Back in 1831, Michael Faraday discovered that a cylindrical magnet suspended by a string and touching a mercury bath at the bottom could generate electricity while spinning along its axis if a second electrical contact was made at the periphery of the midpoint of the magnet. His experiment was a one-piece homopolar machine since the magnet and conductor were joined together. Such Faraday generators have also been called acyclic, unipolar or homopolar generators because no commutation or alternating of the magnetic poles is necessary for this machine in order to generate electricity. The type of electrical output is most often direct current (DC) unless specific means are designed to provide an interruption of radial conduction and thus simulate alternating current (AC). Historically, DC was championed by Thomas Edison during the early part of the 20th century while at the same time AC was championed by Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse. In the future, DC will be coming back into style with the emergence of ambient temperature superconductive cables. Therefore, highly efficient homopolar generators will be in demand to meet the market demand for electricity.

Homopolar generators usually have a single disk or drum rotating in a stationary magnetic field with sliding contacts. The sliding contacts often present high resisitance however. The construction and operation of homopolar machines for electric propulsion of marine vessels or railguns for example is already well known. Such machines include motors and generators wherein electrical current flows through a conductor situated in a magnetic field during rotation of the machine rotor. In the case of a homopolar motor, the current will develop a J x B force perpendicular to the direction of its flow through the conductor and that of the magnetic field. In the case of a homopolar generator, a voltage dependent on the rotational speed, magnetic field, and radius, is induced in a conductor moving within the magnetic field. When current is drawn from the homopolar generator, it also develops a J x B force for the same reason as with the motor but is referred to as back torque or armature reaction. General reference information including basic principles used to reduce back torque can be found in The Homopolar Handbook by Thomas Valone (ISBN 0-9641070-1-5).

The prior art rarely includes a one-piece homopolar machines that rotate the magnet with the disk. Even more unknown is the concept of rolling contacts. Eliminating sliding contacts is shown in the "Planetary Homopolar Generator," IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Vol. 17, No. 6, p. 1786-87, Nov., 1974, H. D. Varadarajan. Using a conducting belt or rolling contacts to gather current from a magnetic field flux cutting rotor, there is an annular magnetic field through which the rotor executes a planetary motion. The large stresses resulting from the centrifugal force of the massive, unbalanced planetary rotor is a distinct disadvantage, prohibiting high speed operation. Thus, only a low rate of rotation is possible with the IBM design. The "Direct Current Homopolar Machine" U.S. Pat. No. 5,587,618 to Hathaway demonstrates an analogous concept of relative motion between conductive orbiting shaft and a stationary disc-shaped magnetized armature. Science Applications International Corporation claims an obvious conductive belt, dual disk "Homopolar Motor-Generator" in U.S. Pat. No. 5,241,232 to Reed that was already invented as the "Dynamo Electric Machine" of U.S. Pat. No. 406,968, patented by none other than Nikola Tesla in 1889, also with two unipolar magnetized rotors connected by a conductive belt. The belted dual unipolar machines solve one of the problems that plague the field by offering two sliding contacts at the low speed surface on the axle. However, the present invention requires only one sliding contact on the axle. These conductive belt machines also demonstrate, in principle, the concept of a multi-rotor, planetary design, by the process of coordinate transformation, since relative motion is the key to the operation of a homopolar generator. The concept of rolling contact is demonstrated with the Dalen "Dynamo Electric Machine" U.S. Pat. No. 645,943, where two disks are turning in opposite directions while in contact with each other at their periphery. However, the axle of each disk must remain fixed in place whereas each axle is in orbiting motion in the present invention. The Roshchin machine Russian Pat. No. 2155435 contains a basic concept of magnet rotors orbiting a circular stator but does not include the intimate electrical contact necessary to utilize the homopolar generation of the present invention or to initiate a homopolar motoring effect.

The IBM Varadarajan planetary rotor is unbalanced and has a low rate of magnetic flux cutting due to its annular magnetic field design. The Hathaway direct current machine has unbalanced conductive material orbiting the central magnetized disk which limits the rotational speed. The conductive belt designs can be subject to oxidation and slippage, even requiring a toothed timing belt on each axle as well. With most disk models of homopolar generators, as opposed to drum designs, sliding contacts are the single most important contribution of resistance inhibiting the power output of the machine. Internal resistance is the only limit to the output capability of a homopolar generator and it is important to reduce all sources of internal resistance to obtain maximum power output for a given input torque. Rather than use high resistance carbon brushes, medium resistance silver-graphite brushes or dangerous conductive liquids such as mercury, low temperature solder, or sodium-potassium, there is a need to eliminate frictional sliding contact at the high speed periphery of the magnetized rotor completely. Furthermore, rather than maintaining two sliding contacts which contribute friction and resistance, even in the rolling and belted designs, there is a need to cut the number in half to only one high current sliding contact. The present invention satisfies both of these needs.

