Oh well, you learn something new every day! [Linked Image]

I'm familiar with the common diode/capacitor voltage-multiplier chains, but I've never seen them go by that name before.

As NJ said, in this non-critical application I'm sure you could substitute silicon for germanium diodes. A forward-biased silicon PN junction usually drops about 0.6V instead of the 0.2 to 0.3V of the germanium type.

Just a thought: Could you substitute some of the "stick" rectifiers that are commonly used in the EHT multiplier chain of a TV set? They're readily available at reasonable cost.