The Appendix on Cold Fusion incorporated in the patent specification has been presented on the foregoing Web page. This Web page presents the main body of the specification and claims of the patent. The patent was issued on March 31, 1998.
Apparatus is disclosed in which a pair of elongated solid cylindrical metal conductors mounted with their central axes mutually parallel are connected at their ends to form a closed electrical circuit path, there being heat sinks at spaced positions along their length which serve as heat transfer means setting up a temperature gradient along the lengths of the conductors. A strong electrical current flow in the conductors creates a circumferential magnetic field in the metal directed at right angles to the heat flow and this, by the Nernst Effect, produces a radial electric field gradient in the metal coupled with the transient accumulation of stored electrical energy. The apparatus disclosed serves for the experimental testing of energy conversion and storage by thermoelectric processes occurring in the metal and the ultimate utilization of the technology involved.
The invention is only concerned with specific novel and non-obvious features of apparatus to be utilized in the onward experimental research and the eventual technological applications which can exploit these energy anomalies.
This application is filed as a continuation-in-part deriving from U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 08/191,381 because the apparatus as described in the specification of that application and its original counterpart U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 07/480,816 was presented in the context of its suggested relevance to what has come to be termed 'cold fusion' and it is expressly affirmed that, though the conception of this invention may owe its origin to inspiration connected with that theme, this subject continuation-in-part application application makes no claim dependent upon 'cold fusion'.
The invention concerns electrical apparatus aimed specifically at setting up an orthogonal interaction between a magnetic field and a temperature gradient in an electrical conductor, ostensibly for no apparent purpose since this involves power loss. However, by the Nernst Effect, there is then an electric field set up in the conductor in the mutually orthogonal direction and the consequences of this in the apparatus configuration of this invention are a basic research pursuit concerning a certain energy anomaly which gives the invention utility at least as experimental apparatus.
However, notwithstanding the fact that the claims of this specification are not specific to the 'cold fusion' theme, this should not be regarded as a disclaimer of rights should what has come to be known as 'cold fusion' eventually develop as a specific application of the apparatus covered by the claims.
As support justifying this statement and as a matter of documentary record, but without it being part of the detailed patent description needed to support the claims, a commentary is added at the end of this specification as an 'Appendix' aimed at providing some general scientific background. The text of this Appendix was written in October 1993 with the intention of using it as a scientific statement to support a petition to revive the parent U.S. Patent Application No. 07/480,816, it having been deemed abandoned owing to the Applicant's non-response to an Examiner's communication dated December 16th, 1992. The latter was presumably lost in the Christmas mail load as it was never received by the Applicant in U.K. The appended commentary has not hitherto been disclosed and so cannot be quoted by way of reference to a scientific publication of record.
The primary example known to this Applicant is the subject of his own Ph.D. research, which dates from the 1950-1953 period. In electrical sheet steel as used in power transformers the eddy-current losses are known to exceed the basic theoretical design expectation by a factor which can be 50% in thick laminations but much higher, even as high as a ten-fold increase, in thin cold-reduced grain-oriented laminations magnetized at 90o to the rolling direction. More familiar values are loss factors of 2 or 3.
As noted in this Applicant's published scientific papers on the subject in the 1950 era, for those materials which overall had an anomaly loss factor of 2, research revealed that much of this rate of loss occurred over the low flux density range in a B-H magnetization cycle which operated between high flux densities.
Although the Applicant researched numerous aspects of how the loss could be affected, as by mechanical stress, excitation waveform distortion, d.c. polarization bias and especially loss rate factor at progressive stages around the B-H magnetization loop, the outcome of that research did not reveal a satisfactory final account of the hidden mysteries implicit in the loss mechanism. Indeed, the subject has subsequently become dormant and is now virtually forgotten, as electrical engineers avoid the underlying theory and take manufacturer's specifications of empirical loss properties as their input data for computer design analysis structured on standard theory.
This introduction is relevant because the Applicant has recently come to realise why those losses in electrical sheet steels are enhanced and the reason, seen now in retrospect, is quite simple. Furthermore, there are certain new technological implications extending to the field of the subject invention.
