1939 Gravity Power - multiply power by 1200%

[DreamThinkBuild]

Hi Cipbranea,

Welcome to the forum.

Thank you for sharing, haven't seen this one yet, really cool.

I like how he has the top and bottom separated makes it easier to take power off but requires more mechanics. This design could be optimized greatly. The  higher top with eccentric arms allows for more leverage to the bottom drive weights, but you could remove those by using a ring so the motor doesn't have to see the angular weight. Is the bottom takeoff a planetary gear?

I built a precessed cylinder test a while back, just by making small gyrations of the central axis you can get a weight to displace towards the offset of the axis. Remove the cylinder and attach a arm with a heavy mass to generate torque.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X1dFuxUQ0I

Hi Hartiberlin,

Thank you for those articles.

Here is text version of last article:

Breckenridge American (Breckenridge, Tex.), Vol. 19, No. 198, Ed. 1, Tuesday, April 4, 1939

New Machine Uses Gravity for Power
Principle will greatly increase horsepower speed

Miami, Fla (U.P.) -- W. F. Skinner proudly displays his latest invention, a device that multiplies power in a startling fashion.

Skinner had great hopes for the principle he embodied in his device, which he calls "a gravity power machine." He said, for example, he believed the machine's principle could be carried to a point where a one-horsepower motor would provide electricity for a community of 3,500 people at a total cost of only $5 a month.

"Almost any engineer will tell you that what this machine does is impossible," said Skinner, and the proceeded to demonstrate in his workshop here.

His working model of the "gravity power machine" was run by a one-eighth horsepower motor. The device, in turn, operated a heavy duty, 12-foot lathe, a six foot drill press and a hack saw from the same shaft at the same time.

"Almost any engineer will tell you that to run even that heavy duty lathe and produce the quarter-inch shaving on a steel bar that it does would take a two-horsepower motor," Skinner said.

The "gravity power machine" consists of a steel framework containing four shafts controlled by eccentrics. On each shaft is an off-balance weight which Skinner said was "about the secret of the whole thing."

He explained that the shafts turning in the eccentrics, moved the weights in a circular motion at 60 revolutions a minute. Because the weights are off balance, he said, they are always "falling" producing the multiplication of power.

The "falling," Skinner said, is more correctly a following of the weights to new centers of gravity caused by the changing positions of the shafts. The weights do not actually fall. The one-eighth horsepower electric motor, Skinner said, was used only for power to turn the eccentrics and the "gravity power machine" provided the power, in turn to operate the shop.

1,200 Per Cent Step Up

Skinner estimated the "gravity power machine" would increase the horsepower of a motor about 1,200 per cent. A one horsepower motor, he believed, with a perfected "gravity power machine" to multiply its output, could be made to drive a generator large enough to produce electricity for 3,500 persons. And the operating cost would be only about $5 a month, he estimated.

The machine Skinner exhibited was the fifth he has built in the 14 years he has been "working up the idea."

A number of engineers have inspected his invention, he said.

One of them was A. P. Michaels, a Jacksonville, Fla., consulting engineer, who gave Skinner a letter describing the machine as "a practical device and will have a definite field where it is necessary to use power to drive equipment. It should result in a very large saving of power used."

[cipbranea]

This is a red herring. The man injects energy into the system by rocking the equipment.

Maybe if you put some weight on the bottom (could be the weight of the electrical generator itself) you turn it into a pendulum, then less energy is required to maintain the pendulum swing. Just a thought...

[cipbranea]

Thank you, Stefan, for your research, DreamThinkBuild for your welcome, and you are right, the upper part of the device is providing high leverage to the second stage. On the second stage also, the shorter (upper) weight it seems to be "the first" which is starting to rotate, dragging after it the second one, heavier (0.30' on the movie).


Sorry for my English, it's not my native language. I just hope someone can understand what I'm trying to say 


Cheers all

[hartiberlin]

Can somebody please locate the address of this William F. Skinner from Miami. Floria
in an old telephone book or address book ?

Maybe his children or descendants still live there and know what happened to this machine ?


I think Dan from Green Energy Power science is also living down there in Floria, maybe
he can have a look at it, if the machine still exists ?

Many thanks.

Regards, Stefan.

[hartiberlin]

I built a precessed cylinder test a while back, just by making small gyrations of the central axis you can get a weight to displace towards the offset of the axis. Remove the cylinder and attach a arm with a heavy mass to generate torque.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X1dFuxUQ0I

Well done, yes, that could be the principle of the Skinner gravity power machine !
Can you use a gum ribbon on the black wheel to drive another small generator ?