JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
Part of the History of Lines series
Hermann Plauson, a German engineer and director Fischer-Tropsch Otto Traun Research Laboratories of Hamburg, Germany (in the 1920's) built on an idea of N. Tesla to "convert alternating radiant static electricity into rectified continuous current pulses". It was an expansive idea of at least artistic merit, as seen in his patent application (below) and visualization of the completed installation.
"For many years electrical engineers have endeavored to devise some means whereby it would become possible to utilize the free electrical energy ever present in the atmosphere, but they were not successful, as every now and then an extra heavy surge of static current would rush down the elevated conductor and endanger the lives of the experimenters, or else destroy the apparatus connected with it. A German engineer has, however, devised the somewhat elaborate scheme here shown in brief, and he has succeeded, at least so his report states, in safely extracting several kilowatts of electrical power from the atmosphere with metallic surfaced balloons, elevated to a height of only 1000 feet."--Hugo Gernsback, "Power from the Air (II)", in Science & Invention, March 1922.
Notes:
See Gernsback http://www.nuenergy.org/alt/GernsbackOnPlausonFebruary1922.htm
"Conversion of Atmospheric Electric Energy", United States Patent 1,540,998, Dr Hermann Plauson, (1925)
"Power from the Air". Science and Invention , Feb. 1922, no. 10. Vol IX, Whole No. 106. New York. ( nuenergy.org )
"Plauson was the director of the Fischer-Tropsch "Otto Traun Research Laboratories" in Hamburg, Germany during the Weimar Republic of the 1920s. He built on Nikola Tesla's idea for connecting machinery to the "wheelwork of nature". Plauson's US Patent # 1,540,998 describes methods to convert alternating radiant static electricity into rectified continuous current pulses. He developed the Plauson's converter, an electrostatic generator. In 1920, Plauson published a book titled "Production and Utilization of the Atmospheric Electricity" (Gr., Gewinnung und Verwertung der Atmospharischen Elektrizitat). A copy of this book is in the British Library."[Source--Wikipedia]
Comments