Leyden Jar as Combustion Cannon Ignition

[TfAv1228]

I just remebered this but about 4 years ago in 5th grade I did a science expiriment on static electricity (pretty damn good 1 too I got second in the county to someone older than me). A leyden jar is pretty simple you just build up static electricity then get the - and + wires close and boom you get a pretty good spark this http://forevergeek.com/articles/instruc ... en_jar.php is a link to a simple small one. If you dont wanna spend money on s BBQ ignitor to get a large enough spark just make a large enough or effective enough Leyden Jar. Im sure that this community can figure out how to use this and easily incorparate it into cannons. Any questions? Google then ask here.

Or you could just use the static generator with PVC pipe here http://home.earthlink.net/~lenyr/stat-gen.htm

[saladtossser]

i got 3v outta that thing, minus jar

[Atlantis]

Sure that could work but if the spark doesn't ingite the gas the first time, it will take a while to geta a new charge. A layden jar is simply a home-made capacitor. Something funny I noticed about capacitors, they have a habit of pulling electricity right out of the air. My capacitor charged itself after I discharged it, took out the battery and even touched it directly with a screwdriver. I think the static electricity in the air gave it a very small charge.

[FiveseveN]

A film canister Leyden jar is too small for this kind of application. I've tried using one (pill bottle, actually, do it was slightly larger) with a lighter piezo and it doesn't improve performance much (i.e. resistance and corona losses from all the wires kind of cancel out the extra charge). A thicker dielectric (glass) could do the trick, like a glass or -obviously- a jar.
As for the source, Van de Graaff (or pelletrons) or Wimshurst (induction) generators are much better than friction generators.