Text: Solid-State Energy Devices and Their inventors by Jeanne Manning "Imagine a world in which endless, nonpolluting, and virtually free energy powers our cities, cars, and homes." -Owen Davies, Science writer "Our electrical company tells us that the only two practical choices for their power are coal or nuclear. There is another alternative.² -Wingate Lambertson, Inventor In this chapter, we'll meet three of the leading North American inventors of solid-state energy devices, or devices that use no moving parts. These inventors are only three of many. These men have diverse backgrounds and personalities. In California, a scientist described by Omni magazine as a star in the electronics field works in a high-tech private laboratory funded by financial backers. In Florida, a former government official pays for his research out of his retirement savings, and makes discoveries in his garage. In Canada, a self-described eccentric, well-known in Japan but unknown in his own country, cooks up a crystal-based energy device in a tiny kitchen ‹using ordinary rocks. What these inventors have in common is a zest for exploring. Their work on the leading edge of energy science holds promise for the development of small-scale, quiet but powerful converters‹ devices that convert space energy into useable electric power. THE CHARGE CLUSTERS OF KEN SHOULDERS Solid-State Energy Devices and Their Inventors Ken Shoulders, Ph.D., a tall, solidly built man, wears the expression of someone not inclined toward ordinary concerns. He is a discoverer on the frontier, and lets others worry about whether his findings fit into the accepted boundaries of scientific theory. In the early 1960s, Shoulders developed much of today's microcircuit technology. Now, he is working on an even more advanced concept: the high-density charge cluster. It is a concept that holds great promise in the space-energy field, since these donut-shaped, microscopic clusters put out more than thirty times the energy required to produce them. Shoulders spent decades doing work in various institutions, wherever he had a chance to learn more about science and to try things out. This work included nonteaching staff positions at universities such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in laboratories such as Stanford Research Institute, and in private corporations. Along the way, Shoulders accumulated the equipment he needed to set up his own laboratory, which he did in 1968. Like Nikola Tesla, the father of new energy we met in Chapter 2, Shoulders made a discovery that could render his previous work in microcircuit technology obsolete. It was a discovery made by accident. Around 1980, Shoulders was introduced by physicists at the Stevens Institute In Hoboken, New Jersey, to strange strings of particles‹what scientists call vortex filaments. After working on them for awhile, Shoulders found that they weren't strings at all, being about as broad as they were long. They showed up as strings on the instruments of most researchers because the researchers could never stop the motion of these extremely fast-moving blobs. When Shoulders learned how to get clear pictures of the blobs , he found they were little beadlike structures. The simplest name for them is charge cluster, although Shoulders calls them Electrum Validum, a name that means "strong charge." What Is a Charge Cluster? The basic idea of a charge cluster is rather simple. It is a tightly packed cluster of about 100 million electrons, an electron being the part of an atom that revolves around the nucleus. Shoulders has been able to create conditions under which electrons break free from their nuclei and join together into remarkably stable little ring-shaped clusters, like tiny donuts. "It is the wildest electronic effect you will ever see," Shoulders says, calling his creations "little engines of vast complexity that just don't die!" As simple as the charge cluster is, conventional science has a hard time accepting its existence. That's because it violates a law of physics: "Like electrical charges, either negative or positive, repel." Since all electrons carry a negative charge, conventional science says that they should not cluster. Hal Puthoff, whom we met in Chapter 4, has worked with charge clusters, and thinks that the force which holds them together is the result of an effect named after Dutch physicist Hendrik Casimir. The Casimir effect refers to the tendency for two perfectly smooth metal surfaces placed near each other to come closer together. Puthoff explains the effect this way: imagine two metal plates hovering in space, close to each other. Because the plates shield each other from space energy coming from one direction, the space energy pressing in on each plate from the opposite direction would slam the two of them together, releasing energy as heat. Shoulders uses the Casimir effect to pinch a cold plasma‹a special form of gas that conducts electricity‹to create heat and charge clusters. The electricity he uses is static electricity, the electricity in the spark that snaps from a doorknob if you drag your feet across a carpet. In Shoulders's system, this electricity provides the electrons that make up the cluster. It