Creating light from earth, air, metal and an acidic solution is not such a major task. Oxidation and reduction can be used create a potential difference between two metals placed into an electrolytic solution. These free electrons can be used to power small electronic devices and even recharge an iPod.

 

 To begin i should state that this is a galvanic reaction between two dissimiliar metals with a fairly high electron potential difference. There is theory that the microbes in the soil help the transfer of energy, and that the magnetic connections have a slingshot effect on electron movement. Electrons move through a circuit at around 4 inches per minute, but have a very high side to side jitter as they fight to make there way through the current moving in the opposite direction.

I noticed that the volume of electrolyte does not overly effect the amount of amps produced and have made a quick video example showing that.

On the following pages i will show you the process of creating the battery which ran a LED bulb nice and bright all night. The first video simply shows how you can generate the same amount of voltage no matter volume of earth used which means a smaller portable unit can be made that generates a usable amount of power. 

 

The following video shows a simple 3 cell earth battery that produces a few volts. The main aim of this experiment was to try to increase the amps of the battery with only a serial series. It looks like the solution of electrolyte can achieve this. The next step is to find the right config of parallel and serial series to produce the most usable power.

Three photo cannisters filled with earth and tightly packed have a NZ 10 cent piece (copper) and a galvanized screw (zinc) inserted. They are linked in series to produce a small voltage and by adding an acidic solution i can invoke a faster oxidation and reduction reaction which produces more amps. The next step will involve increasing the amount of cells and seeing how much i can produce from a small light emitting diode (LED)

The next page shows a much larger earth battery made from an ice tray and the same ingredients. I was impressed with the amount of volts produced (14V) and got a fair amount of amps too.

This ice tray packed with earth punches out around 12-14V and over 5mA which is enough to get a fairly decent amount of light out of a light emitting diode. From a previous video you can see how the volume of earth does not matter much, which means i can make the cells alot smaller and have more of them. The same amount of cells in a smaller format would produce the same voltage!

The consequence of going smaller may be that the anode and cathode erode quicker which places the oxidation and reduction reaction at an equilibrium (power stops). The other side effect could be that the electrolytic solution dries up quicker also bringing the power to a halt. I decided to use earth because it can draw moisture from the atmosphere if the cells do dry up quickly.