Hysteresis and eddy-current losses produce heat. The heat must flow from the electrical sheet steel lamination and it tends to flow laterally in the plane of the lamination in its width direction to find the shortest route to the ambient cooling medium, whether that be air or oil. The laminations, if thin enough, of the order of 200 microns, and if of good electrical steel quality with large crystals, will have in those crystals what are known as magnetic domains. These are regions of the order of 100 microns across in which the steel is magnetized to saturation in one of three mutually orthogonal axial directions fixed by the body-centred crystal structure in iron. Now, when heat flows crosswise to a strong magnetic field, we know from our knowledge of thermoelectricity that it results in an electric field set up in the mutually orthogonal direction. This is the Nernst Effect and it really amounts to there being a magnetic deflection of the flow of electrical charge in its collisional activity as the transporter of heat. What happens is that the thermal motion is deflected sideways so that the heat flow is arrested by the charge stacking up at the side surfaces of the lamination to set up the electric field. Heat energy is converted into electrical energy and the magnetic field merely serves as a catalyst, acting to divert charge in motion by a well-known force law named after Lorentz. The charge is that of the heat carriers, the free electrons inside the iron. To explain how this accounts for the eddy-current loss anomaly, one only needs then to realise that the heat will flow one way in the laminations through a succession of magnetic domains and the circuital eddy-currents induced by a.c. magnetization will cross from being adjacent one surface of the lamination to the other and so in the same directional sense as the induced electric field. The direction of polarization of a magnetic domain will determine whether an opposing or assisting electric field is provided by that Nernst Effect, but the current flow will always take the path of least resistance, meaning that it will opt for passage through the domain offering the assisting field. In short, owing to the conversion of the heat into electricity, there is an aiding EMF in the eddy-current circuital flow and this means that much higher currents will flow than are expected from basic theory. In turn, though this has involved cooling as energy is converted from heat into electricity, this electricity then adds to the eddy-current strength and regenerates heat, more heat than is expected from theory which ignores the Nernst Effect and that means an anomalous loss. Of course, when the lamination is strongly magnetized so that the polarization of all magnetic domains tends to be in the same general direction, then the current loses its optional path and what it gains near one edge in making the traversal of the width of the laimination it loses at the other edge. The result is that the loss anomaly factor is quite small and indeed normal and close to theoretical prediction, being merely affected by structural inhomogeneities at the higher range of the B-H flux loop, as this Applicant's Ph.D. experimental research established.
The above is an example of a hitherto unexplained heat generation anomaly, important because it affects all electrical power apparatus using electrical sheet steel, which means virtually all motors and transformers and yet one which few scientists even know exists.
In this case, however, the thermal processes affected by magnetism convert heat into electricity in such a way that more heat is generated than is expected but it all is accounted for as input electricity and, though they have not understood the science involved, our scientists have given up and accepted the loss situation without explanation. It is only now, by chance, and arising from other research connected with this invention, that this Applicant has discovered the true explanation.
This further research was concerned with conversion of heat into electricity using intrinsically magnetized materials, typically nickel, in structures which were the subject of U.S. Patents 5,065,085, 5,288,336 and 5,376,184. In this research it was realised that when heat flows in nickel laminations and is diverted at a kHz frequency within that metal by a magnetic field so as to set up EMFs in the transverse sense and through a laminar capacitor stack built from those laminations, so one can take electrical power from the structure. It sustains oscillations by developing a negative resistance powered by heat input. This utilizes the Nernst Effect primarily and certain other thermoelectric effects for functional design reasons, but is a surprising development because one is not familiar with the role of magnetism as a catalyst in converting heat into electricity. Yet, in power technology in the 1960s, before it was pushed aside by the advent of nuclear power there was a new technology for generating electrical power developing known as magneto-hydro-dynamics (MHD) by which hot ionised gases passing through a magnetic field which diverted positive and negative ions in opposite transverse directions shed heat to produce that electrical power. The magnetic field was a mere catalyst but note that the heat was flowing as part of a moving electrically conductive medium, in that case a gas.
