Quote from: LarryC on May 06, 2008, 12:57:30 AM

Quote from: OUman on May 05, 2008, 11:47:37 PM

I think the reason you don't see it in textbooks is more straightforward than that. The reason is simply that it didn't work.

Harvard, U of Texas, Texas A & M currently all study homopolar generators and some have patents. It does work and several commercial companies offer the homopolar generator.

The De Palma machine did not work. If you disagree, perhaps you can refer us to the results of its successful demonstration?

Can you cite examples to support any of your other statements? I'm interested to find out how you know those things.

- References in those university curricula or course outlines or course notes?
- Textbooks* more recent than yours where these are mentioned?
- Patent numbers?
- Links to companies and products of that sort?

*But, presence or absence in a textbook is not in itself any indication either way. As Uli/cleanfuture pointed out in post 1889, Tesla wouldn't have been concerned about that. The key issue is whether or not it works - textbook theory is secondary to that.

Quote from: LarryC on May 06, 2008, 12:57:30 AM

BTW, it is very easy to replicate. Secure two opposing magnets with spacing in between in a copper tube and spin the tube with electrical contacts at each end. High amps and low volts will be produced.
Maybe not OU, but it is very interesting that the magnetic fields seem to remain static and generate current in the spinning copper tube while the magnets are rotating.

You could do the drop-the-magnet-down-a-copper-tube-look-how-slow-it-goes thing too. Exactly the same forces are at work there.

Quote from: RCH on May 06, 2008, 06:38:36 AM
but I get the feeling that it [my previous uncertainty] falls on deaf ears ... so it is good to hear that may not be the case ...."  [I hope I've edited this correctly, expanding on your true assessment -- then ... and now.]

Yes, but maybe it's now missing my point that evidence required to reverse a strongly held opinion must be significant.

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With this, I think I see your larger "problem" (which I put quotes around to emphasize that it is NOT unique with you ...).

We (at least those of us here in the United States ...) live in a culture of perceived absolutes: "good/bad" ... "black/white" ... "true/not true" ... "guilty/innocent." 

This skewed perception of reality, unfortunately, seems to have "infected" a lot of other cultures ....

However, the Universe (and certainly Science) is filled with uncertainties and ambiguities. 

Indeed.

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And, our human ability to decide on the "reality" of any situation is only as good as the evidence we have acquired, AND the tools we have at the time its gathered for assessing the validity of that acquired evidence.

That all sounds very logical but IMO most people are influenced far far more by authority and peer pressure and every day experiences than by the limits of our senses or evidence.

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A fundamental example ... a literal "life and death" example in this country now ... is in our US courts.

How many previously perceived "bad guys" -- convicted murders, rapists, child molesters, etc., etc. -- have been officially released from prison in recent years, by the courts ... all because the introduction of NEW evidentiary techniques proved they were, in fact, INNOCENT--

Despite the jury's original "infallible" guilty verdict?

All ... because an iron-clad "eyewitness" here ... or a "solid ballistics report" there ... was ultimately proven WRONG--

As judged by the NEW "foolproof forensic technique" recently introduced in court proceedings ... DNA?

So, what went "horribly wrong with the US system of justice?"

Nothing.

Not sure I'd go so far as to say nothing.

Judges and juries can be awful sometimes, there are plenty of examples but the freshest on my mind is a New Zealander who was jailed in the US for some infraction with firearms (it sounded very much like an innocent mistake, he was in the US for his business which was a gun/sporting shop, but I forget the details) and then when being released from jail was immediately arrested and jailed for overstaying as the jail time put him over his max stay!

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What went "right" was that the technique for assessing the accuracy of the original evidence produced in court improved -- eyewitness testimony ... blood evidence ... ballistics--

Eventually reducing the inherent uncertainty in the original analysis of that same evidence!

