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Van de Graaff Escalator

charge upper levels of shopping malls to incredible voltages
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It occured to me in the mall the other day that the design of escalators and the design of Van de Graaff generators are essentially the same. Thus, by using the triboelectric effect, you could generate huge voltages inside of shopping malls and other places that use escalators.

The easiest way would be to use the rubber handrails as the charge carrier. Simply use aluminum for the bottom roller and plastic for the top roller, and install some brushes to transfer the charges. By electrically insulating the seperate floors, you could have one charged to upwards of a million volts compared to the other.

The applications for the hairstyling industry alone would be huge.

kyle90, Feb 14 2007


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       I get zapped by escalators enough as it is without someone redesigning them to do it more effectively.
K o R, Feb 14 2007
  


 

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