Gas is out. Kerosene (aka "charcoal lighter fluid") is out.

Weber and similar kettles are OK, but you can do better.

As close as you can get to a 55-gallon drum cut in half (or a brick-and-mortar equivalent) is better.

Mesquite charcoal (I import mine from Lazarri in San Francisco (Brisbane actually) -- http://www.lazzari.com/retail_page1.html )

Start the fire in a metal chimney -- paper egg box in the bottom, charcoal in the top. Ready to go in about the same time as the gas abomination.

(And I wish you would fix your password-login problem.

Today.)

Nope.

"Electroscope"

http://www.tutorvista.com/content/physics/physics-i/static-electric-current/gold-leaf-electroscope.php

I'm pretty sure of the device, not sure of the name.

"Galvaniscope" is what comes to mind. It was used to detect the presence of an electrostatic field.

The two gold-leaves repel each other in the presence of a field.

Not only "next gig", "next sale".

The last time I was in the Sears part store (they have since gone belly-up) I left without what I was looking for because the clerk (an other-wise attractive person) had a tattoo around her neck that looked like razor wire (I think it is--that nasty stuff they put on top of fences).

Extremely unsettling.