Author Topic: Liquid diodes!  (Read 2628 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Online DavidAlfaTopic starter

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 6403
  • Country: es
Liquid diodes!
« on: September 05, 2023, 11:31:04 pm »
I never heard about this, I'll save some lead for emergencies!

Hantek DSO2x1x            Drive        FAQ          DON'T BUY HANTEK! (Aka HALF-MADE)
Stm32 Soldering FW      Forum      Github      Donate
 

Offline Infraviolet

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 1185
  • Country: gb
Re: Liquid diodes!
« Reply #1 on: September 05, 2023, 11:59:16 pm »
There was another type of liquid diode too, used mercury held at a temperature where it was on the verge of evaporating. Its ability to rectify, and this was for distribution and railway level AC, not low voltages or 240V, depended on some sort of asymmetry in the direction that mercury gas and liquid droplets would move under applied voltages, might have been related to ionisation of them.
 

Online DavidAlfaTopic starter

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 6403
  • Country: es
Re: Liquid diodes!
« Reply #2 on: September 06, 2023, 12:56:38 am »
Yeah I know mercury arc rectifiers  :-+
Hantek DSO2x1x            Drive        FAQ          DON'T BUY HANTEK! (Aka HALF-MADE)
Stm32 Soldering FW      Forum      Github      Donate
 

Offline Stray Electron

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 2253
Re: Liquid diodes!
« Reply #3 on: September 06, 2023, 01:06:30 am »
Yeah I know mercury arc rectifiers  :-+

   The early ones used large, open pools of mercury!  I have pictures around here somewhere.
 

Offline amyk

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 8526
Re: Liquid diodes!
« Reply #4 on: September 07, 2023, 02:47:27 am »
I remember reading about something similar in an old book of electricity, but it was using a copper sulphate(?) solution. I can't seem to find that book at the moment but I did find this:

On the Theory of the Electrolytic Rectifier (1902): https://ia800708.us.archive.org/view_archive.php?archive=/22/items/crossref-pre-1909-scholarly-works/10.1103%252Fphysrevseriesi.10.116.zip&file=10.1103%252Fphysrevseriesi.15.327.pdf
 

Offline TimFox

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 9003
  • Country: us
  • Retired, now restoring antique test equipment
Re: Liquid diodes!
« Reply #5 on: September 07, 2023, 03:35:13 am »
The pioneer R A Fessenden built electrolytic detectors (diodes) with a wire in a liquid bath.
He is credited with the first AM broadcast, and a diode detector was necessary (a coherer would be useless on AM).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolytic_detector
 
The following users thanked this post: Alex Eisenhut

Offline AVGresponding

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 4931
  • Country: england
  • Exploring Rabbit Holes Since The 1970s
Re: Liquid diodes!
« Reply #6 on: September 07, 2023, 08:19:17 am »
Yeah I know mercury arc rectifiers  :-+

   The early ones used large, open pools of mercury!  I have pictures around here somewhere.

Photonicinduction has a couple of vids:

nuqDaq yuch Dapol?
Addiction count: Agilent-AVO-BlackStar-Brymen-Chauvin Arnoux-Fluke-GenRad-Hameg-HP-Keithley-IsoTech-Mastech-Megger-Metrix-Micronta-Racal-RFL-Siglent-Solartron-Tektronix-Thurlby-Time Electronics-TTi-UniT
 

Online DavidAlfaTopic starter

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 6403
  • Country: es
Re: Liquid diodes!
« Reply #7 on: September 07, 2023, 08:33:08 am »
   The early ones used large, open pools of mercury!  I have pictures around here somewhere.
It would be such a mess! Where did all the evaporated mercury condense?
Not to mention the terrible health consequences if exposed to the vapours.
Hantek DSO2x1x            Drive        FAQ          DON'T BUY HANTEK! (Aka HALF-MADE)
Stm32 Soldering FW      Forum      Github      Donate
 

Offline tom66

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 7336
  • Country: gb
  • Electronics Hobbyist & FPGA/Embedded Systems EE
Re: Liquid diodes!
« Reply #8 on: September 07, 2023, 11:03:21 am »
Flames can also be used to rectify current.  This is used to effect in most modern home gas boilers to detect the presence of the flame, since carbonisation would create a parallel path, but only the flame creates a conductive path that works in one direction.  I believe low voltage AC is passed through the rectifier and a detection circuit (or more likely a microcontroller nowadays) is used to isolate the gas supply if ignition fails.
 
