Homopolar Generator, HPG, Faraday Disk

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Untried Homopolar Generator Experiments

(c)1996 William J. Beaty

Diagram: Pipecaps and mercury test
some HPG Device diagrams:

Homopolar motor and more youtube

Links:

In 1992-94 I messed around with homopolar

generators, ("HPGs" or "N-machines",) tried a simple
test, and drew some GIFs of possible devices. Check
out the above links for these diagrams.

The general idea was that an HPG might lack back-

torque if the rotor and stator circuits are radially
symmetrical. If all wires were replaced with cups and
tubes, would the mechanical energy per output wattage
be reduced? If this were true, conservation of energy
would be violated. The generator would create large
currents and heat output, yet it would require little
driving energy. If a pair of these was hooked together in
motor/generator configuration, they might self-
accelerate anomalously and spin without extrnal energy
input. Impossible by standard physics, of course. Yet a radially-symmetric HPG does not change flux
linkage when rotating, and so it might not be expected to produce output currents. Yet it does. Tewari and
Depalma in fringe-science publications claim to have observed anomalous behavior when investigating
these devices. If there is a way to extract the energy of the quantum vacuum sea, perhaps here is a device
which accomplishes the feat.

The pipecaps/mercury experiment was my crude attempt to detect changes in electromagnetic braking in a
shorted, symmetrical HPG. I hoped to compare the braking forces with and without the permanent magnet
present. Unfortunately my setup didn't show low friction without the magnet, since the oxide crust on the
mercury contributed a large friction compared to the EM braking effects. The crust/scum on the mercury
gave such high friction that I couldn't see any obvious difference between the magnet version and the no-
magnet version. To detect forces, I only relied on twisting up the thread and making crude time
measurements of the unwinding. Later I realized that the crust could be eliminated. This experiment needs
to be repeated.

Hint for anyone who wants to try the experiment: silver-plate the copper so that the mercury will wet it, and
put light oil on the mercury to seal it from oxygen and prevent the formation of an oxide scum layer. This will
vastly lower the friction and make the differences between the magnet version and the no-magnet version
measurable. Big hint: build a large, heavy version of one of these shorted-out generators, spin it with a
motor, stick it in a calorimiter, and see if unexplained excess heat is evolved. (See if the shorted homopolar
generator makes more heat energy than is input by the wires to the driving motor.)

In thinking long and hard about HPGs, I have come up with some observations and questions. Are you
confused about spinning magnets versus spinning disks? Here's more to think about. Perhaps it will help to
clarify things.
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The diagram below depicts a simplified Homopolar Generator (HPG). Rather than using a separate external
circuit and a spinning disk, I've combined them into a two-disk arrangement. One half of the device in fig 1a
is the "disk," of a classic HPG, while the other half acts as the "external circuit." Carbon brushes connect the
halves with sliding contact. Liquid metal brushes would be better.

The two halves are placed together in fig 1b. When a magnetic field is applied (vertical field in fig 1b) and
the two halves are spun together as a unit, the relative motion of the metal and the magnetic field should
cause a radial voltage to appear, which causes the rim of the metal assembly to aquire a positive charge,
and the axis of the assembly to receive an equal negative charge. No current appears, instead the device
acts like a charged capacitor as long as the rotation continues. Also, if the metal assembly is held still and
the magnets are spun instead, the same radial voltage should appear and the same separation of charges
should exist on the object, again with a voltage only. There is a momentary separation of charge, but no
constant current.

Fig 1c shows my idea of how HPGs are able to create electric currents. If the upper and lower halves of the
device are spun in opposite directions, the polarity of the radial voltage and the radial separation of charges
should be opposite in each disk. Since the two halves are in sliding contact, the positive and negative
regions are in electrical contact and a very large electric current should appear. This current is zero if the
two halves are spun together. It is large if one half spins and the other is kept still. It is twice as large if both
halves are spun in opposite directions. However, any relative rotation of the magnet, or the magnetic field,
should result in equal voltages radially across both halves, and therefore should create no relative voltage
between the halves, so rotating magnets should create no current. In other words, the magnetic field might
spin with the magnet or it might not, but this cannot be detected by the HPG disks. The HPG doesn't care if
the magnet spins. Instead, it only cares about differing rotation of the two metal parts.

If you hold one half of the metal parts still and spin the other half, you create a "classic" HPG having a
spinning disk and a nonspinning "external circuit." Simply add a current meter in series with the shaft of the
non-spinning half depicted above. You can even carve away most of the shell of the non-spinning half and
form it into "wires". You'll end up with the "classic" HPG circuit in full.

This then shows why the rotating copper parts might apply back-action forces against the external circuit,
but need not apply any forces against the permanent magnet. It explains the seeming non-reversibility of
current-generating action in Faraday's homopolar experiment. It appears that there is a paradox, and that
the rotation of Faraday's disk generates current, while rotation of his bar magnet does not. In reality, the only
important motion is the *relative* movement between Faraday's disk and his external circuit, and the
rotation of the magnet is unimportant. Of course the presence of the magnetic field is necessary to
accomplish the effect and create current, but its rotation relative to the average rotation of the disk-plus-
circuit assembly only creates a net radial charge separation without creating constant current.

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Once we realize that the external circuit is the "stator" of the device, the homopolar generator is not as

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weird as it first seems.

Note that these are all untested thought-experiments. There is a small chance that the HPG does not work
as I describe above, and that there is a true anomaly here. If the mechanical energy input to a homopolar
generator is not in perfect 1:1 proportion to its heat output, then there are mysteries here to be
investigated.

