Well, I have been toying around with the Hamel spinner. First I
fashioned a Bedini style gate and played around with it. Very cool,
that little ball and magnet spinning all over the tabletop. I must say
as I played with this assembly (which I made from a couple of $ worth of
magnets and a plastic ashtray) I was convinced that this has definite
potential, something about it is very inspiring to me. Anyway so I did
some more reading on Hamel and his ideas (again Jerry thanks for your
site it makes things so much easier) and with a little more knowledge
was ready to experiment. Then my grandmother got very sick and I had no
time for myself as my wife (God bless her) and I moved to take care of
her. Unfortunately she passed away last thursday. As we were cleaning
out her room searching for insurance policies I came across some
refrigerator magnets and I started thinking about the "spinner" again.
So last night I dug out the magnets made a bigger gate and started
spinning. Still makes me feel like a kid. I then set up the gate on a
glass vase (5"dia 6.5" length)
so that there would be minimal if not zero interference from my hands.
After putting the ball/magnet part under glass I watched as it slowly
began to rotate then build speed and bang against the vase walls to
stop. Now by slowly sliding the vase as to keep the ball/magnet
centered I was able to build up some pretty good speed and keep it going
continuosly. Now the next thing could have a very simple explanation but
still....
as the ball/magnet was dancing(as I've come to describe it) away under
the glass vase my daughter was playing with my smaller gate and a top
magnet. She's gotten pretty good at keeping the top dancing so it had a
little momentum too. Well all of a sudden her top jumps about 15" and
slams into MY gate on top of the vase and ZZZZZZZZ big sparks!!!
Somebody else needs to try this unfortunately I have been unable to
duplicate this I have no idea of the rpm's of either the ball/magnet or
the top other than fast.
Most likly explanation: sparks were created by friction (like striking
flint to light a fire)
More intriguing explanation: something like discharging a capacitor
So now I am off to check the Hamel and Bedini pages its been awhile
since I did any thinking on this. Anyone else working on this or have
any ideas to throw my way I would appreciate it. I have some free time
now and dedicated to testing and research though on limited funding.
Thanks,
crowekri