2019 23:45 To: volt-nuts@lists.febo.com Subject: Re: [volt-nuts] Can anyone suggest a good flexible insulator to make an “Oxford Bell” Rob wrote: "Really, I dunno WTF you're all on about. We are discussing an instrument built almost 200 years ago. No PTFE, no optical fibers, no silicone oil or anything like that was available back then! Yet here's everyone falling over themselves suggesting 21st century technology for something the people who built the original probably didn't even think twice about. I'd still say waxed silk, as back then this was commonly used as insulating material. But the catgut (actually mostly made from sheep intestines) suggested earlier is also a strong contender. ⁣Met vriendelijke groet, Rob Klein" This is true Rob, but the question in the OP was not about making a replica with materials of the age, but about what's a good insulator. This info may be useful for other, more modern applications. Ed _______________________________________________ volt-nuts mailing list -- volt-nuts@lists.febo.com To unsubscribe, go to http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/volt-nuts_lists.febo.com and follow the instructions there.

On Thu, 25 Jul 2019 at 00:16, <geoelectronics@rallstech.net> wrote: > G8WRB DE K0FF > Sounds like a fun project. > > George Unfortunately I couldn’t get anyone else at the radio club interested in attempting this. I thought it might make a fun project. A year or two ago I managed to get a few to build an electroscope. I am unsure if mine was an electroscope or electrometer, as it could determine the polarity of the charge. About 600 V was put was put across two capacitor plates. The direction of travel would determine if the charge was positive or negative. One thing I did notice when building the electrometer was that it was very easy to get the foil to touch one capacitor plate, be repelled the touch the other plate. It was essentially doing what the Oxford Bell did, but since I only had a piece of aluminium foil, it would have soon broke had I left it running. The foil was short it run very fast - to fast to count the frequency. Dave. Dave. -- Dr. David Kirkby,