VanDerWal, Peter MSgt wrote: > You guys aren't still buying into this are you? You did read the part > where he claims that his box basically collects and amplifies static > electricity...right? You do realize that it isn't possible to power > a car this way...right? ... The man is a fraud, let it rest.
Let's not cross the line from skeptic into cynic until we see how his test turns out. Sure, I have my doubts (MAJOR doubts!). But I also know that many great inventions were accidental discoveries, and their inventor's initial explanations were often far off the mark. Lee DeForest patented the vacuum tube, yet his patent and statements about the device make it clear that he didn't have the faintest idea how it worked. "Collecting" static electricity is fairly easy. There are lots of electrostatic generators. Of course, they all require some form of energy input (no free lunch). But some of the sources of this energy can be pretty obscure (friction, sky current, etc.). "Amplifies" could just be a layman's term for transforming high-voltage low-current into low-voltage high-current. As for not powering things with static electricity, let me tell you about a friend of mine. He had an old TV antenna on his roof. He observed that if you undgrounded it, it picked up a significant "static" voltage even in clear weather (and vastly more during a thunderstorm, of course). He connected it to a huge bank of capacitors, and it did indeed charge them up and could power loads with them (mainly, to light gas discharge tubes, briefly run electrostatic motors, or produce hellish arcs to entertain friends :-). It's not so much that you can't do things with static electricity; it's just that the leakage currents get so bad that it's hard to get any kind of efficiency out of them. -- Lee A. Hart Ring the bells that still can ring 814 8th Ave. N. Forget your perfect offering Sartell, MN 56377 USA There is a crack in everything leeahart_at_earthlink.net That's how the light gets in - Leonard Cohen