There is a chance that the device of fig. 1c will not create back-action against whatever mechanical forces
are causing it to turn. In this case a motor could be used to spin one disk, and the current in them would
create heat, but the current would not create electromagnetic back action, and so the motor would do no
work in driving the disks, resulting in heat energy "from nowhere." Or as with the Searle device claims, the
generated current in the disks might even create a motor action which would spin the disks, which would
create higher current but no back-action force, which would in turn spin the disks even faster, and which
would create continuous acceleration, an explosive runaway flywheel reaction, and again create "energy
from nowhere." If you short out a radially constructed HPG and spin it fast enough, will it start spinning
faster and faster, until it shatters from the radial forces? There are rumors that such things happen. I
haven't heard that anyone has tried this recently and verified that nothing mysterious occurs.

I'll leave you with this though. In the diagram below, I have attempted to sketch the electrostatic field
created by a spinning disk magnet. It seems as though there is an imbalanced charge along the rim of the
magnet. However, since charge is conserved, a region of opposite charge must appear elsewhere. The
equal and opposite charge is not on the magnet at all, it is hanging in space along the axis of rotation! (At
least my crude drawing strongly suggests this. Am I mistaken?)

Is this real? Isn't it like those strange circular e-fields which exist in the empty space around a toroidial AC
inductor? But this is the DC version. And I cannot see how the e-field could have these closed loops, since
the field lines seem to end in empty space at the axis of rotation. If there were a cloud of charged particles
surrounding this spinning magnet, would the rotating field cause them to collect at the axis? Surely simple
electromagnetic physics doesn't have such a gaping flaw. However, I've heard that in Gen. Rel., EM does
not apply correctly when the objects in question are rotating. Is this true? I don't know how to think about
this, and if I've made an error in visualizing it, I cannot see my error. [perhaps the concept of 'lines of flux'
doesn't apply to the e-field generated by a changing magnetic field?]

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SOME REFERENCES:

Faraday Paradox (WP)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_paradox

PDF papers at U. Texas Center for Electromechanics

http://www.utexas.edu/research/cem/publications.html

N-machines in nuclear submarines: the hunt for compact power

http://www.memagazine.org/backissues/april00/features/hunt/hunt.html

Earth's core simulated with rotating liquid metal

http://physicsweb.org/article/news/4/5/4

IEI (Ireland) finds new Faraday Disk effect

http://www.iei.ie/papers/faraday/faraday71.html, also some
discussion

THE HOMOPOLAR HANDBOOK: A definitive guide to faraday disk and

N-machine technologies, by Thomas Valone, 1994. Published by
Integrity Research Institute, 1377 K St. NW, Suite 204,
Washington DC 20005 See bookstore

Don Lancaster's "Tech Musings", tinaja.com site:

- muse117.pdf, Shattering HPG Myths
- muse121.pdf, Understanding Faraday's Disk

Homopolar motor torque equation

W. Johnson Gyro Force Theory: Faraday disk (.pdf)

Delpalma's site http://depalma.pair.com/

Eric K's free energy EM skepticism

Dr. I. Moroz current homopolar generator research

Spinning Magnetic Fields, Jovan Djuric

Journal of Applied Physics v48 #9 Sep 1977 p 3981

Comments on Spinning Magnetic Fields, A. Viviani

Journal of Applied Physics v46 #2 Feb 1975 p 679

From CyberWorkshop:
Homopolar Generator Principle (jap lang)
HPGs I(jap lang)
HPGs II (jap lang)
HPGs III (jap lang)

Graneau's EM forces, bibliography

Fenyman Lectures on Physics, Vol II, Sect 3.10

PIRA PHYSICS DEMO K2-64: UNIPOLAR GENERATOR :

R. J. Stephenson, Experiments with a Unipolar Generator and
Motor, AJP 5, 108-110 (1937).

Dale R. Corson, Electromagnetic Induction in Moving Systems,

AJP 24, 126-130, ( 1956). 7/9
 AJP 24, 126-130, ( 1956).

David L. Webster, Relativity in Moving Circuits and Magnets,

AJP 29, 262-268 (1961).

Thomas D. Strickler, Variation of the Homopolar Motor, AJP 29,

635 (1961). A. K. Das Gupta, Unipolar Machines, Association of
the Magnetic Field with the Field-Producing Magnet, AJP 31,
428-430 (1963).

David L. Webster, Schiff's Charges and Currents in Rotating

Matter, AJP 31, 590-597 (1963).

Thomas Strickler, Motional emf's and the Homopolar Motor,

AJP 32, 69, (1964).

Little Stinkers: Electromagnetic Induction, TPT 4, 1966.

R. Becker, "Electromagnetic Fields and Interactions, Blaisdell
Pub. Co., 378-383, (1964).

P. Lorrain and D. Corson, Electromagnetic Fields and Waves,

W. H. Freeman, 338-343, 657-664, (1970).

Robert D. Eagleton and Martin N. Kaplan, The radial magnetic

field homopolar motor, AJP 56 #9, 858-859 (1988).

Daniel F. Dempsey, The rotational analog for Faraday's magnetic

induction law: Experiments, AJP 59, 1008-1011 (1991).

J. Guala Valverde and P. Mazzoni, The principle of relativity

as applied to motional electromagnetic induction, AJP 63 #3,
228-229 (1995).

Gerald N. Pellegrini and Arthur R. Swift, Maxwell's equations

in a rotating medium: Is there a problem?, AJP 63 #8,
694-705 (1995).

Richard E. Berg and Carroll O. Alley, Unipolar Generator: A

Demonstration of Special Relativity - Department of Physics
and Astronomy, Univ. of MD- College Park.

Aurthur I. Miller, Frontiers of physics, 1900-1911 Selected

Essays: Unipolar Induction: A Case Study of the Interaction
Between Science and Technology, 153-180, Birkhauser at Boston

Panofsky and Phillips, Classical Electricity an Magnetism,

pages 240, 342-345.

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