Virtually Free Energy

[Steve L.]

Perhaps it's me, but it seems all the web sites have degenerated into endless discussions about towing combinations. One stops another starts. A cynic would suspect that most of them are trolls, that is, asking unanswerable questions because they get a rise out of the arguments. But I'm a cheerful, "glass full" kinda guy so I don't think that. (I am, however, giving myself apoplexy trying to be civil.)

And so I thought I'd distract myself my announcing my latest get rich scheme. I'm posting it here so that I can point to a date where I made it public thus establishing I was the source of the idea in case someone tries to steal my idea before I can obtain the seed money for pesky details like patents and what have you.

I was going to put in the General Chat, but "they" always laugh at visionaries. At first. So Jokes it is. Either forum establishes the date.

I'm gonna buy maybe four solar panels. I'm going to mount them on a radially on hub at a slight angle, sort of like a propeller or one of those little windmill things you see on the front lawn. Then I'm gonna put the hub on something like an alternator. The whole shebang will be mounted on a big suction cup.

Here's the beauty of it. Stick it on your trailer roof and you get electricity from the sun AND the wind practically doubling the electricity I'll get. Plus, as it spins, no one panel will always be in the shade.

"Ah!", you say. "What if there is no wind?" Easy. I just siphon a little electricity off to run a motor that spins the hub that turns the alternator and there's my electricity.

"You're too clever for me Steve, but what if there's no wind AND no sun?" Again, no problem. I'll hook my generator to the motor that turns the hub that turns the alternator that generates the electricity. Problem solved.

AND…when I travel, I'll just leave it on the roof and just going down the road will generate the apparent wind.

And to think, you all knew me when. Even before when. Before "when" being "then", I suppose.

I think they're coming. Gotta go.

[Bill Abbay]

Amazing, insightful, ingenious!
And don't worry about those pesky Laws of Thermodynamics. They're just "guidelines"! Go for it, Morgan!


But what's this "virtually" part....

[Maggie O.]

Don't forget the flame decals!

[Morgan]

Amazing, insightful, ingenious!
And don't worry about those pesky Laws of Thermodynamics. They're just "guidelines"! Go for it, [b]Morgan!


But what's this "virtually" part....

Bill, how did I get in this thread before I got in this thread?

Steve, amazing. If you want to share my rubber room, you may.

[Bill Abbay]

Bill, how did I get in this thread before I got in this thread? wacko.gif

Sorry, Morgan Only two explanations I can think of: (1) Halfway through Steve's dissertation, I started sensing a connection between Steve's theory and your Dark Suckers and wondered if you and Steve were in cahoots, my mind wandered, and so it's your fault, or (2) Steve's invention has created a local twist in the fabric of space-time and you were already here, and so, there you were/are.

I'm gonna go get a beer...

[Andrew Gibbens]

OK, I can't resist trying to hijack this thread and turning it half-serious. It all sounds just too familiar - a few years ago I prepared a trailer design looking 100 years ahead as part of a job application as a trailer designer and it sounds very much like Steve's joke.

A design assumption was that energy had become wildly expensive and so the trailer used a combination of solar panels and a wind generator that folded out of a roof stowage to both be self-sufficient in energy when camping and also to be capable if slow speed self-propulsion.

Here is the design:













Can I come play in the rubber room now?

Andrew

[Donna D.]

I see some REAL application for this....the windy Columbia River Gorge area (where I live), I could use this type of thing, turn my trailer into a helicopter and cruise above all the traffic going back and forth to work. At lunchtime, I could then use the trailer to relax.

BUT, what do I do if there's not enough wind to get me home

[Gina D.]

BUT, what do I do if there's not enough wind to get me home confuse.gif

Come work with me Donna. My co-workers can provide you with plenty!

Steve, can you do this idea on a beanie? A solar wind powered beanie lamp would be much more convinient than shaking a goofy virtual LED flashlight every minute or so on those after dark dog walks.

I want a rubber room too!

[Morgan]

Sorry, Morgan Only two explanations I can think of: (1) Halfway through Steve's dissertation, I started sensing a connection between Steve's theory and your Dark Suckers and wondered if you and Steve were in cahoots, my mind wandered, and so it's your fault, or (2) Steve's invention has created a local twist in the fabric of space-time and you were already here, and so, there you were/are.

I'm gonna go get a beer...

Make mine a virtual MGD.

[our Canadian friends would call all our beer virtual]

[Morgan]

I see some REAL application for this....the windy Columbia River Gorge area (where I live), I could use this type of thing, turn my trailer into a helicopter and cruise above all the traffic going back and forth to work. At lunchtime, I could then use the trailer to relax.