The following users thanked this post: DavidAlfa

Offline coppice

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 10035
  • Country: gb
Re: Liquid diodes!
« Reply #9 on: September 07, 2023, 11:48:55 am »
Yeah I know mercury arc rectifiers  :-+

   The early ones used large, open pools of mercury!  I have pictures around here somewhere.
I've never seen an open one, and I don't know how that would work. All that oxygen is going to cause trouble. I believe they are usually filled with an inert gas, rather than evacuated, because the glass envelopes are not that thick.
 

Online DavidAlfaTopic starter

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 6403
  • Country: es
Re: Liquid diodes!
« Reply #10 on: September 07, 2023, 12:36:36 pm »
Flames can also be used to rectify current.
I knew flames conducted electricity, but not they rectified it!
Hantek DSO2x1x            Drive        FAQ          DON'T BUY HANTEK! (Aka HALF-MADE)
Stm32 Soldering FW      Forum      Github      Donate
 

Offline amyk

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 8526
Re: Liquid diodes!
« Reply #11 on: September 07, 2023, 01:41:13 pm »
Flames can also be used to rectify current.
I knew flames conducted electricity, but not they rectified it!
I'm not very familiar with the physics, but I suspect the effect is similar to a vacuum diode.
 

Offline BrokenYugo

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 1214
  • Country: us
Re: Liquid diodes!
« Reply #12 on: September 07, 2023, 02:57:38 pm »
Flames can also be used to rectify current.
I knew flames conducted electricity, but not they rectified it!

You can apparently even insert a grid and make a triode, interesting stuff. There are some vids on YouTube from a few different people if you look around.

Some good reading here. http://www.sparkbangbuzz.com/flame-amp/flameamp.htm

 
The following users thanked this post: BrianHG, DavidAlfa

Offline coppice

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 10035
  • Country: gb
Re: Liquid diodes!
« Reply #13 on: September 07, 2023, 03:24:45 pm »
Flames can also be used to rectify current.
I knew flames conducted electricity, but not they rectified it!
I'm not very familiar with the physics, but I suspect the effect is similar to a vacuum diode.
Yeah. A vacuum diode makes a cloud of electrons. A flame makes a cloud of ions. They are all charged particles, which will only drift in a particular direction in an electric field. As someone else said, you can use a grid to make a triode from a flame. You can also put plates around the flame and wiggle the ions with an audio signal, making a loudspeaker.
« Last Edit: September 07, 2023, 03:29:51 pm by coppice »
 

Online SiliconWizard

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 15800
  • Country: fr
Re: Liquid diodes!
« Reply #14 on: September 08, 2023, 04:27:27 am »
In the end it's just polarized dark fluid. :popcorn:
 

Offline Alex Eisenhut

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 3550
  • Country: ca
  • Place text here.
Re: Liquid diodes!
« Reply #15 on: September 10, 2023, 02:41:22 am »
Uh oh, it's that time of year I post this link
http://www-smirc.stanford.edu/papers/chapter1.pdf
Hoarder of 8-bit Commodore relics and 1960s Tektronix 500-series stuff. Unconventional interior decorator.
 

Offline Dacian

  • Contributor
  • !
  • Posts: 40
  • Country: ca
Re: Liquid diodes!
« Reply #16 on: September 10, 2023, 03:21:11 am »
I recognize that face in the video. Free energy and perpetuum mobile type stuff.
Not sure why anyone will watch that channel.
 

Online DavidAlfaTopic starter

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 6403
  • Country: es
Re: Liquid diodes!
« Reply #17 on: September 10, 2023, 08:45:06 am »
You're very wrong!
He makes a lot of videos of rare mechanisms and engineering stuff, not that kind of BS.
Hantek DSO2x1x            Drive        FAQ          DON'T BUY HANTEK! (Aka HALF-MADE)
Stm32 Soldering FW      Forum      Github      Donate
 


Share me

Digg  Facebook  SlashDot  Delicious  Technorati  Twitter  Google  Yahoo
Smf