is, essentially, an electric charge compressed into a visible form. What inspires Shoulders's awe about these tiny entities is that they almost seem to have an intelligence about them‹they are self organizing. The clusters appear to form into various sizes, but are uniform in organization and behavior. They often look like a ring or a necklace of tiny donuts. "It's some law of nature that's just not spelled out for us yet," Shoulders says. Shoulders discovered the link between charge clusters and space energy when he tried to find out what could supply the large amounts of energy needed to make electrons overcome their tendency to repel one another and join into tightly packed clusters. Their high energy makes charge clusters very powerful‹they can bore holes through ceramic tile without losing strength. Because of the Casimir effect, space energy appears to fit the evidence from Shoulders's experiments as a likely source of this energy. As futuristic as this technology seems, Shoulders has been able to convince a tough customer of its value‹the United States Patent Office. While past attempts to base a patent on space energy have been unsuccessful, Shoulders has broken through with a 1991 patent titled, "Energy Conversion Using High Charge Density." It is a milestone‹the first successful patent to say that space energy can be used as a source of practical electric energy. Charge Clusters and Commercial Products Now working with his son, Steve, Ken Shoulders continues to make breakthroughs. What Shoulders sees under the microscope is another world, hinting of future machines that will be thousands of times more powerful than our current machines. Charge-cluster technology could be one of the first space-energy technologies to be commercialized. Unlike some of the other space energy inventions, charge clusters do not need magnetic fields or low temperatures to work. One new-energy writer says the charge cluster may be one of the most promising areas of research since the transistor. Providing abundant clean energy is not the only thing that charge clusters can do. There is a whole range of possible products based on charge-cluster technology, according to Puthoff, who lists a few of the products besides energy devices that could result from developments in this field: * High-resolution television screens flat enough to hang on a wall. * Notebook computers more powerful than the largest mainframe. * Tiny X-ray machines that can enter the body and kill cancer cells without harming surrounding tissues. While the Shoulders team makes advances in the laboratory, a private firm with the necessary product-placement know-how makes plans in the marketplace. This firm will ensure that charge cluster technology can be licensed worldwide for eventual development into a number of products. THE CERMET OF WINGATE LAMBERTSON In Florida, Wingate Lambertson, Ph.D., lights a row of lamps in his garage using what he says is electricity taken from the energy of space. It took years for Lambertson, a former director of Kentucky's Science and Technology Commission, to overcome his academic skepticism about claims that you could get something for nothing‹yet energy freely available from space could be tapped for useful work. After getting his doctorate from Rutgers University, Lambertson works for United States Steel in Chicago before going into the United States Navy. After going back to Rutgers for more postgraduate work, he joined Argonne National Laboratory, where he worked on nuclear fuel technology. Then Lambertson discovered the large body of space-energy literature that has been written by researchers in the field. Eventually, he came to believe that something similar to an aether - the basic stuff of the universe discussed in Chapter (?) could exist, and that where collected, it could be used to make electricity. After more than two decades of research and experimentation, Lambertson is certain that space energy can be turned into a practical power source through a process he calls World Into Neutrinos (WIN). He envisions it being engineered into units that will probably be set outside the home on a small concrete pad, like central air conditioning units are now, and wired into the home's master electric switchbox. The price? About $3,000 for either sale or lease‹ cheaper than buying or leasing a car. The WIN Process and Cermet The most important part of the WIN process is Lambertson's E-dam, and the most interesting component in the E-dam is cermet. Cermet is a heat-resistant ceramic-and-metal composite invented in 1948 and considered by NASA for rocket nozzles and jet-engine turbine blades. Lambertson, who spent almost his entire career working with advanced ceramics, is experimenting to develop the best cermet for his device. The E-dam contains a plate of cermet formed into a round spacer about three inches in diameter, sandwiched between metal plates of the same size. The process starts with an electrical charge‹basically, a stream of electrons‹from a standard power supply. The charge flows into the E-dam, where it is held in the cermet: "It stores electrons like a [regular] dam stores water," Lambertson says. When the dam is opened, the electrons are released. As