Discussion:
      Nearly anyone who wishes to gain an initial understanding of the Electrodynamic Field Generator, even a scientist or engineer, is likely to ask for a concise layman's explanation of "how it works". This isn't easily accomplished, since the device represents an unorthodox and multidisciplinary technology. However, the overview presented herein will discuss certain characteristics of the machine's simplified electric power generation variant in what is hoped to be the most direct manner possible. In this case, when people ask the question above, what they generally mean is: "how can over-unity operation really be achieved in a 'StarDrive Dynamo'?". It is assumed here that the reader is already acquainted with certain basic aspects of the design, and appreciates as well that over-unity operation is an absolute prerequisite for the viable light-speed propulsive variant we are working to develop further. . .
 
     As essential background, the formative mechanical design basis of the EDF Generator is of course the original Faraday disk dynamo. Strangely enough, although many have patented 'novel' forms of this simple machine, before now no one seems to have tried building a more sophisticated variant that uses electrostatic induction principles to substantially eliminate magnetic losses. The principal limitation of Faraday's disk dynamo in its initial form was that, when one or more permanent magnets were used to pass flux directly through the plane of a solid conductive rotor, a heavy but rather high-loss current at very low voltage was produced. The first design improvement was therefore to use rotor-mounted toroid field coils in order to generate a much higher-voltage primary current, and a 'segmented' rotor to reduce "eddy current" resistive losses. The toroid coil configuration also absolutely minimizes Lenz losses, or the magnetic "drag" that is experienced by any conventional generator's rotor proportional to the entire induced load current.
 
 

 
     To eliminate the use of brushes, electrostatics and traditional vacuum tube design and operating principles were employed. Fortunately, most of the original patent work in this field has passed into the public domain, so incorporating certain aspects thereof into the EDF Generator was not an impediment to its patentability. By using plane-parallel electrode arrays instead of brushes to energize the rotor, it's possible to limit that portion of the overall induced rotor current which passes through the input circuit's field coils to an extremely low level – effectively isolating them from the output circuit. More importantly, however, it then becomes possible to thermoelectrically charge the Generator's housing itself in such a way that it carries the device's full output current instead! This is done by means of 72 modular heated electron source assemblies (in the primary electrode arrays shown above) that essentially function just like amplifying 'beam power'  electron tubes  connected between the housing collectors and the rotor.

Electron tube:
...electron tube, device consisting of a sealed enclosure in which electrons flow between electrodes separated either by a vacuum (in a vacuum tube) or by an ionized gas at low pressure (in a gas tube). The two principal electrodes of an electron tube are the cathode and the anode or plate. The simplest vacuum tube, the diode, has only those two electrodes. When the cathode is heated, it emits a cloud of electrons, which are attracted by the positive electric polarity of the anode and constitute the current through the tube. If the cathode is charged positively with respect to the anode, the electrons are drawn back to the cathode. However, the anode is not capable of emitting electrons, so no current can exist; thus the diode acts as a rectifier, i.e., it allows current to flow in only one direction. In the vacuum triode a third electrode, the grid, usually made of a fine wire mesh or similar material, is placed between the cathode and anode. Small voltage fluctuations, or signals, applied to the grid can result in large fluctuations in the current between the cathode and the anode. Thus the triode can act as a signal amplifier, producing output signals some 20 times greater than input. For even greater amplification, additional grids can be added. Tetrodes, with 2 grids, produce output signals about 600 times greater than input, and pentodes, with 3 grids, 1,500 times. X-ray tubes maintain a high voltage between a cathode and an anode. This enables electrons from the cathode to strike the anode at velocities high enough to produce X rays. A cathode-ray tube can produce electron beams that strike a screen to produce pictures as in oscilloscopes and video displays. Gas tubes behave similarly to vacuum tubes but are designed to handle larger currents or to produce luminous discharges. In some gas tubes the cathode is not designed as an electron emitter; conduction occurs when a voltage sufficient to ionize the gas exists between the anode and the cathode. In these cases the ions and electrons formed from the gas molecules constitute the current. Electron tubes have been replaced by solid-state devices, such as transistors, for most applications. However they are still widely used in high-power transmitters, some television cameras, specialty audio equipment, and as oscilloscope and video displays. A klystron is a special kind of vacuum tube that is a powerful microwave amplifier; it is used to generate signals for radar and television stations.

 
     The reason for the latter unorthodox design parameter is that it was desired to actually incorporate a standing electric arc field or corona discharge into the output circuit, to take advantage of the electron's inherent ability to absorb "quantum background energy" – including zero-point energy – to virtually any extent necessary to maintain its eternal steady-state spin. As a result of a thorough study of lightning, the inventor of the StarDrive device reasoned that the electrons comprising any naturally-occurring bolt of lightning have to recover (or absorb) an amount of ambient photonic energy equal to that which they expend in transit – in order to satisfy the Conservation of Energy principle. In such a case, it really isn't necessary that "we" do the work of moving charge against a potential gradient; the work may be done by the charge itself in being attracted along the potential gradient (or voltage level)! Thus, the primary arrays 'starve' the collectors of electrons and the rotor distributes the corresponding negative charge to the housing's peripheral emitter ring until a continuous spatial Field "leakage" or bypass current ensues around the housing at a highly elevated voltage.
 
     [Put another way: it is known from electrophysics research that a typical bolt of lightning comprises a current of 13,000 amps at about 500 million volts – roughly 6.5 terawatts of power, or the equivalent of 8.7 billion horsepower!  It should be obvious that a thundercloud system and the ground beneath it do not jointly conspire to input a corresponding amount of energy into creating that lightning stroke: Since electrons are continuously self-motional, it requires far less energy (for random atmospheric forces, in this case) to effect a massive separation of charge than the total energy released when lightning-borne electrons act to neutralize that separation of charge.]
 
     And since it's known from welding that it takes even less input energy to sustain an arc than it does to initiate it, it therefore becomes possible to create an electrical circuit which continuously outputs far more energy than it requires as input. This is exactly what an EDF Generator does – by incorporating a standing arc field or corona discharge in its output circuit. Using a StarDrive device as our mechanism, "we" only have to provide sufficient work-energy to establish and maintain the external Field's potential gradient, by initiating rotation of the electrically polarized rotor and bringing the thermoelectric elements up to operating temperature. The electrons in the electrodynamic field do all the rest . . .**
 
** For an in-depth and conclusive analysis of the means by which all electrons are able to continuously output EM energy (or do work), by world-reknowned over-unity authority Dr. Thomas Bearden, click here.

  For a further brief but detailed [pdf] Technical Overview of the StarDrive Dynamo's method of operation, click here.