Background

Stoyan Sarg generously sent us a nice high voltage sparker to try to stimulate loaded powder. 

ARTICLE DESCRIBING HIGH VOLTAGE CELL

Now he has also sent us a proposed cell design.  

Stoyan Sarg: System for cold fusion research

Ryan's review of the design:
I am not very fond of the high temperature flow calorimetry.  Getting a good average temperature of the fluid has tricked us before.  The constant flow is a bit tricky to achieve, too.
The teflon has a max temperature of about 260°C, which is not bad, but could be a problem.  I think ceramic may be necessary there.  
The threaded brass rod (8) may be a metal contamination issue.

Ryan's recommendation:
Add a high voltage pass through down through the center of our cell.  We will have to take out the thermowell and probably put a ceramic piece at the bottom of the tube to be electricaly insulated, and make sure the powder is in a simple cylinder shape for easier math.

With the spark jumping from the electrode to the shell, through the powder, isolating the electrical instrumentation will be a serious issue to make sure we get right.  Grounding the shell should be very easy.  Making sure the HUGNetLab is grounded in the same location may be what is needed.

Stoyan's sparker draws 6 Watts.  It is unclear how much loss there is in the step up and how much power is actually delivered in the spark.  Regardless, the sparker should be all that we need to heat this little cell even if we run it intermittently. We should include a power meter on the input side of the spark generator.