Subject: What kind of experiment is this?

I caught a brief glimps of an experiment with a capacitor shaped like 
an umbrella approx. 24" in diameter with a what looked like a 
vandergraff generator suspended beneath it at a fixed distance.  The 
entire apparatus seemed to rise off the ground.  Does anyone recognize 
this or know who the scientist was who was working with it?  I saw it 
on TLC in a shot of black and white film but unfortunately I missed 
the whole story. 

Re: What kind of experiment is this?