The three U.S. Patents just mentioned describe devices in which the heat to electricity conversion occurs within metal and, of course, one might then wonder if liquid electrolytes can offer prospect of a similar power conversion. Now, it is important to understand that, though we tend to believe otherwise, it is a scientific fact, known at least to those who really understand the operation of wave guides and reflective properties of surfaces, that a metal has what one can term a dielectric constant and an electric field gradient can exist in the body of a metal.
This brings us to another form of energy loss recently encountered in experimental electric motor research by this Applicant, but in this case what one sees, at least over a period of motor start-up, is a net energy loss drawn from an input source but no apparent destiny for the energy as output.
In a university research project in 1984 the Applicant investigated the effect of spinning a solid nylon cylinder mounted on a steel shaft and enclosed except at its ends in a surrounding cylindrical electrode, there being some 20,000 volts d.c. potential applied between the shaft and the electrode. The object of that research was to verify a theoretical prediction that a radial electric field could set up an electrical displacement partially in the nylon owing to its high dielectric constant and partially also in the underlying coextensive vacuum field medium. The latter is that associated with the displacement currents implicit in Maxwell's equations in electromagnetic theory. The theory researched by the Applicant affirmed that there would be a reaction in the form of a field energy spin which would store energy and which might be recoverable by inertial interaction.
The test rig had facilities for declutching the driving motor and allowing the slow spin-down of the nylon rotor to be timed to trace a connection with the level and duration of the voltage priming the action. In the event, the results did not meet expectation. If there was a 'vacuum spin' set up, it had no evident mechanical coupling with the nylon rotor.
Much later it was realised that the tests should have been performed using a metal rotor, even though only a very small radial electric field gradient could be set up in such a test apparatus. The point here is that electric charge displacement within the metal will promote a counterpart displacement in the underlying vacuum field medium and the charge would separate to form a surface charge of one polarity and a distributed internal charge of opposite polarity. By the principles of electrostatics, in a hollow and even in a solid metal conductor, the surface charge develops no back reaction field inside that conductor, and so any setting up of a radial electric field gradient within that metal rotor would transfer electrons to cause displaced charge of one polarity to be balanced at the surface by vacuum field displacement charge. The result is that charge of opposite polarity is held neutralized in the body of the metal by vacuum field displacement charge of the other polarity.
The expectation was that so long as the small radial EMF was maintained a quite significant current might flow to build-up more and more displaced charge which would defy detection by electrical sensing, but which would involve storage of energy by 'vacuum spin inertia' and energy could, possibly, be tapped by somehow reversing the radial EMF.
Though this was seemingly a speculative proposition, the underlying theory had recognized that a great deal of cosmology was connected with energy storage by rotation and its origin could best be linked with the setting up of radial electrical fields. An example here is the creation of a star by nucleation of protons preferentially in a neutral proton-electron plasma, compared with the electrons, owing to their stronger mutual gravitational attraction.
It was from this basis that the Applicant was able to understand something that emerged whilst testing a new kind of electric motor having axially mounted magnets in its rotor. This motor has become the subject of a pending GB. Patent Application No. 9,513,855 filed on July 7, 1995 (later published as GB 2,303,255). The corresponding U.S. Patent Application is Serial No. 08/579,991 filed on December 28, 1995.
When a magnet is rotated about its axis with its field penetrating a conductive rotor disc there is, as is well known from Michael Faraday's research, the induction of a radial EMF in that disc. This is what is needed to set up that 'vacuum field spin' condition which the Applicant had tried to trace in his earlier research. The test apparatus in this case included an electrical tachometer coupled to the rotor and affording a direct measure of the speed as well as an electrical d.c. drive motor powered by a stabilized voltage supply. The voltage and current were measured, the current being the variable as the motor gained speed. What was then noticed was that the particular apparatus tested could achieve a steady running speed in a few seconds but that the current input surge to the d.c. motor would reduce to its steady state value only over a much longer time period with a decay time constant of two or three minutes. This meant that there was an input of energy which was related to the speed-up process but which did not correspond to the mechanical machine requirements for that speed. Any transient electrical power effect would be expected to be of a thermal nature affecting motor resistance, but that should have implied a decreasing speed accompanying the smaller current, given that the supply voltage was steady.
