MAGNACOASTER MAKES THE DRAGONS DEN!!

[Steven Dufresne]

Thanks for the update Tonysf. Good to have you with us. I think most, if not all, of us here are hoping it'll work too.
-Steve
http://rimstar.org   http://wsminfo.org

[Tonysf]

Thanks Steve.

Like I said, I have my doubts. Right now they do have an order from Essex County and they are currently doing the large commercial prototypes.  They are built inside of shipping containers and the process just seems a little too good to be true.  I believe the commercial models consist of 300+ batteries alone, along with the generator, etc.  Pretty crazy to see, even if it doesn't pan out.

There is also a snag in terms of laws/permits which they are currently trying to 'work around'.  This has inevitably slowed the process down as well.

As for Richard, he's a good guy.  Don't judge a book by his cover.  Clearly he lacks some professionalism, but so have many great thinkers and innovators.

[homeysimpson]

if you refer to the TORONTO STAR saturday february 28 2009 A14 there is an article on electric motor polarizes opinion. this man by the name of Thane Heins has apparently already accomplished what willis is trying to stake claims to now. perhaps he has gained information from this Thane Heins and made his own unit and is trying to sell it out there as his idea .( highly unlikely) if you read this article which im sure you can find online in their archives you will be brought up to speed that this Heins fella is light years ahead of willis and is has also himself been contacted by nasa. im sure willis has no such claims other than he is in talks with GE. sorry mr willis but calling up GE and asking the head manager if he would be interested in a megnetic motor saving him money (which im sure he gets crazy calls all the time and is taught to humor them and then let them go on their merry way) he probably said yes, listened to your rants and then let you go never to give it another thought.  i have but one question. whats the world like in your delusional head? is it fun or empty.

[greengirl]

The Aforementioned article from the Toronto Star, February 29, 2009:

BYLINE: Tyler Hamilton, Toronto Star

Thane Heins, tired and a little grumpy after a long flight from California, walks onto the stage in an Ottawa conference room and begins a sales pitch that usually raises more eyebrows than money.

One of three entrepreneurs chosen this month to present at a "Pitch The Dragons" contest, a spin on the CBC show Dragons' Den, Heins has invented a technology he says will put out more energy than it consumes. His invention, he boldly claims, offers a way to make electric cars that can travel hundreds of kilometres on a small, inexpensive battery.

It's a tough crowd. One of the contest judges is TV-show judge Robert Herjavec, a multi-millionaire who minutes earlier had shared his own story of success and the life it funds - the fancy gas-guzzling cars, the mansion, the luxurious yacht.

The two men are oil and water. Heins, who wants to help the world kick its fossil-fuel addiction, immediately gets Herjavec's back up. The judge is dismissive from the get-go.

"It turned into a shouting match in front of 300 people," Heins later says.

It was just another day for this underdog entrepreneur, a man trying to convince mainstream society he has discovered something real, that has broken a major law of physics.

The Star first profiled Heins and his controversial invention a year ago. In a nutshell, he had figured out a way to eliminate the electromagnetic friction that typically limits the performance of an electrical generator - an effect known as "Back EMF."

Not only that, but he also redirected magnetic energy so that, instead of causing resistance, it gave an electrical motor connected to the generator a significant boost.

The result, as far as Heins was concerned, violated Lenz's Law or what's often called the law of diminishing returns.

In no time, the story spread globally across the Internet, became chatter on blogs and triggered a flood of email to this reporter's inbox - some praising Heins for his determination, others calling the Star irresponsible for giving credibility to his claim. Love it or hate it, it was the second-most read article on TheStar.com in 2008.

Much has happened in 12 months. Heins still operates out of a lab at the University of Ottawa, he continues to evolve his invention, and he routinely demonstrates those improvements in YouTube videos.

"The last video I watched still showed evidence of some fundamental misunderstandings of physics, combined with wishful thinking," said electrical engineer Seanna Watson, a member of Ottawa Skeptics.

Heins demonstrated his technology to the group shortly after the Star's story was published. Two months later, Watson posted a critique titled "In This Town We Obey The Law of Thermodynamics." Yes, she admitted, the motor does speed up without more input power, but increased speed does not mean an increase in mechanical work.

"Heins appears earnest and basically honest, but persistently self-deluded," Watson wrote. "While the speed-up behaviour of the generator currently lacks an established explanation, there is no reason to think that it represents any challenge to currently known laws of physics."

Heins has heard that before: You haven't proved you're right, so you must be wrong. But nobody has proved he's wrong.

