I suppose that a large capacitor bank could let loose and so some damage, but in this case I recall that mechanical shrapnel did the damage. Most likely this was a result of the engine running at too high of a speed.
Dave -----Original Message----- From: Eric Walker <[email protected]> To: vortex-l <[email protected]> Sent: Mon, Dec 31, 2012 8:57 am Subject: Re: EXTERNAL: Re: [Vo]:Papp and Water On Sun, Dec 30, 2012 at 7:40 PM, David Roberson <[email protected]> wrote: I am fairly confident that these inventors do not claim that the electrical energy recovered due to the returning piston is significant compared to the mechanical output. I haven't followed this detail up to now. Here I am way out of my depth, but consider the following: * There is probably a high-capacity capacitor bank in most models that is used in part to create an electric arc in the gas. * When Feynman pulled the plug during the demo, the engine was ok for a little while, and then Papp got nervous, and then there was an explosion and some weird liquid. * In one of the kits (Bob's? John's?), a coil has been omitted; presumably this coil when present will have the effect of recovering some electricity through inductance, whatever else it does. What if in the Feynman incident the capacitor bank was somehow maxed out and then released its magic smoke? Eric
