| Perpetual motion machine: Adams motor |
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|---|---|
| Disciplines | physics and electrical engineering |
| Core Tenets | "Over unity device" capable of producing more energy than is supplied to it and being a technology that would or could provide energy at greater than 100% efficiency. |
| Year Proposed | 1969 |
| Original Proponents | Robert George Adams |
| Current Proponents | Researchers of "free energy" |
| Theory violation | Second law of thermodynamics |
The Adams motor is an example of a claimed perpetual motion or "over unity device" capable of producing more energy than is supplied to it. Such claims are generally viewed as pseudoscience by mainstream scientists. It is clear that functional electric motors can be built by following his design principles, but claims of greater than 100% efficiency are met with skepticism and rejection. At a 1994 meeting, several such motors were demonstrated, but according to supporters "none of the motors present were of sufficient engineering quality to manifest the elusive over-unity effect."
In 1969, Robert George Adams (of New Zealand 1920-2006) developed what became known as the "Adams Switched Reluctance Pulsed DC Permanent Magnet Motor Generator" (the terminology is idiosyncratic, because the design is not that of a traditional switched reluctance motor). Reluctance is the measure of the opposition to magnetic flux, analogous to electric resistance. In the description of the motor's operation developed by Harold Aspden Ph.D, pulsing the stators electrically is said to switch the reluctance or opposition to the rotor magnets.
Working in collaboration with Harold Aspden, theories about the Aether and the motor's alleged interaction with this medium were developed. Adams sought patents for his work (and has received a UK Patent, GB2282708, with Aspden Harold). Debates over the motor's power measurement still exist, with the thermal methodology originally employed open to question. Further claims made by Adams that Ohm's law is not valid for the apparatus, tend to further confuse output measurement.
Physically the basic Adams motor consists of a central rotor either all north out, or all south out. The stators are distinctive, for having a generator wind that fills them out from half the diameter of the magnet face, to the full diameter. Tim Harwood provided a simple to build version in 2001 that was widely replicated on the Internet, called the 'CD motor.' It features some of the exotic Adams optimisation variables advocated, such as high ohm coils. The apparatus is reported to manifest a cooling anomaly, to a certain extent corroborating at least some of the claims made by Robert Adams.
Adams claimed other inventors have plagiarised his work, and pointed out the technology lapsed into the public domain, making it non patentable. John Bedini and Lutec Pty of Australia are especially notable for having made similar and controversial claims.[1] Issues said to be hindering commercial development include the apparent requirement for mechanical switching to deliver optimal output. The pulse anomaly also reportedly works best on a smaller scale of ¾ in (19 mm) diameter magnets, further hindering an effective scaling of net output.
A New Zealand experimenter named Andrew Thorp reports on his web page that he built and investigated a version of Adams motor. His conclusion was that the apparent over unity effect is illusory. He suggests this explanation:
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According to Adams' autobiography, the evolution of the motor design includes these significant milestones:
Whilst there is reference to over-unity, this is not the claim of Bedini nor is it a principle of his perpetual motor operation.There are many recordings of these motors reporting higher output power to the source of the input than that which they are drawing, with loss inversion into real power.