Tesla's "notes" on unipolar dynamo's.

[CrazyEwok]

Search the internet for this if you are unsure of what i am talking about but i would like to say that this forward thinking claimed he had a self sustaining concept for electrical generation. Being as it was not in his field (Tesla was into harnessing the energy of the cosmos at the time of his claims not a few Volts of DC electricity from a spinning disk which is why i think he never went into it much) at the time he never disclosed much about his claim except for his notes which are posted around the net now.
Has anyone tried his ideas and what has become of their tests? Has anyone tried any variations? if there is any links to other threads where this has been covered or have been partly documented links would be greatly appreciated.
I am starting construction of my own design (which those that have read my posts in the magnet battery thread know i have not so much spare time) which i will post the 3D model which i am drawing up on my breaks at work which i will post. Anyone having any idea's for improvments or noticable flaws please speak up!!!

[nightlife]

 The following link will direct you to Teslas notes on the unipolar dynamo's.

http://www.stardrivedevice.com/Tesla_notes.html

[CrazyEwok]

 Thanks Nightlife,
Is anyone looking into this at the moment or has looked into it in the past. Perhaps actual tests etc etc. Also any other Dynamo adaptions that people have tried? i have a few ideas for tests that i am going to try but short listing them (many hands make light work) would be really nice.

[Koen1]

Yes, I have studied homopolar "dynamos" for a while.
Ampere built one, Faraday built one, I think most "pioneers"
in the old days built versions of it. They never noticed any
over unity effects, but they were intrigued by the fact that
such generators also work when you attach the magnet to
the metal disc and spin the entire thing, and that they did
not work when the disc was held stationary and the magnets
were spun. They thought it might be an asymmetrical effect.
Turned out not to be of course, but that was one of the things
that fascinated quite a number of the old guys. Even Einstein
in his earlier years thought that is was an anomalous dynamo.

Tesla indeed did a little work on them although as far as I know
not much at all, and the coolest thing he came up with was to
carve special "conductive paths" in the disc surface which he claimed
allowed the electrical output to flow more easily, thus producing
a slightly higher output.

You may want to look up the Indian mr Tewari and his homopolar
generator which, it is claimed, he demostrated as slightly over unity
at a conference (in Germany?) about a century ago.

And then of course you may want to look up the late Bruce dePalma
who studied homopolar generators at MIT and designed and tested
several what he called "N-machines", of which he was convinced
they can produce over unity. As far as I know he was never able to
succesfully prove that before he passed away.
Some have speculated that perhaps if Bruce had been able to build
a superconductive N-machine, he might have been able to prove it.

Most of the variations are only minor variations on the theme.
Tewari for example used electromagnets to generate the magnetic
field, and an iron rotor. DePalma at some point was looking at a
version, which I believe Faraday had also designed a version of,
that used a mercury pool instead of brush contacts at the discs rim,
so there would be minimal physical friction and good conduction.

Some have designed and built versions consisting of multiple zones
of alternating magnetic field and multiple seperated "spokes" on the wheel,
so that the different "spokes" generated alternating currents while
the wheel spun. Some have claimed these no longer qualify as homopolar
dynamos because the magnetic field is not unidirectional, but I disagree.
The basic function is still the same, it still depends on movement of a
conductor through a magnetic field that is perpendicular to the direction
of motion, and that still generates a current perpendicular to both.
It is in fact a variation of the "Hall effect", and also works if the conductor
is stationary but the electron "gas" inside the conductor is moving.

A variation that I seem to recall Bruce dePalma did come up with,
but one that I have not seen in the work of most others, is one where
we don't use a disc but rather a pipe. Imagine we take a copper pipe.
We also take two pipes of the same length but one slightly wider
and the other slightly less wide, so that the copper pipe fits neatly inside
the one and over the other. These second pipes must be made of magnetic
material, so ideally we'd have two permanent magnets shaped like a cylinder.
Crucial here is that these magnetic cylinders must be magnetised radially,
in the sense that the North pole is located on the outer surface of the cylinders
and the South pole on the inner surface.
Now we attach two copper end caps to the copper pipe, with an axle fixed to them.
If we now spin the entire cylindrical setup around its central axis,
a DC current will run through the pipe from the top to the bottom or vice versa
depending on the magnetic field polarisation and the direction of rotation.
And obviously the end caps can now be connected to a wire, and DC will run through
the wire.
That is a cylindrical version of the "homopolar disc generator", and it works.

But as far as I know nobody has been able to actually get OU from such a dynamo.
And if anyone did manage, they certainly are keeping it a secret.

[CrazyEwok]

In the former case the machine will be capable of exciting itself when the disc is rotated in the direction of arrow D.
- Nikola Tesla. about dynamos in the link above.

This statement is what is intriguing me and has motivated me into trying this. I think he is saying if the disk is divided spirally the dynamo could in essence power itself... Now this is not OU as it creates a magnetic field witch would degrade the permanent magnets over time. But if it does work high speed rotation may be able to use the extra generated energy (the excess that is not used up in rotation) Could be used to power electro magnets... if enough power is produced (and you exclude wear) possible chance of small replicatable and modifiable DC generators... Not Mr Tesla's finest work at promoting his AC power (I'm sure after securing AC power as the mains releasing DC power making machines that run for year producing electricity even for him would not of been on the forefront). Also since his dream (at that particular time if memory serves) was for wireless electrical transmission of power harnessed from the cosmos through his giant towers. But still all the same the idea is there.

Problems:

But let us now suppose the disc to be subdivided, spirally,
-Nikola Tesla, In the link if interested!!!

How does he mean "subdivided"?!?
Cutting the disk and creating "air gaps" would do it i am sure but it would weaken your disk structurally. and if the disk generated enough charge would they not jump the air gaps? Hence reducing the desired effect.
Nonconductive spacers would do the trick for sure but that is extra weight your pushing... possible but,,,

Can it be pushed to the limit? If subdiving the disk increases power output, could placing a coil instead of a disk which would force the charge to spirally move from the center to the outside of a disk forcing it to stay in "the charge zone" of the magnets for the longest possible time... Well that is my trial. A coil instead of a disk. I have the plan of using old useless Cd's as the platforms to mount my magnets and to affix the coil to. Any advice would be helpful as i am unsure if i need to remove the film that is placed on them. (If it needs to be removed off the magnet holding frames or the coil frame... or both. If it works it would be a cheap and sustainable powersource i believe. But not jumping the gun. I have 2 alternatives i would like to try is the straight coil doesn't work also. Creating a Coil out of a coil. So coiling the wire around say a pipecleaner or something thin and mailable then coiling that long electromagnet and spinning it in a dynamo. the other is using either the coiled coil or a normal coil and as it passes the center of the retainer/brace it passes through onto the other side then opposable winding another one and then as it hits switching sides... complicated but in my abundance of space time (all 2 minutes every week) i hope to get some of it done.

If anyone likes the look of any of this and would like to help by doing any of it post here and if there are any gray areas of my explanation ask and i will try to elaborate. I have time at work to post in the forums but i don't know how my boss will react if i start playing Mr hobbyist on my desk next to my computer with magnets glue and Cd's...