Device that converts stray wireless signalsand sounds into electricity

[ManitobaCanuk]

Breakthrough device converts stray wireless signals into electricity and could be tuned to harvest energy from multiple sources, even sound

Duke researchers' device pulls energy out of thin air - Computerworld

Just think about it, this is a absolutely fantastic invention. We all live in a constant sea of EM signals and sounds, more than ever before. This is actually free energy because it has never before been considered a source of electricity. A new source of otherwise unknown power. They say it is as effective as solar panels. Absolutely amazing.....just think about it. This is our generations version of zero point energy. I know they are not the same but the simile holds...Someone is going to revolutionize the world with this and make billions...

 

[Wade]

I think somebody already came up with something similar over 125 years ago and because of his own inability to organize his affairs and arguably having his work quashed, and it seems, having his work confiscated after his death that promise goes unfulfilled.

 

[Pygar2]

Crystal radio enthusiasts have done this for years... just an antenna, the higher and longer the better, and a diode (a 1N34A or equivalent- there are microwave diodes now that make even the venerable 1N34A look bad), a meter, and a good ground. Or you can tune a crystal set set to *not* receive at the frequency you want to receive, and use it, in sort of a cheating way, to power an amplifier run from a second set, tuned to the frequency you *do* want to hear. To aficionados, "stealing" power from the air is the only acceptable source of power for amplification of crystal radios... batteries are verboten! So we tune to a powerful station one set, and use it to boost what we actually want to hear. I've heard of people sending up thin wire on a balloon, and getting enough voltage to light a 90 volt neon nixie bulb. If you are interested, midnightscience.com is the place to go.

 

[stonehart]

I think somebody already came up with something similar over 125 years ago and because of his own inability to organize his affairs and arguably having his work quashed, and it seems, having his work confiscated after his death that promise goes unfulfilled.

 

[Randall]

Someone did that up here some years ago on their farm through which some overhead high-tension electrical lines ran. They put a collector on the roof of their chicken house that captured EM bleed off the lines. After the word started getting around, it didn't take long for the power company to come out and serve him with a legal notice to take it down for "stealing electricity" and he even had to pay a fine. I imagine the lousy cell phone and satellite providers would also call it "stealing" and have a big fit over it. after all, pirating satellite signals is already considered stealing ( even though they dump them right on your property ).

 

[boomerang]

This may be an innovation that will yield dividends in certain areas yet unforeseen. But it's hard to see how enough wattage could be snatched from the ether around us to power much more than a crystal radio or an LCD watch without resorting to collectors with large surface area. Maximum safe levels of radio frequency power in the form of, i.e microwaves, considered legally safe are on the order of 1 thousandths of a watt per square centimeter. Or so we are told. Of course, we live in a sea of emf across the entire energy spectrum, so maybe there is more to the story. At any rate--ain't no free lunch and the power must be sourced from something.

On the other hand, if we could find a way to capture and store the power generated in the average lightning storm we would never need to burn another ounce of fossil fuel.

 

[Ian]

There are a lot of radio waves around us, but they can only deliver micro-watts of energy, unless you live VERY near to a VERY powerful radio transmitter. By powerful I mean at least 50,000 watts.

Yes, there are reportedly cases of farmers rigging up fencing to collect enough power to light a cow shed, but it's only possible because they were within a few hundred yards of a powerful transmitter. And you could easily argue that they 'stole' the energy because it reduced the field strength for legitimate use, i.e. people listening on their radio!

In almost any location, even if you had a resonant antenna to collect radio signals from DC to light (an impractical antenna - unless someone can show me otherwise) the energy would still be insignificant.

The journalist who wrote the piece doesn't understand physics or he wouldn't have written: "...7.3V of electrical energy." Completely meaningless unless you have a current measurement too; for example, 2 micro amps at 7.3 volts is only 14.6 micro watts, maybe nearly enough to operate an LCD watch. On the other hand, 7.3 volts at 2 amps, 14.6 watts would be enough to operate a small room fan.

As Paygar2 said in #3 above, a crystal set radio uses just the power in the radio signal to drive the headphones, but it's very weak, as anyone who's played with one will know.

Unfortunately there is a law of physics known as the inverse-square law; as you double the distance from the energy source, the energy density reduces by four. This graphic illustrates it nicely.

So unless Mr Tesla found a way of overcoming the laws of geometry, I doubt those claims made that he found a way of transmitting huge amounts of energy anywhere in the world without wires are true... (and how come no subversive university students have rediscovered it?)

As for powering a device by sound, indeed some radio amateurs have managed to build a radio transmitter powered just by shouting! The 2.5 mW (0.0025 watts) transmitter was received 100 miles away!

Ian

 

[Jeff Davis]

I think somebody already came up with something similar over 125 years ago and because of his own inability to organize his affairs and arguably having his work quashed, and it seems, having his work confiscated after his death that promise goes unfulfilled.

THEE, man. The original MR. T.