The primary object of the invention is orbiting multi-rotor cylindrical magnets in rolling contact that eliminates friction while generating DC electricity.

Another object of the invention is to provide high efficiency, low noise and low resistance in a high generator.

Another object of the invention is that it uses readily available materials in a dynamically balanced arrangement.

A further object of the invention is safety through reduced internal stress than comparable homopolar machines with a single rotor.

Yet another object of the invention is that it provides distributed generation around an air core.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following descriptions, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein, by way of illustration and example, an embodiment of the present invention is disclosed.

The present invention comprises an improved homopolar machine with dynamically balanced, axially parallel, cylindrical, electrically conductive magnets arranged circumferentially around the vertical axis of central stator ring. Such a design can be referred to as distributed generation since each magnet rotor generates only a fraction of the current that is transmitted through the machine. Thus, the conductive bearings contacting the center of each end of the magnet rotors may carry only one tenth or less of the total current. The multi-rotor homopolar also does not include sliding contacts at each magnetized rotor rim but instead utilizes a suitable rolling means attached separately to magnets and also to the stator ring for intimately contacting and engaging non-slip rolling between magnets and stator as they orbit around the stator. The magnetized rotors maintain rotational synchronism and equal relative position to each other with a bearing means rotatably securing the top and bottom end of each magnet to a corresponding electrically conductive circular endplate. The electrical energy is extracted, or inputted if used as a motor, through contacts on the conductive stator and at the machine's electrically conductive axle located in the center of the machine while rigidly attached to the top circular endplate that rotates with all of the individually magnetized rotors. The only high current, moving contact that is required is a single electrically conductive thrust bearing that supports the central axle. An insulating thrust bearing meanwhile separates the axle from the center of bottom circular endplate. The stator, which is of course stationary, accomplishes the second contact means through a standard electrical connection with no need for any relative motion sliding contact. The stator may be optionally magnetized in the opposite direction to the magnetized rotors in order to improve the coercive force or magnetic flux density of the rotors by closing the magnetic circuit.

The drawings constitute a part of this specification and include exemplary embodiments to the invention, which may be embodied in various forms. It is to be understood that in some instances various aspects of the invention may be shown exaggerated or enlarged to facilitate an understanding of the invention.

Since World War II North Americans have invested much of their newfound wealth in suburbia. It has promised a sense of space, affordability, family life and upward mobility. As the population of suburban sprawl has exploded in the past 50 years, so too the suburban way of life has become embedded in the American consciousness.

Suburbia, and all it promises, has become the American Dream.

But as we enter the 21st century, serious questions are beginning to emerge about the sustainability of this way of life. With brutal honesty and a touch of irony, The End of Suburbia explores the American Way of Life and its prospects as the planet approaches a critical era, as global demand for fossil fuels begins to outstrip supply. World Oil Peak and the inevitable decline of fossil fuels are upon us now, some scientists and policy makers argue in this documentary.

The consequences of inaction in the face of this global crisis are enormous. What does Oil Peak mean for North America? As energy prices skyrocket in the coming years, how will the populations of suburbia react to the collapse of their dream? Are today's suburbs destined to become the slums of tomorrow? And what can be done NOW, individually and collectively, to avoid The End of Suburbia ?

Hosted by Barrie Zwicker. Featuring James Howard Kunstler, Peter Calthorpe, Michael Klare, Richard Heinberg, Matthew Simmons, Michael C. Ruppert, Julian Darley, Colin Campbell, Kenneth Deffeyes, Ali Samsam Bakhtiari and Steve Andrews. Directed by Gregory Greene. Produced by Barry Silverthorn. Duration: 78 minutes

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Brain research is beginning to produce concrete evidence for something that Buddhist practitioners of meditation have maintained for centuries: Mental discipline and meditative practice can change the workings of the brain and allow people to achieve different levels of awareness.

Those transformed states have traditionally been understood in transcendent terms, as something outside the world of physical measurement and objective evaluation. But over the past few years, researchers at the University of Wisconsin working with Tibetan monks have been able to translate those mental experiences into the scientific language of high-frequency gamma waves and brain synchrony, or coordination. And they have pinpointed the left prefrontal cortex, an area just behind the left forehead, as the place where brain activity associated with meditation is especially intense.

