From: houle@nmt.edu (Paul Houle)
Newsgroups: sci.energy
Subject: Re: FREE-ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES
Date: 6 Nov 92 21:15:12 GMT
Article-I.D.: nmt.1992Nov6.211512.3589
Organization: New Mexico Tech

>In article <1992Nov4.185407.2123@cnsvax.uwec.edu> mcelwre@cnsvax.uwec.edu writes:
>
>>               A second type of Free-Energy device, such as the "Gray 
>>          Motor" (U.S. Patent #3,890,548), the Tesla Coil, and the 
>>          unpatented motor of inventor Joseph Newman, taps electro-
>>          magnetic energy by induction from "Earth resonance" 

	Well,  Joe Newman came to NM Tech yesterday along with a group of
investors from Albuquerque.  Yesterday,  he got into an argument with my
thermodyanmics professor and finally got around to demonstrating his
machine.  He powered it with a neon sign transformer through a stack of
rectifiers -- ran the wire through a current transformer,  a florescent
light bulb and finally the motor.  A neon sign that said "Gyro" was mounted
on the top to "bleed excess charge away".  He then connected an osciloscope
to the secondary of the current transformer and used that to demonstrate that
his motor produces very large inductive spikes.  I tried to tell him that
a current transformer doesn't measure current,  but that it does measure the
derivative of current,  so it will magnify small changes,  but he started
getting very defensive.  That night I built a model of his system where a
small spike (generated with a pulse generator triggered by a sine-wave
generator) that had amplitude about 1/10 of the sine wave got exageraged by
the current transformer to the point where the spikes were so big that you
couldn't see the sine wave (like his motor).

	He also used a clip-on wattmeter (a very nice one that is claimed to
read correctly for any phase angle or power factor) to show that the florescent
light alone consumes 50 watts;  and when he adds the motor,  the power varies
from maybe 53 watts to as low as 30.  A quick guess estimated that the 
average was around 48 watts.  When I put a load on the motor,  the power
stablized around 42 watts.  With the motor running,  the flourescent light
was flickering,  and since it is being powered by a neon sign transformer,
I hate to think about how this is changing the power consumption of the
light.   The next day,  the light alone drew 40 watts,  and the light-motor
combination drew about 20.  The neon sign transformer by itself drew only
16!  Funny enough,  the "GYRO" sign on his motor was not lighting up,  and
I got a slight shock when I touched the shaft (and using a key as a spark
gap,  I guessed there was about 1000 V on the shaft),  while I didn't the
day before.  The results with the wattmeter were very interesting,  but
certainly not conclusive.  Joe Newman has succeeded in building a motor
that challenges the state of the art in measurement technology -- I wouldn't
blame him and many other people for being confused and making bad measurements.

	At this point,  Joe expected us -- an audience of about seven
investors from Albuquerque (from whom Joe is trying to get $2 million),  one
professor who stayed a long time,  three lab technicians,  and myself (an
undergraduate in physics who works for the EE dept.) to be completely
convinced by the truth of his motor.  When I was asked what I thought,  I
said that I thought it was a very interesting result,  but very detailed tests
would be needed:  i.e.,  get something better than a current transformer for
measuring spike currents (really hard if you are looking at 6000 V circuits -
maybe could tie your scope across a resistor and look for the voltage drop,
and hope that no part of the loop ever gets grounded (or you kill your
scope)),  investigate how well the wattmeter works in the presence of spikes.
The device almost certainly has an attrocious power factor,  so it is good
for stealing electricity from your local utility.

	Anyway,  if all venture capitalists are like the people I met today,
I think I just might go into industry after I get out of grad school.  The
people were very enthusiatic about the motor and knew very little about
electronics,  but at least had enough sense to go to some experts.  One of
them told us that if we endorsed the motor,  we could become as famous as
"university of Utah did over cold fusion."  I agreed with that.  They didn't
seem to know who was in charge here (a motley crew of mostly lab technicians
and undergrads),  and even seemed to think that I was at one point (offering
to pay for me to go eat with them at a local mexican restaurant).  They
ordered a lot of Pizza today,  and also seemed very willing to spend money.
I suggested testing the thing with a stack of car batteries big enough to
generate 6000 V (Imagine a source of 6000V at 500 A!  This would actually
be pretty hazardous) and they wanted to go down to Ace and buy that many
on the spot (which might take a good chunk out of that $2 million :-)

	Ultimately,  the people ended up contracting (despite Newman's
objections) with one of the technicians here to build a device that will
power the device from a car battery through an inverter and neon sign
transformer,  and redirect the spikes into a special circuit that will step
them down and feed them into the battery.  If the battery gets overcharged,
the power will be fed into a resisitive load in an oil bath (which will
also contain a stirrer to account for the mechanical energy produced),
which will then be measured calorimetrically.


-- 
Hungry and out of work?  Eat a republican.