Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1913-03-28
Electricity From The Air.
From the Baltimore Sun.

FROM the Baltimore Sun.
Working quietly in the heart of Balti
more for weeks on an invention which
some critics say will revolutionize the
method of converting electricity to prac.
teal use has been Roy j. Meyers. who, like
Benjamin Franklin. extracts the electric cur.
rent from the air.
Mr.. Meyers invention was made last
summer while he was confined in the peni.
Tertiary at Florence. Ariz. His first fin
ished apparatus was made in Baltimore
assembled in the Home Bank Building,
Lombard and Hanover streets, and tried
out on the roof Of that edifice.
A practical, unlettered, electrician, Mr.
Meyers, while in Arizona, was arrested on
comparatively minor charge and sent tO
the penitentiary. There he was placed in
charge of the prison electrical plant, and
there he says he made his discovery that
the current which the civilized world Is
beginning to use most extensively for light
and power could be transformed from the
atmosphere without the aid Of moving
machines or batteries.
Miss Kate Barnard, Commissioner Of
Charities and Correction of Oklahoma
hearing of Meyers invention and of his
desire to have it patented, appeared be-
fore the Arizona Legislature to make an
appeal in behalf Of the young convict
AS a result special bill was passed which
granted Meyers month"; leave of absence
on parole. He went unaccompanied I'd
Washington, filed his patent applications
and returned to the penitentiary. Since
then he has been indefinitely paroled.
He came to Baltimore as the place where
he could easily obtain the mechanical
parts needed to make more nearly per-
feet machine than the crude model he
had fashioned in the penitentiary work
shop. and is making his headquarters here
while working on his invention. With
him is W. f. ChenOt. who has been his
assistant in assembling and testing the
machine, and who says that he has bought
Meyers patent rights for Germany.
'In our tests here this week." said Mr..
Chenot. I'VE have proved beyond doubt
that the invention is practical and that
when finally brought to a state of perfec-
ton ii will introduce new epoch in the
industrial use Of electricity. By Westing-
house meters we tested the strength of the
current gathered from the air, and with
AilC use vi OIly NWO VI lOut
transformers the vOlmeter recorded four
and one-half volts. and the ammeter, which
had the capacity of recording rs volts. was
broken by the force of the current"
The machine itself is simple 1t is in
reality transformer, which is familiar to
anyone knowing anything at all about
electricity in its practical uses. On a high
tripod, which resembles somewhat the
framework Of a windmill, is the trans
former, which Mr.. Meyers calls his lab
sorber." II is made up Of an iron core,
wrapped with copper wire. The secret Of
the invention is the manner in which the
disks composing this "absorber" are mag
netized, and this secret Meyers says he
found by accident while at work in prison
What the machine. when finally perfect.
ed. will do is yet to be seen. Its inventor
claims that ii will greatly reduce the cost
Of making electricity. No batteries of any
kind are needed, he says, and not a part Of
the machine turns upon the other. II is
as durable. apparently, as an electric light
pole. One of these machines, says Meyers,
when perfected may be placed on vehi-
| Gle and transform enough electricity to give
motive power, be that vehicle locOmo-
tive or an automobile. He declared il can
be placed on building to furnish electric
| lights or power, and that the only wear
will be upon the machinery which its cur
rent runs.
Meyers is 81 years old and he gained
his knowledge of electricity by working IL
shops along the Pacific Coast. The depths
of the mysteries Of electricity he has moi
explored, but he is certain that he has
found the means Of absorbing it from the
air and of converting it to the uses Of
mankind.