Homemade Electrolysis Device

Yet another one of my drawings that is more science than art.

I despise homonyms. A homonym is a word with more than one meaning. It's like the word "it's" (it is) and "its" (possessive). A more naive example is the use of electrolysis being used as the epilation of one's skin. What an ignorant use of science. It's like saying the internet was meant for spammers and shady merchants instead of a tool for educational research.

This illustration is of an electrolysis device, a piece of equipement that scientists use to separate water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Peopled tell me that "It takes too much energy for a machine like that to operate". Yeah right. Just about every science teach I know has one of these devices, and if an electrolysis machine demanded that much power, have the school would have lost power for a few minutes.

The battery from my other most recent deviation was added to illustrate which wire goes where. The aligator clips were not shown, but if I had built this, there would be alligator clips on both ends of the wires. Of course, black wire for negative, and red wire for positive. In reality, I would have hooked this device up to a wind generator to silence the skeptics. This is NOT a perpetual energy system that I'm working on. I'm just trying to develope a way for people to make their own hydrogen gas to fuel hybrid engines.

So what's required for this device:
- 1 medium side fish tank, about the size of the ones at the pet store or a big glass bowl.
- 2 glass mason jars. (most scientist will use test tubes, but a majority of you trying this experiment don't have them. So mason jars will do.)
- 2 clay flower pots with holes in the bottom.
- 2 sheets of aluminum foil rolled up like a pencil.
- Water
- An electric source.

Assembly:
Roll up the foil into a cigar shape. Do this twice because there is one for the cathode and one for the anode.

Clay flower pots ususally have a hole in the bottom center, so that water may drain out the bottom. For this experien, they will be used as our anchors for the nodes. Hook the wire up to one of the ends of the foil rolls with an alligator clip at the wide end of the pot. WARNING! Do not hook up to power source! You will get shocked!

Underwater, stick the other end of the foil roll into the mason jar and stand it upright. Keep the jar's neck underwater. Do not worry about water level. I'll explain why it looks the way it does in this picture in a little bit.

With everything hooked up as illustrated, connect it to a power source.

How does it work?

The reason why the cathode side of the device draws in water and the anode side does the opposite is because the cathode is collecting oxygen at the top of it's jar and the anode is collecting hydrogen at the top of it's jar. Keep in mind this is on the inside of two upside down jars. For every two hydrogen atoms in water, there is one atom of oxygen. This means there is twice as much hydrogen than oxygen!

So how do I get the gases out?
I suppose one can fish out the gases using a pipe and an air compressor. I'm not really sure. I haven't reached that step. However, if you have an idea, send me a comment.