they accelerate, the falling electrons gain energy from the space energy that is present in the E-dam. This gain in energy is what allows the device to put out more power than it takes in. The current of electrons then flows into the device to be powered, such as a lamp, and then moves into another E-dam for recycling. Lambertson says there is no way for the process to become dangerous - if too much power were generated, the E-dams would overheat, shutting down the system. For years, Lambertson was more interested in proving that the process gained energy than in the actual amount of energy gained, since he thought scaling up the process to higher efficiencies would be a relatively simple engineering problem. When his first of three patent applications was rejected, he saw it as a blessing because it forced him to study the space-energy literature more carefully. By the fall of 1994, he had improved the process to the point where it put out twice as much energy as it started with. Lambertson Finds Help Meanwhile, Lamberston was having a frustrating time in trying to find funding and marketing help. Responses to his proposals usually fell into one of two categories: * "This will not work, your calculations are in error." * "You get it working and free of all technical problems, and we will take it off your hands." He learned, as have other inventors in this book, that it's a waste of time to try to convince people of the validity of one's claims when those people don't want to listen. But he did find support in 1987, when he spoke at a new-energy conference in Germany. There, he found people who saw the need for his invention and agreed to market it when the WIN process is perfected. Lambertson says that he now has active associates in Switzerland, in addition to interest shown by the United States Navy. Three different groups have shown interest in taking over and developing the WIN method. THE DIRT CHEAP ROCKS OF JOHN HUTCHISON If you ask the other residents of a certain apartment building in Vancouver, they may admit to being curious about John Hutchison. They see a tall, muscular man who carts old consoles of electronic equipment onto the elevator nearly every week. Their curiosity increased the day a Japanese television crew showed up and disappeared inside his apartment for a few hours. And in the summer of 1995, Hutchison further puzzled onlookers by sitting on the curb and picking out stones, Why would a rockhound sort through ordinary street rocks? What the neighbors do not know is that John Hutchison is well-known in new-energy circles, and is even known to some who move in the circles of established science. His visitors have included distinguished physicists. But unlike Shoulders and Lambertson, he is a self-taught scientist. As a boy in Vancouver, he read about Nikola Tesla (see Chapter 2) and then startled neighbors with Tesla coil experiments in his backyard. While in his twenties, he developed a medical problem that resulted in his living on a small disability pension. For years, he lived a generally reclusive life, digging for rare electrical equipment in military surplus stores and junkyards, and carrying his finds home on the city bus. Apart from time spent as a volunteer at a local ecology center, he spent hours in his bedroom-turned-laboratory, patiently rebuilding equipment. He considered opening a museum. Antigravity and the Hutchison Effect Hutchison's life changed drastically in 1979 when, upon starting up an array of high-voltage equipment, he felt something hit his shoulder. He threw the piece of metal back to where it seemed to have originated, and it flew up and hit him again. This was how he originally discovered the Hutchison effect. When his Tesla coils, electrostatic generator, and other equipment created a complex electromagnetic field, heavy pieces of metal levitated and shot toward the ceiling, and some pieces shredded. What is the Hutchison effect? As with much of the new-energy field, no one can say for sure. Some theorists think the effect is the result of opposing electromagnetic fields cancelling each other out, creating a powerful flow of space energy. A Vancouver businessman heard about the Hutchison effect, contacted Hutchison, and brought in a consulting engineer to form a company that would promote technology developed from the effect. Despite demonstrations to potential customers from both Canada and the United States, things did not work out, and Hutchison and the company parted ways in 1986. After a couple of other abortive business tries, including a sojourn in Germany, Hutchison returned to Vancouver in late 1990 and again lived a relatively reclusive life. Piece by piece, he sold what remained of his laboratory equipment in order to pay his bills. It would be several years before he could reestablish his collection. Hutchison wanted to connect with other researchers, but the local media had given his work the weird-science treatment, and didn't take him seriously. However, material on the Hutchison effect was included in a Japanese book on Hutchison's life and work that sold well in Japan. Living in a country with almost no natural resources has led the Japanese to take new-energy ideas very