Some want to believe, or have kept an inquiring mind. Heins has been contacted by NASA and had several investors, engineers and academics show up for a demonstration. He always obliges.

Last spring, rock legend Neil Young wanted to adapt Heins' invention to power a 1959 Lincoln Continental, to enter the $10-million automotive X Prize - a contest in search of the world's most efficient automobile.

Heins and Young had much dialogue by email and telephone about the rock star's "Linc Volt" project.

The relationship eventually fizzled. Still, in an email to the Star, Young was gracious about Heins' work. "I am impressed ... it is on our list of things to watch."

Day by day, bit by bit, Heins is gaining supporters.

Heins has been in serious talks with a designer of small wind turbines in Montreal, a senior engineer from a large utility in Turkey, and a manufacturer of electrical equipment in Toronto. He has altered the prototype design.

"We can use it to accelerate (the motor shaft) from 100 revolutions per minute to 3,500 without adding an ounce of power," he says.

His most promising partnership is with California Diesel & Power, a $10-million company that sells backup generators for cellphone towers across the state.

Owen Charles, head of technology at California D&P, was intrigued by Heins' demonstration on YouTube last year. He flew to Ottawa for a demonstration and was convinced the technology worked, at least enough to pursue it further.

During a demonstration, the motor used only 75 watts to spin at its full rated capacity, which normally takes 250 watts. "To me, that makes the motor a hell of a lot more efficient," Charles said.

But is it perpetual motion? "It has the potential to be that," Heins said. "But there are many hoops we have to jump through before we get there."

He plans to pay the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory to evaluate the technology.

But Heins often undermines his own credibility. He's written emails to former U.S. vice-presidents Dick Cheney and Al Gore claiming he's got a way to eliminate global dependence on oil and bring the troops home from Iraq.

Still, all the skepticism could vanish if California D&P makes a more efficient generator. The company has also entered the automotive X Prize with plans, like Neil Young once had, to use Heins' generator.

"Within a month or two months, we should have that generator in a car," said Heins. "All we're going to try to do is run the car in the conventional mode ... then put our generator in and see if we can get more miles out."

If it does what Heins expects, maybe Al Gore will pay attention.

From Feb 4, 2008:

It all began back in 1985, when Thane Heins, having studied electronics at California State University, started thinking about how magnets could be used to improve power generators.

But it wasn't until after the 9/11 attacks that he started seriously experimenting in his basement, motivated by the desire to reduce our dependence on oil and the countries that back terrorism.

Heins tinkered away, making what seemed like good progress, until one day in early 2006 he stumbled on to something strange. As part of a test, he had connected the driveshaft of an electric motor to a steel rotor with small round magnets lining its outer edges. The idea was that as the rotor spun, the magnets would pass by a wire coil placed just in front of them to generate electrical energy - in other words, it would operate like a simple generator.

The voltage was there, but to get current he had to attach an electrical load to the coil - like a light bulb - or simply overload it, which would cause it to slow down and eventually stop. Heins did the latter, but instead of stopping, the rotor started to rapidly accelerate.

"The magnets started flying off and hitting the wall, and I had to duck for cover," says Heins, surprised because he was using a weak motor. "It was like, holy crap, this is really scary."

By overloading the generator, the current should have caused the coil to build up a large electromagnetic field. This field typically creates an effect called "Back EMF," described as Lenz's law in physics, which would act to repel the approaching magnets on the rotor and slow down the motor until it stopped. Some call it the law of diminishing returns, or a law of conservation.

"Lenz's law is essentially magnetic friction, which is a form of resistance not unlike the wind resistance your car experiences when driving down the highway," explains Heins. More friction means more power is necessary to maintain a constant speed.

Instead, the opposite happened. Somehow the magnetic friction had turned into a magnetic boost. Back to the car analogy, it's like the wind moving from the front to the back of the vehicle.

Days later, Heins realized what had happened: The steel rotor and driveshaft had conducted the magnetic resistance away from the coil and back into the heart of the electric motor. Since such motors work on the principle of converting electrical energy into motion by creating rotating magnetic fields, he figured the Back EMF was boosting those fields, causing acceleration.

But how could this be? It would create a positive feedback loop. As the motor accelerated faster it would create a larger electromagnetic field on the generator coil, causing the motor to go faster, and so on and so on. Heins confirmed his theory by replacing part of the driveshaft with plastic pipe that wouldn't conduct the magnetic field. There was no acceleration.

"What I can say with full confidence is that our system violates the law of conservation of energy," he says.

"Now, is that perpetual motion? Will it end up being that?"

