THE SWISS M-L CONVERTER

It's Secret: Why it operates 'Over-Unity'


Copyright, Harold Aspden, 2000


This machine is a 'free-energy generator' and several versions of it are in operation at a Christian community site, close to the village of Linden in the Emmental valley, an isolated valley high in the Swiss Alps. The M-L (Methernita-Linden) converter is, by all accounts, little more than a form of 'influence machine', closely resembling the Wimshurst machine that many of us in bygone years saw operating in our school physics laboratory. However, this Swiss community version of that machine happens to generate useful electric power output without needing any energy input other that a gentle pull on the discs to set them in motion.

The question which every 'free energy' researcher might well ask is: "Why does it work?".

Having just read an article on the machine by Lev Sagopin, which appeared at pp. 64-65 of the No. 32 issue, 2000 of Infinite Energy, and which reported some of the history connected with this machine, I am prompted to make the following observations.

I had, from my impressions of what I have read and heard about this Swiss activity, already formed the conclusion that the very capable people of that community that were specifically involved in its construction and operation do not themselves really understand why it works. One suspects that originally the idea was to build a normal operating Wimshurst-type machine, possibly intending it to be driven by a windmill, and that, somehow, instead of having to keep it turning by feeding power input, the machine took off and ran itself. Why else would those of the community build several modified versions of the machine? Why else would they allow Stefan Marinov to 'get a device' (as Lev Sagopin words it) after visiting the community twice (July 1988 and February-March 1989), if it was not to probe into and decipher its mode of operation so as help the community to understand its operational principle? Maybe the secret is so well kept, because the Community itself does not know the secret and so cannot disclose it anyway!

This is speculation, but it struck a chord with me when I read in the Lev Sagopin article:
"He (Marinov) got a device with the power of 300 W at 0.3 A for study in his laboratory. As far as I (Sagopin) have understood, even the inventor of this device does not completely understand its working principle and, therefore, out of scientific curiosity he got in touch with Marinov."

So I will, in this fifth of my Energy Science Essay 2000 series, give my opinion as to why the Swiss M-L Converter works as an 'over-unity' or 'free energy' machine.

First, I need to refer to a little of the background of my own theoretical research in fundamental physics. It is not really all that surprising to encounter a problem as to why something begins to spin for no apparent reason. The prime example is the solar system. The sun rotates and all its planets orbit the sun in the same direction. That means that collectively they possess an enormous angular momentum. What was it that delivered that angular momentum? What could the sun push against to initiate its spin?

Oh, I know this is a problem confronted in history and answered in the past by saying that the planets were created when a passing star came close to the sun, something that was deemed statistically to be so unlikely that the sun was seen as unique in having planets, from which reasoning our Earth was seen as the only abode in the universe for anything living.

I also know that the problem was swept away when the Big Bang hypothesis took off. That angular momentum could then be balanced by the counter rotation of some other stellar object which has since been carried far off by the cosmic expansion.

However, apart from deciphering the grand mechanism of the aether which did set stars rotating as they were created, I became interested in anomalous effects involving rotation on a smaller scale. Now, I cannot justify going into all the details of my research on this that have been published elsewhere, so I will advance here by quoting some conclusions that I reached from my theoretical investigations into aether phenomena. By that I stress that I do mean serious investigations within the discipline of physics, i.e. nothing mystical or spiritual.

It was on page 33 of my book 'Modern Aether Science', published in 1972, that I began to explain at considerable length why certain unexplained phenomena involving rotation indicated involvement of aether in a state of spin. The prime example was the Earth's magnetism, notably its field distribution at different depths below the ground. Professors of physics, even a Nobel Laureate here in U.K., were going to incredible lengths to prove or disprove the hypothesis that matter, as a function of mass, has an intrinsic property of developing a magnetic field when in a state of spin. My case was that it is the aether, and displacement of charge in the aether, when spinning, that develops the magnetic field. An example was the experiment performed by Professor Blackett (reported in 1952) in which he somehow acquired a very large gold test specimen which he installed in a special test location far removed from anything electrical that could produce a magnetic field. His assumption was that its very high mass density would concentrate its intrinsic magnetism as induced by its rotation with body Earth and his attempted measurement involved an extremely sensitive magnetometer. The result was a null result, the reason being that the aether in which the real charge effect producing a component of the Earth's magnetic field is not concentrated by the presence of matter. However, the aether did not and still does not feature as an element in the working vocabulary of the physicist of the mid 20th century, nor does it even now. Accordingly, mystery still surrounds the truths about the cause of the Earth's magnetic field. Remember here that one has to explain how, periodically, at intervals of the order of 100,000 years, the Earth's magnetic field can reverse, but the Earth still keeps rotating in the same direction. Remember also that the axis of the Earth's magnetic field actually precesses about the Earth's axis of spin, as the magnetic north and south poles migrate around the geographical poles. I can see sense in aether moving through matter, just as matter moves through aether, and so that precession of aether spin relative to body Earth is not a theme one can dismiss lightly.