BUT, what do I do if there's not enough wind to get me home

Donna D.

I can't help you get home, but you'd better check the rating on your weight distribution hitch before liftoff.

[Morgan]

Come work with me Donna. My co-workers can provide you with plenty!

Steve, can you do this idea on a beanie? A solar wind powered beanie lamp would be much more convinient than shaking a goofy virtual LED flashlight every minute or so on those after dark dog walks.

I want a rubber room too!

These nice folks in the home for the bewildered have lots of rubber rooms, Gina D.

[Steve L.]

Steve, can you do this idea on a beanie? A solar wind powered beanie lamp would be much more convinient than shaking a goofy virtual LED flashlight every minute or so on those after dark dog walks.

Ha! Trying to trick me! A solar panel beanie for walks in the DARK.

I'm also working on a methane alternative for propane. It involves vast quantities of beans and franks. I have a few bugs to work out and I'm not ready to announce it yet. However, something involving a fanny pack and another suitably located propeller might have possibilities. For the moment, I'm having trouble getting the picture out of my mind.

I'll be sure to credit you prominently in the literature!

[Renee K.]

I see some REAL application for this....the windy Columbia River Gorge area (where I live), I could use this type of thing, turn my trailer into a helicopter and cruise above all the traffic going back and forth to work. At lunchtime, I could then use the trailer to relax.

BUT, what do I do if there's not enough wind to get me home

What you need on the Columbia is a combination hang glider wind surf board! You can always get up or down to somewhere. Just remember, I said it here first!

[Renee K.]

Hey Steve, I found something like that out in high Orygun country a few years back with a NASA logo. Got out my trusty pliers, hammer, and screw drivers, along with some strong duck tape and put it up in a tree! After 20 minutes all batterries were charged, then a government agent came along and made me go up tree an get it for him and then they charged me twice as much for power than local elecric company and said I was lucky I wasn't going to jail! I took early retirement and won't give them another dime for all that space junk ever again. I did take many pics and have them and good diagrams for sale next week on Ebay. Do you think they will jail us all?

[Maggie O.]

"I'm also working on a methane alternative for propane. It involves vast quantities of beans and franks. I have a few bugs to work out and I'm not ready to announce it yet. However, something involving a fanny pack and another suitably located propeller might have possibilities. For the moment, I'm having trouble getting the picture out of my mind."



You probably won't need the decals for this one.

(Where's a smiley with his butt on fire when you need one?)

[Nick]

I mount a giant magnifying glass over my solar panel at night to magnify the star light. So far all my tests have been inconclusive.

[Steve L.]

I think Nick (or Marlene) has the right idea although they haven't applied enough cross discipline technology to it.

Now, I'm just running this up the flag pole to see who salutes. You know, seeing if this dog will hunt, but amateur astronomers have (relatively) cheap motor driven tripod mounts that rotate at the speed that the stars seem to move. Perhaps a number of synchronized telescopes, each with a solar panel down by the eye piece might do the job. Keeps the stars in focus and on the panels.

Stick with me kids and you'll all be wearing golf balls the size of diamonds.

After all, I have the heart of an inventor.


In a jar.


On my work bench.

[Bill Abbay]

...amateur astronomers have (relatively) cheap motor driven tripod mounts that rotate at the speed that the stars seem to move. Perhaps a number of synchronized telescopes, each with a solar panel down by the eye piece might do the job. Keeps the stars in focus and on the panels.

I think this could be the answer to a problem that's always bothered me. Today, millions of kilowatts of solar energy are selfishly (some would say, quite frankly, "irresponsibly") sucked up by solar panels, and the amount is rapidly increasing.

This is done without any regard for the impact on future generations. In [garbled] years the light from the sun may be so depleted that global warming will just be a fond memory.

So: Using Nick and Steve's idea, we can shift the load from "solar" to "[b]stellar", from the sun to, say, Sirius or Vega!

While this sort of runs against the idea of being a "good neighbor", Vega is kind of far away, after all. (Besides, the way they treat Alpha Centaurians...) Anyway by the time any ETs get wise, Steve's methane converter will be on line...

Enough to give you goose bumps, just thinking about it.

[Nick]

Steve

We usually to camp where there is little air polution and the Milky Way is visable. Our system would probably not work in your area but we are in TEXAS where the stars at night are big and bright.

Nick

[Renee K.]

We can all be as kookie as we want because nearly everything we know about as reality today was once considered kookie enough to put many people away in a soft room. It is the likes of us who will bring the youth of today out of the standard (accepted) learning and into using their left brain (mostly unused) to create the "new" culture of life and another contraption to stuff in a small FG!
"Today's rain will bring a new flower tomorrow".