Inventor Thane Heins is 46 years old and he studied electronics at Heritage College in Gatineau, Que. His age and education were incorrectly stated in a Feb. 4 article about his invention dubbed the Perepiteia. The Star regrets the errors.

Also Feb 4, 2008:

Thane Heins is nervous and hopeful. It's Jan. 24, a Thursday afternoon, and in four days the Ottawa-area native will travel to Boston where he'll demonstrate an invention that appears - though he doesn't dare say it - to operate as a perpetual motion machine.

The audience, esteemed Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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professor Markus Zahn, could either deflate Heins' heretical claims or add momentum to a 20-year obsession that has broken up his marriage and lost him custody of his two young daughters.

Zahn is a leading expert on electromagnetic and electronic systems. In a rare move for any reputable academic, he has agreed to give Heins' creation an open-minded look rather than greet it with outright dismissal.

It's a pivotal moment. The invention, at its very least, could moderately improve the efficiency of induction motors, used in everything from electric cars to ceiling fans. At best it means a way of tapping the mysterious powers of electromagnetic fields to produce more work out of less effort, seemingly creating electricity from nothing.

Such an unbelievable invention would challenge the laws of physics, a no-no in the rigid world of serious science. Imagine a battery system in an all-electric car that can be recharged almost exclusively by braking and accelerating, or what Heins calls "regenerative acceleration."

No charging from the grid. No assistance from gasoline. No cost of fuelling up. No way, say the skeptics.

"It sounds too good to be true," concedes Heins, who formed a company in 2005 called Potential Difference Inc. to develop and market his invention. "We get dismissed pretty quickly sometimes."

It's for this reason the 42-year-old inventor has learned to walk on thin ice when dealing with academics and engineers, who he must win over to be taken seriously. Credibility, after all, can't be invented. It must be earned. "I have to be humble. If you say the wrong thing at the wrong time, you can lose support."

The creation in question is a new kind of generator called the Perepiteia (see "Holy crap," page B3), which in Greek theatre means an action that has the opposite effect of what its doer intended. Heins torques up the definition to mean "a sudden reversal of fortune that's a windfall for humanity."

Deep down, Heins has high hopes. But he also realizes that merely using those controversial words - "perpetual motion" - usually brands a person as batty. In 2006, an Irish company called Steorn placed an advertisement in The Economist calling on all the world's scientists to validate its magnet-based "free energy" technology.

Steorn was met with intense skepticism and accused of being a scam or hoax. Seventeen months later the company has failed, despite worldwide attention, to prove anything under scrutiny. Well-educated people, from Leonardo da Vinci to Harvard-trained engineer Bruce De Palma (older brother of film director Brian De Palma), have made similar claims of perpetual motion only to be slammed down by the mainstream scientific community.

Heins has an even greater uphill battle. He isn't an engineer. He doesn't have a graduate degrees in physics. He never even finished his electronics program at California State University. "I have mild dyslexia and don't do well in math, so I didn't do very well in school," he says.

What he does have is a chef's diploma, and spent time as chef at the Canadian Museum of Civilization before launching his own restaurant in Renfrew called the Old Town Hall Tea Room. He has also had political ambitions. In 1999 he ran unsuccessfully as a candidate for the Green Party of Ontario, deciding a year later to run as an independent in the federal election.

Today, Heins is focused on showing his invention to anybody willing to see it, in hopes that somebody smarter than him will give it credibility. His long-time friend, Kim Cunningham, manager of communications and government relations at the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI) is working part-time with Potential Difference to help get the message out.

Together, they have demonstrated the Perepiteia to a number of labs and universities across North America, including the University of Virginia, Michigan State University, the University of Toronto and Queens University.

"It's generally always the same reaction," says Heins. "There's a bit of a scramble on the part of the observer to put what they're seeing into some sort of context with what they know. They can't explain it. They don't know what it is."

He'd be happy if somebody did, even if the news was bad. His wife has kicked him out. He doesn't earn an income. He can't pay child support. The certainty would be welcome. "I've tried to quit many times, and thought if I could just be a normal guy I would have a normal life ... But I had this idea and I believe it works."

Others want to believe - or at least help out. Cunningham, whose brother is general manager at Angus Glen Golf Club, introduced Heins to the club's president, Kevin Thistle. For two years Thistle has acted as angel investor, providing start-up capital needed to incorporate Potential Difference, file patents and continue research.

Cunningham's boss, OCRI president Jeffrey Dale, helped open doors at the University of Ottawa and make introductions to its dean of engineering. As a result, Heins teamed up last fall with Riadh Habash, a professor at the university's school of information technology and engineering.