It was in 1980 that I published a full updated theoretical account presenting the qualitative and quantitative details of this relationship between matter and aether, including a theoretical derivation of the strength of the Earth's geomagnetic field and the energy involved in aether spin. That was in my book 'Physics Unified', but in 1980 I knew nothing about the the evolving world of 'free energy'. I had never heard of that Swiss community or any of the pioneers of 'free energy' that we hear about today, other than Tesla, of course, who I knew, from somewhere in my early studies of electrical engineering, had played an important role in the history of invention pertaining to the induction motor.

Evenso, my awareness and interest in certain anomalies concerning charge induction, electromagnetism and rotation having aether undertones, inspired by the progress of my theoretical work, led me to write the following on page 188 of 'Physics Unified':
"Note that we are led from the analysis of the optical experiments by reference to Fig. 20 in Chapter 3 to suspect that there can be local rotation of space lattice in the presence of rotating apparatus. However, it would be absurd to suggest that the lattice could readily rotate at full speed of rotation of the apparatus and pass undetected in our observations. Accordingly, there must be a mechanism limiting the rate of rotation under normal circumstances. Equally, one should not exclude the prospect that it might be possible to induce rapid rotation of the space lattice under certain circumstances.

This raises all kinds of interesting questions. We have seen that an electrical charge induction within matter can stimulate the spin of the space lattice. Once spinning as a result of the deployment of this electrical energy, there is a radial lattice particle displacement which generates a magnetic field and holds electric charge in matter in a compensating electric balance. The body and rotating space lattice will tend to stay together in their onward migration through space. Therefore, should it not be possible within the laboratory to establish the coupled rotation of a body and the coextensive space lattice? The answer must be affirmative and the consequence is that we have here basis for putting this theory to its test, possibly with practical consequences."

So you see, here I was, in 1980, coming from a very fundamental insight into the workings of the aether and beginning to see the ultimate prospect of something practical evolving from an understanding of the aether spin connection.

However, in 1980 I was still locked in my career pursuit, earning my living as European Director of Patent Operations in a international corporation and not as a professor in academia having laboratory facilities, laboratory technicians and research students under my wing. I could not research the above subject at the laboratory bench, nor, admittedly, could I at that time define a clear research route with 'free energy' machines in my sights. After all, I had never heard of that scenario other than in the context of 'perpetual motion' machines, which I knew were outlawed in Patent Law from my professional patent training and outlawed in physical law from my scientific education.

Neverless, in that book in 1980 I was making the point that the theme I was writing about could have practical consequences. Indeed, I stressed this point further on page 189 of the book when I wrote:
"Within the laboratory there is evidently scope for seeking to induce 'vacuum spin'. An electrical or magnetic coupling is needed and there is scope for tapping some of the angular momentum of the space medium. Thus any experiment in which there appears anomalous torque deserves more serious attention than one would think."

Now, it was ten or so years on from this 1980 period that I first heard about the claims of Bruce DePalma concerning over-unity performance of his homopolar generator. Here was a rotating metal disc, operating in conjunction with a magnetic field acting along its spin axis, in effect a Faraday disc machine, something I had read about in my electrical education, allegedly delivering more electrical power output than was needed as input to spin the disc. Now, of course, that raised my eyebrows a little. It was not beyond my prowess as a Ph.D. for research in electromagnetic phenomena, to formulate the theory of the Faraday disc motor and conclude that there was a sound energy balance sheet for its operation. Equally, however, my career pursuit in patent work involving the realm of electrotechnology, my earlier years even being in the heavy electrical industry, had made me attentive to the workings of what inventors claimed as their brainchild. One does not discard an inventor's claim as 'rubbish', just because it sounds somewhat out-of-line with past experience. Invention does take one into new territory intellectually. But here, I was not looking at Bruce DePalma's claim with a view to protecting it by a patent. My sole interest was curiosity, curiosity stimulated by having written about that 'vacuum spin' theme in that 1980 book some ten years earlier.

