Jon Mitchell's Home
What is a Wimshurst Generator
I used 2 sheets of Plexiglas as my insulator and I used metallic tape used for ductwork to make my conductive strips. This seemed to work fairly well, however the metallic coating on the tape slowly broke down and was scraped off by the brushes but it is easier enough to make replacement strips if they are needed.
Both of the disks get mounted on a single shaft that goes through the center of each plate. Each plate must be able to spin freely and in opposite directions. I made wooden pulleys that I attached to each plate such that a rubber belt could spin the disks.
There is a pick-up located on either side of the plate that has brushes to collect charge off of the metallic strips. This charge is forced off of the strips because each strip has the same charge and like charges repel. Finally there is a neutralizing bar. This runs from the bottom of one plate to the top of it with a pick up at each end. This allows charge to balance out at the strips.
Bellow is an animated image of the generator.
A good picture that shows how this generator works is from http://www.coe.ufrj.br/~acmq/whyhow.html. The actual image is below.
