ELECTROSTATIC FLUID ACCELERATOR

An electrostatic fluid accelerator having a multiplicity of closely spaced corona electrodes (1). The close spacing of such corona electrodes (1) is obtainable because such corona electrodes (1) are isolated from one another with exciting electrodes (2). Either the exciting electrode (2) must be plac ed asymmetrically between adjacent corona electrodes (1) or an accelerating electrode must be employed. The accelerating electrode can be either an attracting (13) or a repelling electrode (19). Preferably, the voltage betwe en the corona electrodes (1) and the exciting electrodes (2) is maintained between the corona onset voltage and the breakdown voltage with a flexible t op high-voltage power supply. Optionally, however, the voltage between the coro na electrodes (1) and the exciting electrodes (2) can be varied, even outside t he range between the corona onset voltage and the breakdown voltage, in order t o vary the flow of fluid. And, to achieve the greatest flow of fluid, multiple stages (28, 29 and 30) of the individual Electrostatic Fluid Accelerator are utilized with a collecting electrode (31 or 32) between successive stages (2 8, 29 and 30) in order to preclude substantially all ions and other electricall y charged particles from passing to the next stage (28, 29 or 30), where they would tend to be repelled and thereby impair the movement of the fluid. Finally, constructing the exciting electrode (2) in the form of a plate that extends downstream with respect to the desired direction of fluid flow also assures that more ions and, consequently, more fluid particles flow downstre am.