seriously, as we will see in Chapter 8. As a result, Hutchison was asked to speak in Japan, where thousands of people paid to attend his two lecture tours. These tours were organized by Hiroshi Yamabe, a well-known Tesla lecturer who made his fortune in such advanced engineering fields as robotics and artificial intelligence. Yamabe offered to set up a laboratory for Hutchison, but the Canadian was ambivalent about the prospect of moving to Japan. Beyond the Hutchison Effect: The Dirt Cheap Energy Converter Hutchison was undecided about what to do. He had moved beyond the Hutchison effect and into the field of space energy, and had acquired a Canadian business manager. The winter before his 1995 Japanese tour, Hutchison built a working space energy device about the size of a microwave oven. The Hutchison Converter was based on Tesla's resonance principle. Tesla demonstrated this principle by steadily pulsing bursts of energy into his electric coils, each burst coming before energy from the previous burst had time to die away. This led to higher and higher amounts of energy, like a child going higher and higher on a swing. Hutchison captured the same pulsing, rhythmic energy by using crystals of barium titanate, a material that can capture the pulses of certain electromagnetic frequencies in the way that a radio can pick up certain radio frequencies. When the crystal pulses, or resonates, it produces electric power. I saw a demonstration in which the converter put out six watts, enough to power a motor that kept a small propeller spinning furiously. The whirring of a tiny propeller looked rather silly, until one realized that the apparatus contained no batteries, no fuel, and no connection to a power outlet. It worked continuously for months. One day while experimenting, however, Hutchison cracked a crucial part and decided to take the unit apart. He built a smaller, more portable model to take on his speaking tour. Resembling an Oscar statue in size and shape, the portable converter put out slightly more than a watt of power. It lit a tiny lamp as a demonstration and also ran a small motor. At the end of the tour, in front of an audience of about 500 Hiroshima residents, Hutchison slapped the device onto a table lit by the bright lights of a television crew. He quickly unscrewed all the parts and revealed its inner details, while the camera zoomed in for a closeup and a pair of chopsticks provided a scale to show the size of the device. It was clear that the converter contained no batteries. Afterward, men crowded around Hutchison, offering him their business cards and asking him to sell them a supply of barium titanate. Back home, Hutchison's business advisor fretted that the inventor had given away his secrets. But Hutchison shrugged his shoulders; he had gone beyond the prototype technology he had taken to Japan. He now had a new secret - the stovetop process he called Dirt Cheap because the ingredients included common rocks. The new process grew out of his use of barium titanate.. He wondered, "Why can't I make a material that works even better?" Hutchison knew that other researchers had put electrodes on certain rocks to show that the rocks generated a tiny electric current, somehow soaked up from the cosmos. So Hutchison sorted through small stones on the street in front of his apartment and threw them into a test tube-sized metal container. Next, he added a mixture of low-cost, common chemicals ‹ he won't reveal which ones ‹ and put this rock soup on the stove to simmer. This allowed water to evaporate and tiny pockets of air to rise from the stones so that the chemicals could enter them. Before the mixture cooled into a solid, he added specially treated posts to draw electricity from the crystal-like substance that had formed. Again, no one is entirely sure as to how the Dirt Cheap method works, although one physicist told Hutchison that the Casimir effect, used by Ken Shoulders to create charge clusters, may be at work (see page 61). When he first discovered his Dirt Cheap process, Hutchison didn't bother to patent it. He had heard from other inventors how their laboratories had been vandalized and their property had been stolen once the Patent Office had been notified, and he was not eager to be the first inventor to take a bold step by manufacturing a large home- or factory-sized unit that could restructure industries. Besides, in the 1980s - when he was still working with the Hutchison effect - he had received a few threatening comments from strangers. How could Hutchisonn enjoy his peaceful life and still get a space energy product to the public in a low-key manner? He says he has hit upon an unusual strategy: building miniature flying saucers powered by Dirt Cheap-supplied electricity, and selling them as space-energy children's toys. Hutchison hopes an environmentally safe toy that lights up without batteries will intrigue the public into buying Dirt Cheap devices that could power large appliances. And perhaps, the Dirt Cheap process could help lead to a world of nonpolluting new energy. In the next chapter, we will meet an inventor who used magnets to tap the energy of space.

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