"Dr. Habash has essentially rolled out the red carpet," says Heins, explaining that he now has access to a university lab and all the equipment he needs to test and simulate his generator.

In an interview with the Toronto Star, Habash was cautious but matter-of-fact with what he's seen so far. "It accelerates, but when it comes to an explanation, there is no backing theory for it. That's why we're consulting MIT. But at this time we can't support any claim."

In the meantime, Heins has been on a letter-writing campaign to raise money for his mission. He's written former U.S. vice-president Al Gore, Virgin Group founder and billionaire Richard Branson and John Doerr at venture capital powerhouse Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. He's also tried to contact entrepreneur Elon Musk, chairman of electric car upstart Tesla Motors, and the "ReCharge IT" project run by Google's philanthropic arm.

So far no bites, though there have been nibbles. Heins has had discussions with a well-known investor in Oregon, known to many as the "godfather of start-ups," who is apparently flirting with the idea of investing in Potential Difference. "We got the impression ... he's not necessarily interested in making a tonne of money, he just wants to see us succeed."

Just before the big day at MIT, the Star spoke with professor Markus Zahn about what he expected to observe.

"It's hard for me to give an opinion," said Zahn, who admitted he was excited to see the demonstration. "I don't believe it will violate the laws of physics. You're not going to get more energy out than you put in."

He said it's easy for people to set up their tests wrong and misinterpret what they see. "You've got to look closely."

It's now Jan. 28 - D Day. Heins has modified his test so the effects observed are difficult to deny. He holds a permanent magnet a few centimetres away from the driveshaft of an electric motor, and the magnetic field it creates causes the motor to accelerate. It went well.

Contacted by phone a few hours after the test, Zahn is genuinely stumped - and surprised. He said the magnet shouldn't cause acceleration. "It's an unusual phenomena I wouldn't have predicted in advance. But I saw it. It's real. Now I'm just trying to figure it out."

There's no talk of perpetual motion. No whisper of broken scientific laws or free energy. Zahn would never go there - at least not yet. But he does see the potential for making electric motors more efficient, and this itself is no small feat.

"To my mind this is unexpected and new, and it's worth exploring all the possible advantages once you're convinced it's a real effect," he added. "There are an infinite number of induction machines in people's homes and everywhere around the world. If you could make them more efficient, cumulatively, it could make a big difference."

Driving home - he can't afford to fly - Heins is exhausted but encouraged. He says Zahn will, and must, evaluate what he saw on his own terms and time. What's preventing the engineer from grasping it right away, he says, is his education, his scientific training.

Step by step, Heins is making progress, but where it will all lead remains uncertain.

So we're supposed to believe that Richard has made more progress than this guy - who actually attended university (!!!) - did in the past 23 years?

Compare to the recent article on Richard, that he actually brags about:

The curious case of Richard Willis

Robert Wilson, Record staff 
Robert Wilson, Record staff
Kitchener, Ontario - Thursday Jan 15, 2009 - Richard Willis of Magnacoaster Motor Co. has high hopes for his green power unit, which he says multiplies power through the use of magnets. Willis's skeptics aren't so sure. Robert Wilson, Record staff 1 
Robert Wilson, Record staff

2 

January 24, 2009
Michael Hammond
RECORD STAFF

KITCHENER

Richard Willis has heard it all before.

He's crazy. Out to lunch. Nuts. Those are some of the milder criticisms you can read about him on internet message boards.

"I get that on a daily basis," he readily admits during an interview in his laboratory, a storage locker in the old Burns meat packing plant on Guelph Street in Kitchener.

If there is one thing Willis's critics and backers agree on, it's that he's working on something way outside the mainstream.

On the surface, the concept his company, Magnacoaster Motor Co., is working on holds great promise. It's an energy generating unit that he says multiplies electrical current with the use of a battery and magnets. He promotes it as a source of continuous green electricity without any connection to the electrical grid.

Willis says the unit will produce more power than it takes in. On the season finale of Dragons' Den, the CBC Television show in which aspiring entrepreneurs pitch business ideas to venture capitalists, known as dragons, Willis showed the dragons a unit that was fed with 18 watts of electricity from a battery. From that, he said it was able to produce 50 kilowatts. He used the unit to power a row of light bulbs.

If Willis is right, his Vorktex power units could revolutionize how we think about energy.

If he's wrong, well, he's wrong.

"If it doesn't challenge me, I won't do it," he says. "I couldn't do an assembly line job."

Of course, there are a number of skeptics online and in the science world who don't believe Willis has discovered anything. Since he managed to win over billionaire westerner Brett Wilson on the December season finale of Dragons' Den, Willis's business has stirred furious debate online.