It was concluded from such tests that a motor system including axially mounted magnets in its rotor structure, given an electrically conductive rotor, has an affinity on initial start-up for an excess input of energy which seems to be of inertial character but which is not the energy of the normal rotor inertia. An estimate from one set of tests suggested that the extra energy input could be as much as 20 times that needed to spin the motor inertially at the test speed. This has, of course, no practical significance unless one can find a way of recovering that energy, which is a subject now being pursued separately by the Applicant.
In the above background summary, however, a case has been set forth that shows how charge can be held effectively neutralized in a metal by the vacuum field electric charge displacement seated in that metal and how energy can be lost or stored anomalously by setting up a radial electric field in metal of cylindrical form. Also it has been explained how magnetic fields can develop electrical fields powered by heat. This background introduces the subject invention, which has the object of providing a particular form of non-rotating apparatus which is specially designed to set up anomalous energy effects based on the radial electric field in a metal conductor of circular cross-section.
According to the invention, thermoelectric energy conversion apparatus comprises (a) mutually parallel elongated cylindrical metal conductors disposed side by side with short bridging connecting conductor links at their ends so as to form a closed circuital loop, (b) a source of electrical input power and circuit control means for regulating the power delivered by the source to develop an a.c. voltage at a frequency less than 5 Hz, (c) an electrical transformer disposed between adjacent ends of the elongated conductors, the transformer having a primary winding connected to receive the power delivered and transform it into current in said metal conductors which are arranged to form the circuital loop as a secondary winding on the transformer, the connecting conductor link at the transformer position passing through the ferromagnetic aperture so as to constitute a segment of the secondary winding, and (d) two sets of heat sinks in thermal contact with the conductors at different positions along their length, with associated thermal transfer means for delivering and deploying heat, one set of heat sinks serving as a heat input source and one set serving as a heat output source, the a.c. current induced in the closed circuital loop being confined to passage through the elongated cylindrical metal conductors so as to develop a circumferential magnetic field about the conductor axis which interacts with heat flow along that axis to develop in turn an electric field within the conductor directed radially with respect to that axis.
According to a feature of the invention, in the apparatus there are only two elongated metal conductors connected by two bridging connecting conductor links to form a loop which is a single turn secondary winding on said transformer.
According to another feature of the invention, the elongated metal conductors are all of equal diameter and so equal cross-sectional area.
According to yet another feature of the invention, in the apparatus the circuit control means for regulating the power delivered by the source to develop an a.c. voltage at a frequency less than 5 Hz includes electronic power control circuit components which control the voltage waveform supplied to the transformer in an asymmetrical manner in which the voltage is lower and of longer duration in one polarity direction and higher but of shorter duration in the opposite polarity direction.
According to another feature of the invention, the apparatus includes two transformers aiding one another in powering the current flow in the conductor loop, these being toroidal transformers, one having a said bridging connecting conductor link passing through the central aperture of its toroidal core and the other having the other bridging connecting conductor link similarly passing through its central toroidial core aperture.
According to another feature of the invention, the elongated cylindrical metal conductors are enclosed in thermal insulation along their lengths between the heat sinks in order to confine heat flow to passage in an axial direction along the conductors.
In one prospective application of the apparatus provided by this invention, at least one of the elongated cylindrical conductors is immersed in a liquid electrolyte and forms a cathode in a circuit arranged to be supplied with d.c. power, there being a cylindrical anode and the elongated cathode conductor being located along the central axis of the cylindrical anode, whereby the electrolyte itself forms a moderately conductive medium subjected to d.c. radial electric field action but has negligible conductance relative to that of the elongated cathode conductor powered by the transformer.
Fig. 2 shows the cross-section of a cylindrical conductor in which a radial electric field is set up by the interaction of current and heat in passage axially through the conductor, it being noted that such current develops a circumferentially directed magnetic field.
Fig. 3 shows how electric charge, displaced radially in a cylindrical conductor can accumulate at the boundary surface of the conductor whilst compensating electric charge, has a distribution within the conductor corresponding to the electric potential sustained by the combined effect of heat and current flow.
