A perpetual motion machine that really works

[CARN0T]

Now, this post is for fun, and was probably discussed before--

The earth has a terrestrial electric field of about 100 volts per meter, directed upward as I recall.  So, it appears that there should be an abundance of free electricity all around us-- about 180 volts from your toes to your head.  This field is based at the ionosphere, and has an available power in the trillions of watts.  The trouble is that nobody has figured out a sensible way to tap into this power.

In the 1960s, a professor in Chicago got people excited by attaching a bit of polonium to a balloon and running it up in the air on a light wire.  He connected one terminal of a small motor to the wire, and the other terminal to ground.  The motor spun merrily around.  We have to imagine that the idea just didn't pan out because it's all but forgotten.  (There must be papers on the subject, I haven't tried looking.)

I thought of my own idea on how to tap the terrestrial field.  It goes like this--

There is a physical effect that limits the amount of current that can flow through "space," or air in this situation.  The Langmuir-Child equation, or I just call it the space-charge-limited current.  After the balloon ejects a certain amount of charge, the air over the balloon becomes so charged up that the charge prevents any more charge from being emitted, and the current stops, except for whatever is carried away by wind, etc.

My idea  was to put a string of sharp points on a mountain top where the wind is very strong.  As the wind blows the charge away, the current continues to flow.  I tried to calculate the available power and came up with numbers so small it was clearly a waste of time.  (Unless I made a mistake in my calculation.)  But, maybe I was looking in the wrong direction.  I might have done better by looking at the power from the wind by collecting the emitted charge at a downstream collector grid.  This idea is also loaded with difficulties, not yet solved by anyone to my knowledge.

Those trillions of watts are still there, waiting for somebody to find the right solution.

Ernie Rogers

[resonanceman]

Now, this post is for fun, and was probably discussed before--

The earth has a terrestrial electric field of about 100 volts per meter, directed upward as I recall.  So, it appears that there should be an abundance of free electricity all around us-- about 180 volts from your toes to your head.  This field is based at the ionosphere, and has an available power in the trillions of watts.  The trouble is that nobody has figured out a sensible way to tap into this power.

In the 1960s, a professor in Chicago got people excited by attaching a bit of polonium to a balloon and running it up in the air on a light wire.  He connected one terminal of a small motor to the wire, and the other terminal to ground.  The motor spun merrily around.  We have to imagine that the idea just didn't pan out because it's all but forgotten.  (There must be papers on the subject, I haven't tried looking.)

I thought of my own idea on how to tap the terrestrial field.  It goes like this--

There is a physical effect that limits the amount of current that can flow through "space," or air in this situation.  The Langmuir-Child equation, or I just call it the space-charge-limited current.  After the balloon ejects a certain amount of charge, the air over the balloon becomes so charged up that the charge prevents any more charge from being emitted, and the current stops, except for whatever is carried away by wind, etc.

My idea  was to put a string of sharp points on a mountain top where the wind is very strong.  As the wind blows the charge away, the current continues to flow.  I tried to calculate the available power and came up with numbers so small it was clearly a waste of time.  (Unless I made a mistake in my calculation.)  But, maybe I was looking in the wrong direction.  I might have done better by looking at the power from the wind by collecting the emitted charge at a downstream collector grid.  This idea is also loaded with difficulties, not yet solved by anyone to my knowledge.

Those trillions of watts are still there, waiting for somebody to find the right solution.

Ernie Rogers

Ernie

You might not need  a mountain .
I remember  that  some of Teslas   patents  required  an elevated wire or metal plate . Tesla said that the higher they were mounted the better they would work .

I have read other places that  elevation above the  ground made a difference .

It could be that in our tall  buildings  we  are throwing away large  quantities of energy by   grounding each  floor to the same  ground points.


gary