If you’re looking for a really dangerous science experiment, then you need look no further than the March 1969 issue of Popular Electronics. The magazine describes the electret. It points out that it is the analogue of a permanent magnet. Instead of producing a permanent magnetic field, the electret produces a permanent static electric field. For example, it’s possible to make an electret, and then use it to produce a spark weeks, months, or even years later.  The name electret was coined by Oliver Heaviside in 1885 as a combination of electr- from electricity, and -et from magnet.

The process to create an electret is quite simple. You simply take a suitable material (in this case, a piece of lucite), heat it to a high temperature, and then let it cool while applying a high voltage.  That sounds easy enough, but the voltage must be very high.  The article suggests 14,000 volts, and tells you exactly where you can get it–from the family’s portable TV set.

You simply remove the anode clip from the picture tube, and that’s your source of high voltage.  But as the article rightly points out, messing around with 14,000 volts could easily prove fatal if you make the smallest mistake.  So we don’t recommend this particular experiment.  Old TV sets had an interlock for a reason, and that was to prevent them from operating when the case was open.  In fact, as the article points out, the wire in question could easily deliver a deadly jolt even with the set unplugged and turned off.  This is because the capacitors in the power supply retain a charge.  In other words, you probably shouldn’t attempt to duplicate this experiment unless you are very familiar with exactly what the dangers are.

But the procedure itself is quite simple.  You build an oven a shown here, and use Sterno to heat it.  When you reach the desired temperature, you carefully wire up the high voltage.  While standing back many feet, you plug in the TV.  If you hear strange noises, then you unplug the TV.  Prior to making the connection, and after you unplug the set, you need to discharge the TV’s power supply capacitor.  The article recommends an electrician’s glove.

After the lucite is fully cooled, you disconnect things, and you have yourself an electret.

Of course, modern televisions don’t have CRT’s, so they don’t have 14,000 volt power supplies inside.  So if you’re intent on duplicating this experiment, you’ll need to find an old TV, the older the better.  Even though we have this experiment in the “science fair ideas” category, we don’t recommend it to students due to the lethal voltages involved.  But we have many other experiments that you can find by browsing that category.

Shown here is a crude but functional homemade transistor from 1948, from the October 1948 issue of Radio News.  While the author had not yet used the fragile device in a working circuit, he did note that he achieved amplification by a factor of up to 50.  The transistor was very unstable at that high amplification, but it did work reliably amplifying by a factor of 15.

The transistor was made of a 1N34 germanium diode carefully broken open.  One lead was kept intact, and the other two contacts were made by making cat whiskers out of filaments of old tubes.

The article cites some 1920s articles where the authors made “amplifying crystals” by a similar means.  By applying the techniques in this article, the advanced student could prepare a science fair project that his or her teacher would probably declare impossible–making a homemade transistor.

If you need some distilled water, it’s usually a pretty easy matter to go to the local supermarket and buy a convenient gallon jug. Or, if you’re willing to pay for the convenience, you can even order it on Amazon.

But it’s also easy to whip up a small batch at home, as shown in this self-explanatory photo from Radio News, October 1928.  The hanging container is filled with cold water, preferably ice water.  It should be as thin as possible.  The spout of the kettle is directed at this container, and the distilled water drips onto a plate below.

The idea was sent in to the magazine by  one C.A. Oldroyd.

If the aspiring young scientist needs distilled water for a science fair project, adding this method to the project will almost guarantee the elusive blue ribbon.