The TPU uncovered? (A PROBABLE technique.)

[pauldude000]

Well, it has been nine years since my last confession/post on this thread, but I think I realized something in that time.


I am a moron.


I tried replicating this device using common components that Steven Marks  would have had access to in the eighties. The main problem I encountered was unexpected field collapse, causing the unit to "sputter" if you will and never ramp up to full rotation. I achieved rotation, and saw voltage production, but the field never could rev up to high enough speed to become self-sustaining. Timing was the key. I cheated and used CMOS 555 circuits in various configurations, using the frequency to drive the rotations. That is where my head was up my proverbial behind. Feedback coils to the circuitry just weren't fast enough and were far too easy to get out of sync.


Somehow, I never thought of using hall-effect sensors, even though it should have been obvious.  Hall-effect sensors can be used as a switch to detect magnetic fields. Properly used, one can be used to switch on a different coil/circuit, after the coil it is located within gains sufficient magnetic strength to affect the sensor and activate the device. IE, one coil can trip the next coil in series, which can trip the next coil, and these can be effective to at least 100KHZ and possibly more. That is dang fast for a sensor switch when compared to the option of a reed switch. Unfortunately, you might have to start the process with a magnet (hint, hint), otherwise the weak initial field may not be strong enough to trip the hall-effect sensor. You could get Hall-effect sensors from Radio Shack back in the Eighties.


Another thing that has always bugged me came back to mind. SM claimed he used up a lot of "Shadow Masking Material." I know what shadow masking material is and wondered just exactly what he was smoking when I read that. For those who don't know, shadow masking material is (was) used to construct televisions and CRT monitors. It is the metal sheet punched full of tiny holes behind the glass screen on tube-type television units, placed between the phosphor dots and the electron guns. It's purpose was to allow the electron streams from the guns to only hit the proper phosphor dots, blocking any residual electrons. In the color units, the angle of the beam going through a hole determined what proportions of red, green, and blue phosphor dots would be struck, allowing for color display.


It was this nickel-iron shadow mask that caused your TV to do wonky distortion patterns to the screen if you held a permanent magnet to it. It was this sheet of metal that would have the magnetic field randomized by degaussing, so that you could see Magnum PI on your TV screen afterwards without his head being the size of a twisted peanut.


Shadow mask has four endearing properties:


1. It is easily magnetized.
2. It will hold the applied pattern of magnetization until --
3. It is easily demagnetized.
4. It selectively blocks free electrons.


What an interesting core material. Would you agree?


OFF TOPIC --


By the way, I found another instance of where Tesla was WAAAY beyond his time. That sneaky turkey used diodes -- of a sort. I found the patent where he determined a method of producing DC from alternating currents. He used batteries and transformers to make full wave bridge recitifiers. No kidding. The same technique would work for making a single diode, or a switching diode, or an electronic switch... dang. Wired right, you might be able to imitate a transistor in a fashion. I tripped across the patent at Keeleynet [size=78%]http://www.keelynet.com/tesla/00413353.pdf[/size]

This patent is what got me to contemplating the TPU again.

[rensseak]

"SM claimed he used up a lot of "Shadow Masking Material."

Where and when did he claimed this?