Now, it was ten or so years on from this 1980 period that I first heard about the claims of Bruce DePalma concerning over-unity performance of his homopolar generator. Here was a rotating metal disc, operating in conjunction with a magnetic field acting along its spin axis, in effect a Faraday disc machine, something I had read about in my electrical education, allegedly delivering more electrical power output than was needed as input to spin the disc. Now, of course, that raised my eyebrows a little. It was not beyond my prowess as a Ph.D. for research in electromagnetic phenomena, to formulate the theory of the Faraday disc motor and conclude that there was a sound energy balance sheet for its operation. Equally, however, my career pursuit in patent work involving the realm of electrotechnology, my earlier years even being in the heavy electrical industry, had made me attentive to the workings of what inventors claimed as their brainchild.
Invention does take one into new territory intellectually.
But here, I was not looking at Bruce DePalma's claim with a view to protecting it by a patent. My sole interest was curiosity, curiosity stimulated by having written about that 'vacuum spin' theme in that 1980 book some ten years earlier. Yes, I could see the connection. I had the explanation, but I could also see the practical problems. The machine output was enormous current at low voltage, mainly drawn from the power input spinning the disc, but some drawn from the added drive from the injection of angular momentum from that vacuum spin phenomenon.