ok this is sci fi right here

[john monks]

They actually do. Firstly in a vacuum capacitor only some electrons accumulate on the negative plate. The rest are some distance from the plate although we maybe only talking about nanometers or less. And as a percentage of the total number of electrons on a plate of a capacitor we are talking about a very small number. We must keep in mind that an electron is going to migrate when a force is applied to it. And in this case the greatest force occurs between the plates when the capacitor is charged.
Taking the spacecraft analogy. If a negative one million volts is applied to a spacecraft in orbit the hull becomes charged. But where does the greatest charge take place? It certainly would be on the outside because there is a very little voltage gradient taking place inside the spacecraft so the astronauts feel nothing. Therefore the only place you will get a piling up of electrons is on or actually near the outside of the spacecraft.
Now certainly even with one million volts as a percentage of charge particles the actual number of extra electrons on the outside of the spacecraft won't be much different than on the inside. It's just that the outside will have an excess amount.

Sorry donkey, our messages crossed. It is hard to eliminate the two vertical capacitors. They are there if they are one millimeter away to 10 kilometers.
I guess I don't understand where your confusion is but a capacitor does not need a charge to have a voltage across the plates. An electrostatic force coming from somewhere else can induce a voltage. In your case where you have several plates between any two plates can be considered a capacitor.

 

[donkey]

ok let me put it this way then imagine 2 ballons inside a box. this is how I see a capacitor the air is electrons. so when at a stand still they are both half inflated no pressure adding or removing like in a cap when nothing has happened both plate have the same charge.
now when you apply a positive force to one and negative pressure to the other one gets bigger the other smaller.
in your diagram the plate on the 2 vertical capacitors will react and the bottom horizontal capacitor will react as they have direct voltage applied.
what I don't see happening is anything to the top horizontal capacitor at least not as you describe it. I see that if you remove the top and possibily the bottom caps going horizontal there is a chance the circuit will perform closer to what I want.
now comes a second question to this already confusing thread (well I am finding it confusing)
could I make a cap at home? my home made cap is going to be 4 layers of al foil with glad wrap seperating them. rolled around a piece of dowling(round wood). I am hoping the glad wrap is thin enough to produce the field I am wanting to test this idea out. I would then have to somehow calculate its rating in both volts and storage capacity. I am thinking the glad wrap may be too thick to create the field I want though unless its a higher capacity/voltage cap

 

[Laplace]

So your tubular capacitor will have 4 capacitors connected in a series ring?

 

[john monks]

For the sake of your experiment let me answer directly.
The formula for a capacitor is C=AE/d
C is capacitance if Farads.
A is area in square meters.
E is the dielectric constant. For air it is 8.854 X 10^-12 F/M
For example, if you have two parallel plates 1 square meters each

spaced 0.1 meters apart you will have

C=(1M^2 x 8.854F/M)/0.1M or 8.854 x 10^-11 Farads = 88.54 picofarads

The dielectric constant for cellulose ascetate is about 3.6 times that of air so the same capacitor with cellulose ascetate will come out to be about 319 picofarads.

 

[donkey]

how would it be 4 caps?
a cap is 2 plate
4 pieces of alfoil divde 2 plate is 2 caps right?
i am trying to configure this to be as close to my idea as possible which is 2 plates affected by a battery and the other 2affected by the first 2. what I am trying to avoid is making a transformer which is2 wound pieces of metal spaced apart.
I have been trying to figure out how to get this to work in my head damn this 3d world we live in lol. its a jigsaw puzzle that is taking time. of the medication for the kidney stones now so on my next day off I will give this a good look over.
I am also looking at discharging the cap too as it may help me figure out what is happening. a straight discharge won't be needed but its hard toexplain how the new cap will discharge.

 

[donkey]

oh and laplace and john thank you so much for your help so far, and laplace that pic is pretty accurate in the spiral designbut the schematic on the right does not match the spiral.
if my edumication is half decent then the 2 "middle" spirals will be a cap hooked up to a battery and the outside and inside most sprials will be the top row of plates in my 2nd lot of sketches. this may change though as it the reaction I have in my head will not be as I want it, that is the outside and inside spiral will not be interacting directly with each other as I want them too

 

[Laplace]

how would it be 4 caps?
a cap is 2 plate
4 pieces of alfoil divde 2 plate is 2 caps right?

A capacitor is a dielectric between two conductive plates. Follow the spiral radially outward from one black line to the next black line where the pattern then repeats itself. Between the black lines there are four layers of dielectric film. Four dielectrics = four capacitors.

 

[donkey]

I thought the plates did not touch
Inside the capacitor, the terminals connect to two metal plates separated by a non-conducting substance, or dielectric. from how stuff works
so each piece of al foil is 1 plate not 2 the al foil is the dielectrics the non conductive substance between the plates so each al foil piece is 1 plate not 2. there are 3 dielectrics but as this does not conform to a standard cap it HAS to go off the plates
4 plates / 2 plates for each cap is 2 caps. you could say there are 4 caps but the wayI have explained it so far is using the idea of 2 caps sothis works on how you connect the terminals not the potential of how you connect the terminals