The Binary Circumstance

Swiss boat claims first solar-powered Atlantic crossing

and

Solar home in Va. getting high marks

As I mentioned before, I’ve been looking for a way to build (or buy) a gravity powered generator based on the same principles that drive a grandfather’s clock.

Well, somebody’s already done it. It doesn’t produce much power but it works on the same principle as a grandfather’s clock. A weight drives some gears and chains which turn a homemade alternator instead of a clock. The power it produces is stored in a battery and then used to light an LED.

This can also be called a weight-driven generator or human-powered generator because ultimately the weight must by lifted by human force to create the potential energy that will be released to generate the electricity.

The most amazing thing is that he built it out of Lego building blocks and accessories like gears and chains. I didn’t know that Lego made gears and chains which tells you how long it’s been since I played with Lego.

He describes how it was built here. There is also a video of it on YouTube.

It’s just billiant!

If it seems primative think about where Alexander Graham Bell’s first telephone call has taken us or the first computer made by Hewlett and Packard in a garage.

For those of you like me who are interested in using natural, ambient forces to generate energy, I call your attention to The Museum of Unworkable Devices.

It’s a fun and instructive site that discusses the long history of inventions that attempt to defy the laws of physics. It’s worth a look just for the illustrations.

For those actively working on such devices, it could also save you a lot of time.

The seekers after perpetual motion are trying to get something from nothing.

—Sir Isaac Newton

I’ve read a lot of web sites over the past few days written by very creative people using scavenged motors, alternators and generators in their homebrew alternative electrical generaters.

More than one site mentioned using a motor as a generator because they are essentially the same thing. A motor uses electricty to produce rotation and a generator uses rotation to produce electricity. The two devices are basically the same with regard to the placement of the magnet force and the wire coils. (See here for more detailed explanation. This site covers the same topic and has a video.)

So when I was out running some errands today I stopped in a thrift store, not looking for anything in particular. They had four ceiling fans without the blade attached. Some had the lights others didn’t. They only wanted $6.50 for the part so I bought one that looked like it would be easy to open up and dissect.

I’m not sure if it will work to generate electricity, but I’m sure it will be fun to crack open and explore.

I also wanted to try out using magnets and copper wire so create my own model of an alternator just for the hell of it. (OK, I’m a geek.) But copper wire is so expensive these days that I decided to pass, at least until I try out the motor thing first. At Home Depot, bare 18AW copper wire was over $1.30/foot. At that price, my little experiment could quickly end up costing me many times what I paid for the used motor.

As an aside, I’ve written several posts about how the government’s debasement of the dollar is making metals so expensive. Check the Gold category if you don’t understand why metals are so expensive now. (After recent weekness, Gold was up over 2% today and Silver was up 3.5%.)