College Dropout Invents Perpetual Motion Machine?

Found a couple of interesting articles in the paper today:

Thane Heins, a college dropout from Almonte, Ontario has spent 20 years working on a motor that appears to achieve perpetual motion - and thus far has certain scientific experts, like Markus Zahn of MIT, stumped...

On the device:

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.

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.

Source: 'Holy crap, this is really scary,'


On the reaction:

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."

Source: Turning physics on its ear

Your links are not working.

reply to post by titian


They're working...they just seem to take a long time loading. I've been noticing a lot of problems with the internet in general ever since those cables were cut in Asia.

Anyway, the website is for the online version of the Toronto Star - but I'll just post the full articles here for anyone who can't load them I guess:

Article 1

`Holy crap, this is really scary,' inventor says of strange phenomenon

Feb 04, 2008 04:30 AM
Tyler Hamilton
Energy Reporter

It all began back in 1985, when Thane Heins, having studied electronics at Heritage College in Gatineau, Quebec, 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?"

reply to post by mc_squared


There are a couple related inventions, including one device which simply generates electricity from magnets.

Hitachi actually has a patent on a device that produces more kinetic energy than the electrical energy that is input.
Hitachi Engineers Confirm Over-unity Motor

The common issue I've seen with all of these inventions/discoveries is that the permanent magnets themselves are quickly demagnetized, leading me (and others) to believe that it is in fact the conversion of potential energy trapped in the magnet's crystalline structure as it demagnetizes to additional power which actually generates what seems to be free energy. As a result, you could think of it more like using a magnet as a battery.

My guess is that this is what he accidentally created. Of course, I have no proof of that, but it simply makes the most sense to me, assuming the story is true.

reply to post by lifestudent


I agree with this assessment completely more often than not the magents due to whatever reason become less and less powerful over a period of time,
if you use the neodymium magnets they last considerably longer..

the loss of magnetic field could be due to heat as well if you have a magnet handy and heat it with a lighter or a propane torch for a short time you can drastically reduce the pull force of the magnet in just a short time..

I have a friend who is crazy about these machines he has built several smaller ones and now is in the process of building a very large one bout 6 foot in diameter he says it should power his whole shop and when he works out the bugs he is going off the grid.. he is using home wound coils and industrial capacitors not sure if it will work as he plans but it looks cool


seems like same old dog and pony show but with a new dog though as far as him inventing it I think not as far as it being over unity well that will only last as long as the magnets remain at their current state of magnetic energy I suspect as was stated that once the magnets lose just a little power the device will cease to function properly, so congratulations to the college drop out who has discovered magnetism..

also the motor spinning out of control should indeed build up a back current but you have to be able to trigger this build up to a precise moment like to disperse the energy for about 5 milliseconds every revolution to control the speed if he weren't a college dropout he might know that you can do this with a fairly simple 555 timer that costs 5 bucks to build...



Respectfully
GEO

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The second article is too long to put in one post, it's really not as interesting as the first one anyway...

As for your response lifestudent - that sounds like a pretty good theory if there is demagnetization involved - but unfortunately the article doesn't go into much detail about any possible curious side-effects.

The part that did catch my attention was about the magnets "flying off and hitting the wall" - this, to me, doesn't intuitively sound like something that would happen if the motor was simply drawing potential energy from the magnets?

Anyway I'm really no expert on electromagnetics so I'm not going to pretend to be - I don't really understand the part where they speculate on the magnetic resistance being 'conducted' by the steel rotor - is that even possible? If someone wants to explain that to me, I'd appreciate it

In the case of every one of these folks once public they will be harassed until they give up any type of public display. If they need money to continue they will be done. In the case of Hitachi they bought the invention and shelfed it. I wish him the best but he will get threats against himself and his family, be shunned by the science community when even they know the possibility, and he will eventually give up in fear of his family's lives. Its called the Big oil machine.

The very fact that anyone in the mainstream scientific community will even talk to him, much less offer their services is encouraging.

Most academics won't even consider such a thing because it is professional suicide.

The second article is the one with all the information, so I would suggest that interested parties read that one, too.

As the second article points out, someone comes up with an idea like this every few years and are either summarily dismissed or they are made to look silly because they made an error in their measurements.

This case sounds a lot like the Joe Newman motor of about two decades ago.

It appears that Joe Newman is still at work.

en.wikipedia.org...

www.google.com...

This is nothing new, but I'll give him credit with the rest of these guys...



Videos/links on the subject matter:



www.youtube.com...

www.youtube.com...

www.youtube.com...

freeenergytrackers.ning.com...




Please see my blog for details on why magnetic fields are the key to unlocking the Universe:



blog.myspace.com...



This will provide you most (if not all) the answers...

Originally posted by geocom


I have a friend who is crazy about these machines he has built several smaller ones and now is in the process of building a very large one bout 6 foot in diameter he says it should power his whole shop and when he works out the bugs he is going off the grid.. he is using home wound coils and industrial capacitors not sure if it will work as he plans but it looks cool

Tell your friend to stay on the grid.

If his generating device is operating in synchronism with the grid the meter will turn backwards and if he's on the minus side of the usage equation at the end of the month the result will be that the electric utility will have to send him a check.

Not much bettern' money in the mail....

reply to post by Desert Dawg


that would be nice but there is no buy back policy at the current time from the local power company so he would just be easing the operating cost of the electric company.. after reading something else I see that there may be a credit for him but apparently it falls off after a period of time..not like rool over minutes.. and add to that he has to have equipment that is approved by the electric company to interconnect..

we are located in Missouri not the most progressive state in the union by far



Respectfully
GEO

[edit on 2/5/2008 by geocom]

[edit on 2/5/2008 by geocom]

This sounds interesting and I would like to see more info on the design. As far as the experiment which causes the motor to accelerate, it sound to me like he is using a DC motor and it is going into a runaway condition. Large industrial DC motors have safety switches to avoid this condition. I believe it happens when the current in the coils of the armature is cut off, but the current in the outer coils remains. This will cause a motor to accelerate and fall apart. It also draws a huge amount of current when it happens so it's not like it is perpetual motion. I'm betting he is using a DC motor and the magnet is affecting the coils on the armature.