Fig. 4 shows a contrasting situation where a parallel plate capacitor-type arrangement has charge displaced within the medium separating the plates so as to build charge distributions adjacent both plates, but with no intervening charge distribution.
Fig. 5 portrays a quantum spin field system which will be discussed in explaining why the radial electric field in a conductor can produce an unusual physical phenomenon deemed to warrant research attention using the apparatus provided by this invention.
Fig. 6 shows a configuration of heat flow from the ends to the centre of a cylindrical rod carrying current and producing an internal circumferential magnetic field, with exit of heat laterally from its middle region.
Fig. 7 shows a configuration alternative to that of Fig. 6 with the heat flows reversed.
Fig. 8 shows the apparatus including an anode cathode circuit and an elongated cylindrical conductor separately powered by a.c. as disclosed in the parent patent applications to which this subject application is related by its continuation.
Fig. 9 shows an apparatus which represents a preferred embodiment of this invention, there being a simple elongated rectangular conductor loop circuit including as its main components two mutually parallel solid cylindrical metal conductors with connected heat sinks.
Fig. 10 shows the waveform profile of a typical voltage waveform used to power current flow cyclically through the conductor loop at very low frequency.
Typically, E can be several volts per cm in a strong field of the order of one Tesla with dT/dx as one degree C per cm. In practice, however, the problem is that of setting up such a temperature gradient in a metal conductor and finding a convenient way in which to apply a strong magnetic field. Then there is the problem of deciding how to harness the electric field, because if it is used to supply electric power through a connected circuit, that circuit affects the heat flow path adversely and thwarts one's efforts to convert heat into electricity.
This invention aims at probing an ingenious route by which seek to exploit this source of energy.
The underlying concept is that if a solid cylindrical conductor carries a very strong current it will develop a strong circumferential magnetic field, particularly if it comprises nickel or iron. Then, given heat flow along that conductor, the radial electric field shown in Fig. 2 will develop. Of itself this may seem to be inconsequential, a condition sustained after an initial transient and deploying heat energy into electrical form only in measure related to the electrostatic charge energy stored by that E field. In a metal conductor this is something that most scientists would discount from warranting consideration.
However, assuming the magnetic field and the heat flow are sustained, that E field in a metal conductor means that electric current must flow, a very high current density even with a very low E field, and if there is no good conductor path to take from the surface of the conductor there will be a build-up of charge, eg. the negative charge depicted in Fig. 3, whilst a compensating distributed positive charge is set up in the body of the conductor. Note that if charge cannot flow out then, even though the conductor has a point of connection to an external circuit, there can be no inflow of charge either, because a balance has to prevail.
However, as the heat flows relentlessly through the conductor and the magnetic field is maintained, so the electric field persists in urging charge displacement. Now, in Fig. 4 we see what happens in a parallel plate capacitor when there is charge of opposite polarity on its separate plates. There is electric displacement even in the vacuum medium permeating the dielectric substance the intervening space. The Maxwell charge displacement is a transfer of charge in that vacuum medium with some also in the dielectric from positions adjacent one plate to positions adjacent the other. However, there is no distributed charge in that intervening space, because the parallel plate geometry sets up the uniformity of field gradient that implies no intervening charge sources.
This is not the case with the radial electric field conditions set up in the cylindrical conductor. For uniform heat flow across the cross-section and uniform current distribution, the magnetic field H increases linearly with radial distance from the central axis and so the field E must share that same relationship. It can only do this if there is a uniform distribution of charge, a uniform charge density, within the conductor. Here, then, with this unusual combination of heat flow and electric current in a solid metal conductor we have the most unusual condition of a build-up of charge inside the body of that metal. As with the situation in the dielectric between the plates of the capacitor, there has to be accompanying displacement of charge in the vacuum field medium, but any charge displaced to the perimeter surface of the conductor sets up no back-field, by the well known principles of electrostatics, so the charge of oposite polarity to that displaced to the surface region takes up positions where it can neutralize any onward build-up of charge by displacement in the metal.
This process occurs without any evident sign of its action and is a self-regulating process because any deployment of heat in setting up this neutralized charge system can only promote underlying field turbulence of some kind which sheds heat energy back again as instability sets in.