"What we found is that the longtime practitioners showed brain activation on a scale we have never seen before," said Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the university's new $10 million W.M. Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior. "Their mental practice is having an effect on the brain in the same way golf or tennis practice will enhance performance." It demonstrates, he said, that the brain is capable of being trained and physically modified in ways few people can imagine.

Scientists used to believe the opposite -- that connections among brain nerve cells were fixed early in life and did not change in adulthood. But that assumption was disproved over the past decade with the help of advances in brain imaging and other techniques, and in its place, scientists have embraced the concept of ongoing brain development and "neuroplasticity."

Davidson says his newest results from the meditation study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in November, take the concept of neuroplasticity a step further by showing that mental training through meditation (and presumably other disciplines) can itself change the inner workings and circuitry of the brain.

The new findings are the result of a long, if unlikely, collaboration between Davidson and Tibet's Dalai Lama, the world's best-known practitioner of Buddhism. The Dalai Lama first invited Davidson to his home in Dharamsala, India, in 1992 after learning about Davidson's innovative research into the neuroscience of emotions. The Tibetans have a centuries-old tradition of intensive meditation and, from the start, the Dalai Lama was interested in having Davidson scientifically explore the workings of his monks' meditating minds. Three years ago, the Dalai Lama spent two days visiting Davidson's lab.

The Dalai Lama ultimately dispatched eight of his most accomplished practitioners to Davidson's lab to have them hooked up for electroencephalograph (EEG) testing and brain scanning. The Buddhist practitioners in the experiment had undergone training in the Tibetan Nyingmapa and Kagyupa traditions of meditation for an estimated 10,000 to 50,000 hours, over time periods of 15 to 40 years. As a control, 10 student volunteers with no previous meditation experience were also tested after one week of training.

The monks and volunteers were fitted with a net of 256 electrical sensors and asked to meditate for short periods. Thinking and other mental activity are known to produce slight, but detectable, bursts of electrical activity as large groupings of neurons send messages to each other, and that's what the sensors picked up. Davidson was especially interested in measuring gamma waves, some of the highest-frequency and most important electrical brain impulses.

Both groups were asked to meditate, specifically on unconditional compassion. Buddhist teaching describes that state, which is at the heart of the Dalai Lama's teaching, as the "unrestricted readiness and availability to help living beings." The researchers chose that focus because it does not require concentrating on particular objects, memories or images, and cultivates instead a transformed state of being.

Davidson said that the results unambiguously showed that meditation activated the trained minds of the monks in significantly different ways from those of the volunteers. Most important, the electrodes picked up much greater activation of fast-moving and unusually powerful gamma waves in the monks, and found that the movement of the waves through the brain was far better organized and coordinated than in the students. The meditation novices showed only a slight increase in gamma wave activity while meditating, but some of the monks produced gamma wave activity more powerful than any previously reported in a healthy person, Davidson said.

The monks who had spent the most years meditating had the highest levels of gamma waves, he added. This "dose response" -- where higher levels of a drug or activity have greater effect than lower levels -- is what researchers look for to assess cause and effect.

In previous studies, mental activities such as focus, memory, learning and consciousness were associated with the kind of enhanced neural coordination found in the monks. The intense gamma waves found in the monks have also been associated with knitting together disparate brain circuits, and so are connected to higher mental activity and heightened awareness, as well.

Davidson's research is consistent with his earlier work that pinpointed the left prefrontal cortex as a brain region associated with happiness and positive thoughts and emotions. Using functional magnetic resonance imagining (fMRI) on the meditating monks, Davidson found that their brain activity -- as measured by the EEG -- was especially high in this area.

Davidson concludes from the research that meditation not only changes the workings of the brain in the short term, but also quite possibly produces permanent changes. That finding, he said, is based on the fact that the monks had considerably more gamma wave activity than the control group even before they started meditating. A researcher at the University of Massachusetts, Jon Kabat-Zinn, came to a similar conclusion several years ago.

Researchers at Harvard and Princeton universities are now testing some of the same monks on different aspects of their meditation practice: their ability to visualize images and control their thinking. Davidson is also planning further research.

"What we found is that the trained mind, or brain, is physically different from the untrained one," he said. In time, "we'll be able to better understand the potential importance of this kind of mental training and increase the likelihood that it will be taken seriously."

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