Willis says he is able to send an electrical pulse into the coils of his power devices. The electricity will break down the magnetic fields of two magnets in the units.

When those fields recombine, the result is a multiplication of the electrical current. That's the theory that Willis says he has proven, but the scientific community has yet to embrace.

Willis says his unit is based on the theory first championed by English physicist Michael Faraday, who is credited with making the discoveries that led to the electric motor.

The electric dynamo Faraday developed in the 1830s was able to produce electricity by moving magnets around an electrified wire. The principle behind the concept was changing magnetic fields produced an electric field. Willis' power unit is different in that the magnets don't move. It flips Faraday's principle on its head since it reasons that moving electric currents are able to collapse and change magnetic fields, which in turn produce more electricity.

During his session on Dragons' Den, dragon Kevin O'Leary was Willis's most vocal critic. "I think you're either completely nuts or you're very rich," O'Leary told Willis in his typical brash style.

During the televised grilling, Wilson remained quiet until finally telling Willis he would invest $1 million in Willis's business if the units do what Willis claims they can do. "If the technology works, we'll do the deal," Wilson said. "There's a big if at the front, and you heard it."

Wilson could not be reached for comment for this story.

Willis says Magnacoaster is ready to begin producing its first power units in the coming months. He says he has advance orders from people willing to put up a 50-per-cent down payment. The units displayed on Magnacoaster's website range in price from $4,200 US to $15,000 US.

Willis says he has been in touch with an employment agency to find staff for his manufacturing facility, which he plans to set up in Cambridge. He says Magnacoaster could employ thousands of people if the product takes off and requires mass production.

Bo Densmore, director of Cambridge's economic development department, says the city spoke to Willis recently, but is not aware of what he's doing right now.

At the moment, there are too many questions for skeptics to accept Willis's idea or his plans. A Toronto native, Willis, 47, has lived in the region for 10 years and formerly owned his own computer repair business.

He says he has talked to automotive executives and other companies, but online critics wonder why he hasn't announced a deal with a company.

Others wonder who is backing him financially. Willis says he has funded the business on his own with help from private investors.

He says his idea has been proven at the University of Waterloo and that he is still working with university researchers. However, UW spokesperson John Morris says the institution has no formal connection with Willis and has not sanctioned any tests.

Willis says he understands the university's reluctance to comment since his idea is groundbreaking and poses a major threat to the status quo.

In a story published in a national newspaper, Willis said he has a deal with Essex County, near Windsor, to supply the municipality with 17 megawatts of electricity.

Officials with the province's Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program say no such project is on the books, but they stressed that doesn't mean there aren't plans for such a deal. Rob Masonville, the county's treasurer, says he is not aware of any deal with Magnacoaster, but adds that it's possible he's doing something with one of the county's smaller municipalities.

Willis has been working on the Vorktex power unit for two years. It began as his entry in the $10-million US X Prize automotive contest, which encourages people to develop the world's most fuel-efficient car. The contest's backers will stage a race later this year for cars that have a fuel consumption rate of 100 miles per gallon or more.

Over the last two years, Willis has been tinkering with the power unit to develop applications beyond the auto industry. The research and development has not been easy, he says. He readily admits there were many accidents along the way. "There were a lot of fires, a lot of electrical shocks."

Willis brushes off the skepticism around his idea and company. "People don't like change," he said.

"People really don't like change."

This reporter exposes him for working in a "warehouse" that is a storage locker, exposes his lies about the supposed 'contracts' and connections he has.. this is not a flattering article - get a clue Dick: Not all press is good press.

Also, I heard from someone (several people who want to post here anonymously seem to come to me with the dirt now! lol) who claims that Richard is spending investor money buying gifts for his kids (trampoline I think?) but not making progress on the investor's return. I guess if the police come calling for fraud, he'll have a lot of 'splaining to do. Apparently he's also going to be at the Green Living Show in Toronto (not sure if that's the real Green Living Show, or the Green festival he was supposed to attend last year but backed out AFTER the city had printed brochures and everythin!) displaying a unit, but he won't have a booth. Um, Dick? Showing up on private property and attempting to circumvent booth and vendor fees by strolling around and harrassing people is going to get you kicked out by security. And with any luck they'll confiscate your property and press charges for trespassing. 

[Steven Dufresne]

The Magnacoaster patent is WO2009065219(A1) and is available
free from (don't put the (A1)):
http://free.patentfetcher.com/Patent-Fetcher-Form.php
-Steve
http://rimstar.org   http://wsminfo.org
PS. Thanks for Smoky in another group for pointing this out.