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John's patent - unchallengeable

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DST
Super Contributor

I built a potato battery out of 500 pounds of potatoes. It powered a small sound system. With the help of the Red 76 crew I installed the battery and sound system in the back of a U-Haul truck and drove it around town inviting people to enter the truck and take a listen.

Batteries work by allowing electrons to pass from one electrode to another. In this case the potato provides phosphoric acid, which enables a chemical reaction causing electrons flow from copper to zinc. The zinc came from galvanized nails and copper came from small pieces of copper. You don't have to use potatoes; any acidic medium such as citrus fruit will work. I chose potatoes because they are traditional and cheap.

Each potato generates about 0.5 volts and 0.2 milliamperes. I connected groups of potatoes together in series to increase voltage and then connected these groups together in parallel to increase amperage. The entire 500 lb battery generated around 5 volts and 4 milliamperes.

Don't eat potatoes after using them for a battery.
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9 REPLIES 9
topgun
Super Contributor
Just wait until Angus finds out what you are using his potatoes for...
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john_1
Super Contributor
LOL... nice to see you about.
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Not applicable
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platsak
Super Contributor
DST. If you have photo's and a write up of the principles I will publish it on the www.greendiy.co.za site. If you want you can send it to [email protected]. Full credit will be given to the author.
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grommet
Regular Contributor
Do anyone know how much diesel , chemicals and water goes into producing patatoes
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AJT
Super Contributor
In my back garden... not much...
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Not applicable
Well we often have a discussion on potato farming in bags in your back garden. i run 3 sacks 30 days apart and get reasonable yeilds, enough for our use and every 30 days we get new batch. takes about 90 days to mature etc. Year round supply for very little effort.
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Jughead
Contributor
The energy you saved is about 1.25c per month even at Tswane rates of 85c per kWh
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john_1
Super Contributor
well hold thumbs for me as I actually have a very important meeting in the morning... SARS.
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