Homopolar Generators (N-Machine) by Bruce de Palma

[AbbaRue]

After looking at your drawing, an interesting idea just came to my mind.
Do we even need a brush to collect the power from the disks?
Couldn't you just connect a very thick conductor from the outside of one disk to the inside of the next,
all along the whole array of disks. and then just connect the end 2 conductors to the outside circuit.
If the shaft isn't a conductor the 2 ends could then be connected to graphite brushes.
Then you have a higher voltage with a controllable current level.
Perhaps the disks could be combined with metal cones placed on a shaft like this  "o-l>l>l>l>-o"
That is a simple drawing but it illustrates what I mean.
That way the outside of one disk is connected to the inside of the next one, and so on, and so on.
Plus the cone shape would minimize air friction.
From your drawings, I thought maybe this was the same principle you were thinking of.
The brushless contact and the angle of the line you drew.
I don't see any reason why this shouldn't work.
I have never read anywhere that the disks have to rub against a brush to produce electricity.
Correct me if I'm wrong on that point.

[sm0ky2]

After looking at your drawing, an interesting idea just came to my mind.
Do we even need a brush to collect the power from the disks?
Couldn't you just connect a very thick conductor from the outside of one disk to the inside of the next,
all along the whole array of disks. and then just connect the end 2 conductors to the outside circuit.
If the shaft isn't a conductor the 2 ends could then be connected to graphite brushes.
Then you have a higher voltage with a controllable current level.
Perhaps the disks could be combined with metal cones placed on a shaft like this  "o-l>l>l>l>-o"
That is a simple drawing but it illustrates what I mean.
That way the outside of one disk is connected to the inside of the next one, and so on, and so on.
Plus the cone shape would minimize air friction.
From your drawings, I thought maybe this was the same principle you were thinking of.
The brushless contact and the angle of the line you drew.
I don't see any reason why this shouldn't work.
I have never read anywhere that the disks have to rub against a brush to produce electricity.
Correct me if I'm wrong on that point.

i want to stress the tangent line on a horizontal plane to the rotation of the disk.

cutting the lines back THROUGH the EMF to get to the center of the next disk, will greatly increase the back-torque on the disks.  This is the first mistake made with this kind of machine. and the moment you draw current from it, the disks will come to a HALT. and generate a good deal of heat.

having the return path at a tangent minimizes the back-torque, and with small brushless contacts there is very little friction.     

once the return-path is out of the resultant electro-magnetic field of the Disks - you can connect them in series/parallel however you like to increase your voltage or amperage accordingly.

the only way i cna see doing it like you are talking would be with sliding contacts (like a DC motor)
but this has been done before, and generates more friction than a bushless contact. as do brushes and slip-rings. - the latter two having additional back-EMF problems like described above.

[mikestocks2006]

Nice demonstration, polarities change, controlled setup and metrics.
It's a variation of the original Faraday's disk but same principle.

http://www.physics.umd.edu/lecdem/services/demos/demosk2/k2-64.htm

also as it possibly ties into special relativity
http://www.physics.umd.edu/lecdem/outreach/QOTW/arch11/q218unipolar.pdf

[mfred68]

Please forgive me for possibly not knowing all the technical facts about this disc idea, i havnt had much time to read it all yet, but as far as i understand the principle is to use a rotating copper disc, turning with a stationary magnet up against it (is this correct?) with the centre of the disc being connected to the metal drive shaft which is one electrical connection, and the edge of the disc being the other electrical connection via a brush.

if this is correct, what would happen if it was the disc that was fixed stationary and the magnet was put on the drive shaft instead? like that the problem of brushes would be eliminated.

would the operating principle be the same? or have i got it all totally wrong?

[Gearhead]

if this is correct, what would happen if it was the disc that was fixed stationary and the magnet was put on the drive shaft instead? like that the problem of brushes would be eliminated.

would the operating principle be the same? or have i got it all totally wrong?

You have come across the anomaly of the Faraday disk.  A rotating magnet has no effect on a stationary disk while a rotating disk with a rotating or non rotating magnet will produce a potential.  The effect seems to be that the magnetic field does not rotate with the magnet.  Actually it may be that the spin of the atoms within the disk may have something to do with relativity because the outer edge of the disk is traveling at a faster rate of speed than the portions of the disk nearer the axle.