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Description
This is my partly restoration of a German? "Voltana" Wimshurst (influence) machine about 1915-1920 - for those who don't know this is an apparatus to generate static electricity.

As you can clearly see I made new disks from acrylic glass - the original ones were made of ebonite and bear heavily corroded tin foil sectors.
The sectors are from high-speed aluminium sticky tape used in commercial aviation - it's highly conductive and thick enough to last for a while.
Some cleansing work was done, the Leyden jars are in mediocre condition but charge well.
Below the wooden base plate, the jars were interconnected. I just replaced the wiring with isolated cable, and made a small brass rod for the lower terminal contacts (the two screws on the plate).
All brass is slightly polished, far from being clear of all patina, looks good but is prone to corona discharges...

Unfortunately the additional "Voltana" experimenting kit and the original manual found on ebay were already sold!

When I purchased the machine at the "Wissenschaftliches Kabinett" scientific antiques store - a must visit! - in Vienna, with the corroded sectors the machine would not easily self-excite, and spark lengths were about 8cm/3", after restoration self-exciting even in humid conditions is no problem at all, and brilliant sparks up to 10cm/4" are easily achieved.

Description
This is my partly restoration of a German? "Voltana" Wimshurst (influence) machine about 1915-1920 - for those who don't know this is an apparatus to generate static electricity.

As you can clearly see I made new disks from acrylic glass - the original ones were made of ebonite and bear heavily corroded tin foil sectors.
The sectors are from high-speed aluminium sticky tape used in commercial aviation - it's highly conductive and thick enough to last for a while.
Some cleansing work was done, the Leyden jars are in mediocre condition but charge well.
Below the wooden base plate, the jars were interconnected. I just replaced the wiring with isolated cable, and made a small brass rod for the lower terminal contacts (the two screws on the plate).
All brass is slightly polished, far from being clear of all patina, looks good but is prone to corona discharges...

Unfortunately the additional "Voltana" experimenting kit and the original manual found on ebay were already sold!

When I purchased the machine at the "Wissenschaftliches Kabinett" scientific antiques store - a must visit! - in Vienna, with the corroded sectors the machine would not easily self-excite, and spark lengths were about 8cm/3", after restoration self-exciting even in humid conditions is no problem at all, and brilliant sparks up to 10cm/4" are easily achieved.