Yes, I could see the connection. I had the explanation, but I could also see the practical problems. The machine output was enormous current at low voltage, mainly drawn from the power input spinning the disc, but some drawn from the added drive from the injection of angular momentum from that vacuum spin phenomenon. Bruce DePalma had a machine that did display an over-unity performance but it overheated too quickly and it was a seemingly transient effect and lacked a steady inflow of excess energy.

The reason, as I saw it, was that the vacuum spin coupling in responding to the radial electric charge displacement in the disc, as produced by a metal conductor rotating through a magnetic field, is a one-off event. The inflow of aether energy and angular momentum is a once only event at start up, unless something is done to set up pulsations. Either the magnetic field has to vary cyclically in strength or the disc speed has to change cyclically, if there is to be a continuous succession of incoming energy surges. The induction of wasteful eddy-currents precludes magnetic field strength change and the inertia of a heavy spinning wheel precludes speed change. These factors explain why attempts by others to replicate DePalma's findings, with two or three notable exceptions, have been met with failure.

However, suppose we have two non-metallic discs rotating close together about the same axis but in opposite directions. Assume that the spin with their axis somewhat in the direction of the horizontal component of the Earth's magnetic field. It is a weak field compared with that of an electromagnet, but it will still develop a radial electric field in any radial strips of metal film cemented to those discs. One disc will develop a positive potential at its rim relative to its axis and the other disc will develop a negative potential at its rim. Suppose now that, in response to that weak radial electric field, the aether coextensive with the each disc, reacts to displace aether charge and so compensates for the electric charge displaced in the metal strips. The aether must spin and in so doing it must import angular momentum and so energy from the enveloping universal expanse of aether. As with the DePalma machine this can only occur as a one-off event, unless there is some action that causes a pulsation.

Now ask yourself what one has with a Wimshurst-type machine. There are two discs rotating in opposite directions. Each disc has several radially orientated metal plates cemented to its surface. As the plates sweep past one another there is electric charge induction, which charge builds up, being a negative (electron) charge displacement radially outwards in one disc and effectively a positive charge displacement radially outwards in the other disc, the latter really being the radially inward displacement of electron charge. Assuming that a common base potential applies at the axis, a difference in potential is thereby set up between the rim regions of the closely-adjacent discs, and the result is the steady recurrence of arc discharges between those rim regions owing to the quite high voltages induced.

Here then is the pulsation which resets the machine to accept another inflow of vacuum spin energy and angular momentum. Instead of providing a drive mechanism, with its gearing or pulleys and friction problems, as with a normal Wimshurst machine, just suppose the discs are left free to turn, but they are put in slow rotation rotation by a hand start. Need you then be surprised if you hear that they keep on turning of their own accord, given that you have understood what I have reported by reference to the above quotations in my 1980 book 'Physics Unified'?

Note that there is no forced cyclic change of disc speed in this case. Their speed is steady. Note also that there is no fluctuation of the Earth's magnetic field strength. It is steady. But there is the rapid periodic upset of the electric charge priming as the influence machine performs its normal role of causing cycles of charge and discharge, so upsetting the equilibrium of the 'vacuum spin' response and thereby causing the aether to disgorge parcels of energy and angular momentum continuously. Presumably by the use of electric brush connections to tap into that disc potential, some of that energy appears as electrical output and is collected and put to use by that community using the M-L Converter. The inflow of angular momentum overcomes any frictional and windage effects and keeps the 'wheels' of the machine, those discs, turning.

That, in summary, is my explanation of the reason for the 'free energy' operation of the M-L Converter. It is another step forward in the story of the aether, but I suspect that the technology involved in this particular design of machine is not going to be of much significance in the commercial exploitation of future 'free energy' methods. One needs to look elsewhere.

The next Essay in this 2000 series presents some further background information relating to this 'vacuum spin' topic.


H. Aspden
September 2, 2000

If you wish now to see the next Essay in this 2000 series then press:

Unexplained Phenomenon