Voltage Multiplier 13 kV

Love it!!

It would not work because of corona discharge which is when the intense electric field separates the air atoms surrounding the wire into ions and free electrons and the ions are pushed away because of the positive electrical charge creating an air current that provides more fresh unionized air and the electrons are attracted to the high voltage wire where they neutralize the voltage because of the opposite charge signs. Even at a 1GOhm load in the sim it still can not reach higher than 2kV. If you reversed the voltage sign so that it was negative then it would still corona discharge because the atoms would be stripped of their electrons turning them into ions and the electrons would be repelled while the ions would be attracted to the conductor where they pick up new electrons which would turn them back to regular atoms and the process repeats. Essentially, it is gas-aided (in this case the gas is air) discharge of electrons/ions. Gas discharge lamps work the same way, only there is another conductor of opposite charge to pick up the stray electrons/ions and when the ions are converted back to regular atoms they release some electromagnetic energy (mercury makes ultraviolet which is converted to regular light by phosphors and sodium creates a very narrow band of yellow light quite efficiently but with a very poor color rendering index and the sodium lamps are used in street lights because of the efficiency). In gas discharge lamps the gas first has to be ionized (turned into plasma) by the corona discharge to become more conductive before the process can occur in large amounts to create significant light.

It works perfectly! Its plastic box is potted in epoxy.

Yes, a solid insulator such as epoxy should work to prevent corona discharge, but how do you prevent it from happening at the output terminals where the voltage is measured? And what is the voltage when measured? (Don’t use a multimeter, it’ll destroy it if it doesn’t have over-voltage protection).

Can you make a gas-discharge lamp with it? Air would probably create some visible light. If not, neon would.

Yea, thats what you usually do to prevent corona discharge and accidental shocks. Oils are GREAT at insulating high voltages.