I forget the details but i have heard of cases where I think in one case the real murderer confessed but it didn't stop an execution, I have heard other cases which defied all reason for the person to have been guilty and yet was executed, not saying this is the rule but there are huge failures.

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It was our expectation that a court proceeding -- led by fallible humans, and an even more fallible forensics system -- could ever be "infallible" ... which was in error.

Your "problem" -- as I see it here -- is that you seem to expect/need something approaching absolute certainty in making decisions about "reality"

No, I don't, many things are in the grey 'not sure' area, but it is an issue for most people I believe.

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... before you feel "comfortable" with holding onto a specific view (feeling "comfortable") vis a vis a new "discovery" in Science. 

In fact, "certainty" in Science (as in Life ...) is an illusion ....  It's all in "the eye and mind" of the beholder ....

So, knowing that, my own approach is to accept the possibility of "an ancient, robotic sample of ET technology," found upon the Moon by NASA -- with ALL its implications ... while I simultaneously attempt to gather further, more definitive evidence ....

Or, as the White Queen in "Alice in Wonderland" once bragged--

"Sometimes I've been able to believe as many as six impossible things before breakfast!"

All the while, holding on to the possibility that the evidence may, ultimately, turn out NOT to be real ... when the scientific technology further improves ....

How about this one, I was at a Lecture held at the now long gone Adventures Unlimited book store in Auckland (it's how I met DePalma and got to hear a lecture from Adams), and at this specific lecture was a woman who claimed that Astronauts report New Zealand has a purple tint as seen from space.

I considered it a plausibility until Google Earth (what, a decade later) showed up and looking at New Zealand I couldn't help but notice the whole thing is indeed purple, from very to subtly, ocean, lakes, mountains, cities.
I try and find a similar colour bias elsewhere but I can't. (not counting one tiny spot)

So who knows?
note: to me purple and indigo and violet and mauve are all the same colour

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That's how one makes real progress in Science.

And incidentally, that's why I'm here ....

Waiting for Thane and Company to realize that their "impossible generator technology" can ONLY, ultimately, be explained -- let alone successfully exploited -- through a serious investigation of ... the aether.                 

Stay tuned.   

RCH

Ok, let's continue this Dialogue but let's shift it to the aether, I'd be happy to tell you what I have learnt if you have any questions to ask and I'd be interested in what you know, I would also be interested if the aether supplants your Hyperspace theory or supplements it or if one is a component of the other, personally I'd suspect it's the geometric/mathematical resonances at these locations that effects the aether.

But as redundant as I suppose it would be to mention, I fully agree that the Aether is the only possible explanation if it is doing anything anomalous or truly useful, the aether (in some form) seems to be the key to every impossible happening in this world and looking elsewhere is a waste of time, and if the aether were not working in Thanes device in the way I envision it simply means it is working in a way other than how I envisioned.

DEAR I_RONman,

PLEASE FIND ENCLOSED THE TOROID GENERATOR COILS w/ BACK I_RON AS PROMISED.

I ALSO SKETCHED OUT SOME ANTICIPATED FLUX PATHS FOR THE ROTOR FLUX.
THE ROTOR MAY NEED TO BE A MONO-POLE.

THE DRIVE SHAFT GOES RIGHT THROUGH THE CENTRE OF THE BACK I_RON PLATE.

CHEERS
Thane

Thane asked if I could post his high speed tests directly on the forum, so here they are in one more format:

Hi,
Just a quick preview on the test set up I am putting together. The number f magnets in the rotor can be varied dependent on the test results. The aluminum spacer segments in between the magnets are removable and may be replaced with shorter ones if more magnets are required. A stepped ring from each side prevents the rotor from flying apart at high rpm. The stator core is made from solid iron at this stage. I suspect that I will have to replace this with a laminated core. I am planning to run two each high voltage and high current coils in the tests. The high current coils are microwave coils as Thane suggested. The rotor will be driven with a 250W 12V DC motor with a direct coupling from above.

Uli