Click the link below and scroll down the page to view schematic diagrams of the device.
-NW

Paul BAUMANN Testatika Generator
Methernitha Group: CH-3517 Linden, Switzerland

[snip]

Testatika Demonstration (4 August 1999)
Translation by Stefan Hartmann < harti@harti.com > & Hans Holzherr

"Back-Engineered Testatika"
by Paul E. Potter
http://website.lineone.net/~aarekhu/index.html

NW comment: The above web address is no longer accessible
(Copyright 2000)

That the Swiss Methernitha group's Testatika machine is thought to be based on a Wimshurst electrostatic generator, is only a sparse approximation of the truth --- of the great multitude of electrostatic influence machines developed around the 1900's it more closely follows the charge-separation-and-collection system used by the 1898 Pidgeon machine for its electrical circuit.

Its 50-per-disc steel grilles or 'gitter-grilles' are plainly unique to the Methernitha but in principle follow on from previous research and patents for corrugated sectors which were found to be more efficient charge carriers than flat ones, and from a similar example in more recent times of aluminium rods.

Another unique function of these perforated grilles attached to the discs is how they induce charge from the rotating discs onto the special collecting pads, or 'tasten' antennae keys (which are also perforated --- so as to more readily pick up charge);

for in a Wimshurst you had conductive brushes or rails of sharp points which actually touched the discs or were placed very close to them, but in the Methernitha the charge has to be made to traverse a parallel air-gap to the pads and for this purpose the metal gitter-grilles are so designed to create miniature eddy-currents of charged air which circulate in and out of the perforated metal's surface charges, and are more easily bounced out to the collecting pads. This process is categorised as VARIABLE CAPACITANCE electrostatic generation.

Careful note needs to be made of how the Methernitha uses its basically Pidgeon setup with regard to its neutralising rods (that equalise and stabilise the opposite charges --- see fig.2), and how charges are picked up from one area and accumulated at others, so that the polarities of charge are distributed correctly to specific areas on both discs.

And although there have been some fanciful claims, or misinformation, that it uses all sorts of radioactive materials to achieve its pulsed output I most strongly believe that the auxiliary electromagnetic circuit, that wraps itself around the rotating discs, portrays a simple electronic approach; afterall, who would use radium radioactive emission alongside leyden jar capacitors !

Indeed, the more you look into certain elements of its construction the more they point to three main eras of electronics development, the 1900's, the 1920's and the 1950/60's. The authentic Methernitha was designed and developed by purists who believed they had discovered a previously unknown electronic phenomenon, but they wanted to keep an integrity to the early pioneering days of the Pidgeon, Wimshurst and Holtz electrostatic machinery; they would not use such modern devices as transistors or IC chips (more's the pity) --- but they do use some pretty uncommon electronic engineering in their circuit.

Obviously, the electronics are in two parts; one --- the electrostatic generator and its particular technologies of how to direct what charge where, and two --- the very unique auxiliary electromagnetic circuit of inductances, capacitances and rectification that mobilises that 'static' electricity. To understand how they convert static energy into an electromotive force you would do well to go back to the earliest years of radio...