Your PFT (I love acronyms, TOD, MRA, TOMI, FF1, SMOT, etc..) motor is
highly reminescent of Oleg Jefimenko and his electrostatic motors which
used atmospheric static electricity and could produce decent torque. I
know Norm Wootan had a book about it written by Jefimenko. It looks in
your pictures like a difference of potential (28kvdc) to create an
imbalance to create a spin...
I've always been curious about the so-called Poggendorf effect that was
reported in the early discussions about the Swiss Testatika....the claim
was that slanted electrodes arcing to the Wimshurst discs actually
caused it to selfspin once it was moving....strangely, I've not seen
that phenomenon or claim ever addressed publicly, though it could be
useful with high voltage experiments.
You have an interesting design nonetheless, thanks for sharing the URL.
-- Jerry Wayne Decker / jdecker@keelynet.com http://keelynet.com / "From an Art to a Science" Voice : (214) 324-8741 / FAX : (214) 324-3501 KeelyNet - PO BOX 870716 - Mesquite - Republic of Texas - 75187