However, in looking deeper into the physics involved here, this Applicant has noted certain phenomena connected with quantum theory which imply linear harmonic properties of the vacuum field medium, suggestive of harmonious and synchronized jitter-type motion of charge seated in the vacuum. This action is connected with the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and the forces governing, for example, the value of the fine-structure constant, which is a dimensionless expression relating Planck's action quantum, the speed of light and the unitary fundamental electri charge in physics. The synchronous motion of that vacuum charge seems to have a far reaching cosmic influence but superimposed on this there is the thermal and Fermi type motions once the effects spread into matter as such.
The point of relevance here is that when a spherical or cylindrical volume of the vacuum medium is affected by an electric field radial to the centre in that sphere or the central axis in the cylinder, then the harmonious jitter of the vacuum charge will lose its strict synchronism with that cosmic background. If it cannot, because it is phase-locked, then it must itself be displaced radially and at the same time its bodily distribution, meaning its lattice system, must develop a rotational motion about the centre or that central axis, albeit with some dependence upon orientation in space.
What this amounts to, so far as the subject invention is concerned, is that the quantum interactions through the space medium can bring into a focal system energy needed to set the vacuum medium in spin as governed by the need to cancel that radial electric field. There is then scope for wondering whether the switch-off or reversal of that radial electric field will unleash this energy and either result in it being shed to our material environment as excess heat or possibly becoming something that can be tapped in a controlled way to develop mechanical rotation or even electrical power directly.
So far as this subject patent application is concerned the objective is to provide apparatus by which to research the thermal theme, though the Applicant has already discovered evidence supporting what is said above in his research on electric motors.
Though Fig. 5 is merely an outline depicting what has been said above about the vacuum state, it is of interest to consider what happens if a sphere comprising such a medium rotates bodily whilst those minor spins shown all stay in synchronism. As each is seated in charge neutralized by a background charge continuum, the larger motion with the sphere will cause them to move faster when furthest away in their minor orbits from the central axis of rotation of the sphere and slower when closer to that axis, assuming the sphere rotates in the same spin direction. This means a loss of synchronism instant by instant but it can be avoided by appropriate radial displacement of the system of vacuum charge in measure related to the angular speed of the sphere. This is a very fundamental process which assuredly underlies the reality of the physical world. One early example of the power of the theory involved here is disclosed by the Applicant and co-author Dr. D. M. Eagles in Physics Letters 41A, 423 (1972).
The essential point is that the setting up of a radial electric field within a conductive medium can induce a spin reaction in a coextensive spherical or cylindrical volume of the vacuum field medium and this involves both Maxwell-type electric charge displacement and the ingress of energy from the quantum underworld of space itself. That energy can remain hidden and be inaccessible unless we can devise ways of releasing it as by heat, but there is a way because this source of energy undoubtedly is the priming source for many natural phenomena on a cosmic scale.
Although this invention is not directed at the 'cold fusion' theme it will be understood from what has been explained above that the anomalous generation of heat claimed by those involved with 'cold fusion' research and the presence of a positive charge distribution within a metal conductor when heat and electric current flow combine in a certain way are suggestive. The existence of a positive ion charge balanced by vacuum charge displacement on a microfine scale implies the possibility of two positive ions easily merging owing to the aethereal nature of the negative charge that neutralizes their mutual force interactions.
This will explain why this patent application is linked by continuation with an original patent application filed shortly after the 'cold fusion' scenario was initiated.
However, here the subject is in no way concerned with the processes underlying what is termed 'cold fusion', but applies essentially to apparatus useful in research aimed at exploring heat energy anomalies.
More specifically, the subject invention is concerned with the apparatus shown in typical form in Fig. 9.
Here there is emphasis on the structural feature of making the condctor circuit of minimal resistance, which requires a relatively thick conductor section elongated to give more operational length, but having in mind that parallel orientation of the conductors is essential for optimum effect.
