New Britain herald., 1928-03-08
FUELLESS MOTOR
 IDEA IS NOT NEW
Five Patents Already Listed in
 Washington Files

Washington. March s UP)-Five patents on inventions, believed to embody q principle similar to that of the so-called "fuelless motor" re- gently credited to Lester J. Henler- shot of Pittsburgh. have already been granted by the L. $. patent office, the United Press learned to- day.
 Two Date Back
 All five of the inventions. two dat ing back to the last century. depend for their power on electricity extract cd from the air or the earth and each is claimed 10 operate without fuel or batteries.
 Experts at the patent office be- lieve the devices to be commercially vaiueless and impracticable.
 Patents could not be obtained on them today as inventors are now re- quired to demonstrate the feasibility as well as the novelty of their brain children.
 The first apparatus of this type was patented year before the Civil War. 1860, by H. [. Nion, a resident of Paris, who wanted to protect his invention in this country.
 Eion's idea was to extract cleo tricity from the clouds and also from the earth by means of cap tive balloon and a wire conductor. His invention was derived from Ben- jamin Franklin's electrical eXperi- nlents with a kite and a key. Posi- tive electricity from the atmosphere was to be united with negative cur rents from tho ground in Nion's ap- paratua thus forming an electrical pile of considerable power"
 This invention was later improved upon by a Philadelphian. William L. Pennock. who in 1909 obtained q patent on a similar device to cap' ture electricity from the clouds and carry 1t through wires to an "energ> accumulator." Pennock later took out | second patent covering modi' ned apparatus based on the same principle.
 By hts invention. Pennock asserted he could transform, the electrici,.' or dinarily dissipated as lightning into usable power. He proposed 10 dc this by transmitting the energy iron! the rare upper strata of the atmos' phere to the earths surface whore i was to be stored for use.
 Another Way
 Still another method of extracting electricity from the air was patent ed in 1901 by A. Palenscar. of Buda pest. Hungary. who proposed to re lease energy by condensing wate' droplcts in the air. He submitted sketches of an elaborate arrange ment to "stcp down" the power thu generated.
 One of the most complicated schemes was patented in 1872 b! William H. Ward, of Auburn, N. Y. who proposed a. plan whereby cleo tricity in the air was to be projected from ono tait tower to another. Thes towers were supposed to draw tn electricity from the surrounding at mosphcre and then release 1t in th direction of the prevailing winds whch were to carry the energy t' other towers, thus setting up sys tenn of electrical communication dis tantly akin to modern radio.
 Such inventions, which depend ol atn, osrheric electricity for fhei power, are commercially Worthles because they cannot be relied upo 10 provide an ample supply of powe at the particular time it is needed, said H. c. Harris, assistant exam iner.
 "The amount of electricity in tn air varies ccnsidera bly. there bein . greater quantity during a storr than at any other time, and no con stant source of power would be avail able. The cost of these invention would far exceed any power the might give. They are simply ridicn lous In the light of modern kno"l AdHer