In the last few weeks, I've seen a number of authors repeat a 2015 experiment called Self Assembling Wires. I found the videos are interesting. These small metal bearings align themselves in a high voltage static field. To some, these alignments resemble fractal patterns, tree branches (or roots), or even self-generating neurons.

It didn't look difficult, and interesting enough for me to tried to replicate the experiment myself.

I used one of my companies high voltage power supplies, the HVPS-06. The HVPS-06 has a small trimmer pot, that allows you to adjust the HV output.

I purchased a small amount of castor oil and plastic Petri dishes from Amazon.Com

I purchased 500 small 1/32" diameter ball bearings from McMaster-Carr. I also purchased 50 pieces of 1.2 mm Ball bearings from Amazon. To finish up you need either copper foil tape or some aluminum foil.

Set-up

Line the inside lip of the Petri dish with copper foil tape. If you don't have copper foil tape, you can use aluminum foil. I pour enough Castor oil to a depth of 1/16" to 1/8". I then dumped about 250 (half of the 500 in the package) 1/32" diameter ball bearings into the Castor oil in the Petri dish. Then I placed the 1.2 mm bearings from Amazon.

Originally I had placed all the bearings into the oil, but the wires formed too quickly. So I took out about half of the bearings.

I attached the ground of the high voltage power supply output to the copper foil. The high voltage lead was connected to a 22 gauge solid wire positioned in the center of the Petri dish. I connected a 12 VDC power supply to the HVPS-06 and turned it on. I then used a mini screwdriver to adjust the trimmer pot on the HVPS-06 to adjust the HV output.

In the video, you can see the bearings moving and forming into wires between the center wire and the copper foil. Before the wires form, the HVPS-06 draws about 200 milliamps. Once the wire is formed, the HV output is short-circuited and the current drops to 30-50 milliamps. Once the wire forms there is no further action from the bearings. You need to remove the HV power and break up the wires. Then you can redo the experiment.

If you hold the HV lead over the oil, you can see the HV field pushing on the oil and the bearings moving around under the influence of the field.