There are two elongated solid cylindrical metal conductors 10, typically of nickel, which is ferromagnetic and has a high Nernst coefficient, and there are short bridging connecting conductor links 11 passing through the apertures in the two toroidal transformers 12. These have their primary windings connected to a source of a.c. power duly regulated electronically in a manner familiar to those skilled in the art of using power mosfet semiconductor devices. This source is not depicted in the drawings because it can take any form which assures a very low frequency input. The reason for this is that the very low resistance of the conductors 10 needs very little voltage to assure a current flow measured in hundreds of amps and owing to the thickness of the conductors, typically of one cm diameter, and the high magnetic permeability there is the need to avoid skin effects distorting the conduction properties. More important, however, there is the overriding need to allow time within the cyclic period for the radial electric field-dependent vacuum field spin condition to develop before reversing the action.
By keeping the frequency below 5 Hz, but preferably lower at less than 1 Hz, there is scope for sustaining a high current, notwithstanding the limit imposed by the transformer on the voltage-time integral which relates to the maximum magnetic flux condition of the transformer cores.A quite low voltage of 5 volts applied to a toroidal transformer with a 60 Hz primary rating of 300 volts will operate at 1 Hz and by switching the voltage of the power input electronically in the manner indicated in Fig. 10 the apparatus can be activated with a view to researching the possibile presence of anomalous heating.
Evenso, the apparatus cannot function unless there is some heat priming because, without the temperature gradient in the conductors 10, the current supplied by the tranformer will not produce the radial electric field in those conductors.
The heat sinks 13 and 14 are therefore provided. To minimize temparature drops in connecting interfaces, whilst assuring the electrical isolation of the conductor loop, the heat sinks have fins with large areas and are exposed to heat exchange by air or gas flow directed onto those fins. To restrict heat flow to passage through the conductors they can be lagged with thermal insulation (not shown in the drawings) but the very high rate of heat conduction in a solid metal conductor needs to be matched by a very high capacity for heat transfer at the heat sink surfaces.
In the apparatus described the heat sinks serve as the means for introducing heat priming, but should research using the apparatus result in anomalous heat generation the heat sinks become the means for utilizing that heat as a source of energy. Fig. 6 is self-explanatory in showing that heat inflow into both ends of a conductor from a source at temperature T' an egress from a mid region of the conductor at temperature T will develop a radial electric field provided a current I flows along the length of the conductor to develop a circumferential magnetic field H.
Should the heat flow be reversed as shown in Fig. 7 then there will still be a radial electric field, given electrical current flow, but the direction of the current can affect the direction of the radial electric field. Should anomalous heat be generated within the conductor in research tests using the apparatus shown in Fig. 9, then the outflow of heat from the ends of the conductor will, with the current reversed at an increased value in a short time interval, give scope for testing a variety of control conditions using the apparatus.
In summary, therefore, the invention provides a new means for investigating energy conversion techniques based on thermoelectric action relying on the Nernst Effect, whilst bringing in sight the technological prospect of tapping a source of energy linked to the quantum underworld that regulates the physics of our environment.
This disclosure complements a parallel innovation connected with rotating machines in which the conductor spins and generates an internal radial electric field owing to the presence of a magnet axially mounted in the rotor system.
2. Thermoelectric energy conversion apparatus according to claim 1, in which there are only two elongated metal conductors connected by two bridging connecting conductor links to form a loop which is a single turn secondary winding on said transformer.
3. Thermoelectric energy conversion apparatus according to claim 1, in which the elongated metal conductors are all of equal diameter and so equal cross-sectional area.
4. Thermoelectric energy conversion apparatus according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the circuit control means for regulating the power delivered by the source to develop an a.c. voltage at a frequency less than 5 Hz includes electronic power control circuit components which control the voltage waveform supplied to the transformer in an asymmetrical manner in which the voltage is lower and of longer duration in one polarity direction and higher but of shorter duration in the opposite polarity direction.
5. Apparatus according to claim 2, wherein there are two transformers aiding one another in powering the current flow in the conductor loop, these being toroidal transformers, one having a said bridging connecting conductor link passing through the central aperture of its toroidal core and the other having the other bridging connecting conductor link similarly passing through its central toroidial core aperture.
6. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the elongated cylindrical metal conductors are enclosed in thermal insulation along their lengths between the heat sinks in order to confine heat flow to passage in an axial direction along the conductors.