It strikes me that use of a low electron affinity donor electrode
(e.g. zinc, nil affinity) opposed to a high electron affinity
electrode (e.g. zinc, affinity 128) using a thin charge transport
bearing separator medium (e.g. paper) which is sensitive to humidity
(i.e. the charge transporter water vapor) is a terrific alternative
(and new?) explanation of the dry pile:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_pile
It is totally plausible (to me anyway) that the dry pile is driven by
thermal energy, not electrolytic energy, and that the plates are not
substantially consumed in the process.
One dry pile, the Clarendon Dry Pile has been in operation more than
160 years:
http://www.physics.ox.ac.uk/history.asp?page=Highlights
Let's see if an analysis can tell us anything of interest.
A 2 mm diameter sphere is driven between battery poles at a rate of 2
Hz. The voltage is not given, but for dry piles it is typically
"thousands" so let's assume it is 2000 V.
The potential of a sphere or radius r with charge Q is:
V = Q/(4 Pi e0 r)
so the capacitance C is
C = Q/V = 4 Pi e0 r
and for the 2 mm ball (assuming it is on an insulating rod) is
C = Q/V = 4 Pi e0 (2 mm) = 1.265x10^-13 F
The current i it carries is:
i = Q (2 /sec) = 4x10^-10 A
and its power P is:
P = i v = 8.9x10^-8 W
which is totally credible as coming from ambient heat. That cell
could be a genuine certifiable Type II perpetual motion machine.
(Look out Patent office, HERE THEY COME!)
The total energy E produced by the machine in t=160 years is
E = P t = (8.9x10^-8 W) (160 y) = 449 J
Unfortunately this is too little to determine perpetual motion
without disassembling the machine to examine chemical changes.
Now, is it a practical source of power? It power surface area
density rho_area is:
rho_area = P/A = (8.9x10^-8 W)/(Pi (1cm)^2)) = 8.9x10^-4 W/m^2
That's about .89 mW for a pile 1 meter square, about 1/3 meter high.
Not very practical. That's a power density rho of
rho = rho_area/(.33 m) = 2.7 mW/m^3
However, if the cell were operated in pulsed mode, with capacitance
separated acceptor and donor plates, an in a hot environment, using
engineered components, engineered based on the stated principles that
is, the energy output should be greater by orders of magnitude.
An ideal solar device would accept about 1000 W/m^2, while a think
pile produces about a mW/m^2, so the performance would have to be
boosted 6 orders of magnitude to get a perfect solar cell, and at
that it would be about 33 cm thick. It don't know if this is
possible or not. Finding a very good triboelectric charge exchange
mechanism at the donor end of the cell is key.
So, suppose the solar angle were out. The type II perpetual motion
thing is definitely a worthwhile possibility to pursue it seems to
me. An efficiency boost of 5 orders of magnitude seems realistic.
That would provide a power density of 270 W/m^3. A house could be
comfortably run on a 10 m^3 device, or 2.7 kW, assuming batteries are
used and especially if other solar measures are used too. That's a
box buried in the back yard which is about 1 meter square and 10
meters long. Spare solar hot water or solar or wind power driving a
heat exchanger could be used to help keep it hot. Or..., if you
really want to drive patent examiners crazy, and live in the south,
just run it off of ambient heat. 8^)
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
