Looks like we're all jumping in with this !

Chet rang and said to check it out.
Also, sorry for my recent absence, got some sciatica and hip troubles.
"we can obtain a higher voltage across the light box circuit using the pulsed circuit than we can using a DC current"
That is the key quote that i've taken from the writings so far.
FYI, but related to this thread perhaps, a Cool Joule has been running since the middle of June. It's got 2x 1.2V 200mAh Ni-Cd AAA's on it and 'dancing flower' 500ohm coils. The circuit began running when Lasersaber first showed his fancy coil/low energy system and Brad mentioned the Cool Joule...its run 24/7 ever since, just needing a tap on the Emitter+Collector to fire up and run for a week at a time if it stops. No battery swap overs since the beginning of August.
Own tests usually show a 50% duty cycle to be the optimum, so 38% is intriguing. The inductor is another area to explore, maybe a 'dancing flower' coil with ferrite either side...or does the inductor have to be low uH for response timings ?
I'm going to try a variety of LED's.
See, greens are great at generating all on their own in bright light, in common with other exposed silicon....so it's own output may affect P/in. For example, 4x 3mm regular frosted greens will power a cheapo digital watch in sunlight.
Reds for their lower voltage needs, ultrabrights for light, try I/R types too.
A string of them relates well to your fathers device Brad.
In my opinion, we can use a combination of this circuit, Lasersabers efficient LED driver and the effects passed from one LED to another.
Efficient collection and harvesting would then point to practical OU or only a neat curio.
ETA: for the light box, I will be using an amorphous panel, they work best with non natural light.
ETA2: An opto-coupler would seem a good alternative to a light box ?
And, have different waveshapes other than square been tried ? no point ? Just wondering about a ramp type, with a square top to drive the inductor differently.