You just made me think of something Wade...no, not that! There were several of those guys come to think of it that were amazing inventors that were never recognized during the course of their lifetimes. I have a link at work that I'll share Mon. Fascinating story of a man who lived in roughly the same time frame as Tesla. He was another wireless mad scientist inventor that as esoteric inventor history goes, it seems was never appreciated or given his real due legitimately, due in large part, like Tesla, to external interfering competitive design forces.

It sucks that the majority collective isn't wise enough to distinguish enduring naturally beneficial value for itself, the collective, and eject the minority few (what was that number now, 545 vs. 300,000,000 here in the USA?) whose fleeting, transient, and trivial empowerment, downplay and rob us of all our natural civil liberties and entitlements significantly. So much so that all that we can wield as a decisive, far and away majority numbered collective, can be bullied into submission by so few, greedy, power thirsty, men and women.

Oh, there is no question in this mind. Tesla, was THEE, man. Easily far and away on par with any inventor or pioneering mind (such as Einstein) imaginable. No question.

 

[Randall]

On the other hand, if we could find a way to capture and store the power generated in the average lightning storm we would never need to burn another ounce of fossil fuel.

I figured out a way to do that, but there's a lot of politics and academic elitism that lead to dismissiveness around the idea. Plus after I started contacting people about the idea, coincidentally or otherwise, some goofy scientist set out to do some experiments with lightning and screwed up by getting 1 or 2 people killed.

 

[boomerang]

The journalist who wrote the piece doesn't understand physics or he wouldn't have written: "...7.3V of electrical energy." Completely meaningless unless you have a current measurement too; for example, 2 micro amps at 7.3 volts is only 14.6 micro watts, maybe nearly enough to operate an LCD watch. On the other hand, 7.3 volts at 2 amps, 14.6 watts would be enough to operate a small room fan.
Ian

That's it--sort of like Art Bell's "mystery voltage" created by his huge loop antenna. He would wax on with claims of mysterious electrical voltage from nowhere. But he avoided the subject of electrical current.
Not all that mysterious, really.

 

[boomerang]

I figured out a way to do that, but there's a lot of politics and academic elitism that lead to dismissiveness around the idea. Plus after I started contacting people about the idea, coincidentally or otherwise, some goofy scientist set out to do some experiments with lightning and screwed up by getting 1 or 2 people killed.

You know how this works. Someday, someone with the requisite letters after their names and the right connections will "originate" this idea, land a fat research grant and run with it.

 

[Randall]

You know how this works. Someday, someone with the requisite letters after their names and the right connections will "originate" this idea, land a fat research grant and run with it.

I have my suspicions about that already. But I can't prove anything. It was a long time ago now. I think other people have probably come up with similar ideas, but were never able to run with it either. The idea was to use existing transmission towers that are constantly getting hit by lightning anyway and already connected to the power grid, to shunt the power to power storage stations instead of into the ground. This could be done using special resistors and regulators and superconducting electromagnetic storage system technology that has been available for years, but that we seldom hear anything about.

 

[pong]

This is a fascinating thread which has me thinking more about those high voltage power lines running near my house. Hmmm . . . there may be a clandestine experiment in the future.

Regarding Tesla, he would be envious that the Duke University experimenters have access to metamaterials, something not available in the AC wizard's day. Reaching an energy conversion of 37 percent is definitely something to crow about. This realm of physics shows a lot of promise and I think we'll hear more stories like this one in the near future.



Wireless device converts 'lost' energy into electric power


Metamaterial example

Metamaterial - Wikipedia

 

[boomerang]

This is a fascinating thread which has me thinking more about those high voltage power lines running near my house. Hmmm . . . there may be a clandestine experiment in the future.

Seriously, pulling power from utility lines might be considered theft of services. It probably wouldn't matter that you had grabbed electric current by means of induction without making any physical connection to the wire(s). People have supposedly been prosecuted for this--urban myth perhaps. Taking a few milliamps at a distance probably wouldn't snag anyone's interest. It is entirely possible to capture useable power without making a physical connection to the grid. But I wouldn't recommend it.

 

[Pygar2]

it is very definitely theft; it is very definitely prosecuted... and you don't know when the power company chopper will be following the lines (to check for this, as well as potentially damaging trees etc.) so just don't do it. I used to work for a power company, and know. Also, a good way to get yourself electrocuted, by the way...

Nice place, but some of the guys were a bit weird. One guy had a job following up on chopper reports, way out in the boonies. He used to put down sheets of metal roofing, the old-fashioned stuff, and come back the next day and grab any snakes that had crawled under. I don't know what he did with them, possibly sold them to the nearby university. All I know is that any metal sheeting I ever find on the ground, that is not covered by snow, is safe from me!

 

[pong]

From Phys.org — Inventor Nikola Tesla imagined the technology to transmit energy through thin air almost a century ago, but experimental attempts at the feat have so far resulted in cumbersome devices that only work over very small distances. But now, Duke University researchers have demonstrated the feasibility of wireless power transfer using low-frequency magnetic fields over distances much larger than the size of the transmitter and receiver.

'Superlens' extends range of wireless power transfer