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>> STERLING: Hi, Sterling Allan here. I'm at David Yurth's house in Salt Lake City.
He's going to be talking about a Nova Neal Compression Engine, and how that works and
why he's open sourcing it. So, here we go.
>> DAVID: Hi Sterling. In 1936, an inventor by the name of Robert Neal obtained a patent
from the US Patent Office for an engine whose medium of exchange was compressed air, which
was self-sustaining once it got started.
The patent application was initially denied because "perpetual motion" was a category
of application that the patent office had decided they would not respond to. So, as
the story goes, Mr. Neal packed up his engine, took it to Washington [D.C.], put it on the
desk of the patent commissioner, turned it on, and demonstrated it, after which, he got
his patent.
The story about what happened to the engine is a matter of record. Eventually, because
of interference from people who wanted his engine and who kidnapped his daughter as a
way of compelling him to relinquish it, he agreed that he would disassemble the engine
and distribute the parts and not make it any more.
In the 75 years since that happened, to the best of our knowledge, no one has succeeded
in either identifying the specific set of principles that made it work, or recapitulating
the engine or in a newer or similar kind of design.
After about 10 years of research on this process, we know how his engine worked, and we understand
the principles that are involved. And [with what] we have available today, with 21st century
technologies and materials, [we have the ability] to operationalize what he created with much
cruder materials a long time ago.
The engine operates as a heat exchanger. There is nothing exotic about it.
What happens in his engine is this. Two secrets made it possible for him in his design to
build a self-sustaining heat-exchange, air-compressor engine.
[1] He developed a valve that enabled him to put low-pressure air into a high-pressure
tank. [2] He designed his engine in such a way that
the first air that went in was re-compressed to a higher pressure, and the tank he accumulated
the pressure in was designed and put so that he could retain the heat of recompression.
What that meant was, based on the calculations that we have developed today, 100 psi air
input into his engine at 20 ft2/minute was translated into a much higher pressure
that allowed him to tap the same input volume, but at a self-amplified pressure that was
8-12 times higher than the original input value.
It's just as simple as that.
So, what we've done is put together an abstract that details the principles that make it work,
a partial list of components that are needed in order to build one today, and the sources
for the pieces that made his engine unique.
Essentially what happens is that we take a tank of about 100 gallons. The tank is a serious
piece of business. You have to make sure, when you're operating at pressures that are
in excess of 1100-1200 psi that you haven't short-cut anything on your tank. One end of
the tank (the dome) has to be detachable, because the recompression equipment goes inside
the tank, and has to be contained in it, in order for low pressure air to be input into
an internally-held air-booster while the heat of compression is retained inside the tank.
So, [you can get] a Haskell Boster, or a booster made by Eaton, or other manufacturers -- ubiquitously
available on the Internet, they use them on the Space Station, you can buy them in a quantity
of one, for anywhere from $2500 to $5000. These are typically the kinds of devices that
are used to take air pressure from a conventional single- or double-cylinder compressor, and
convert that into 4000 psi pressure in scuba tanks.
We're just going to put one of those inside the [larger] tank; seal it up; make sure that
the tubing and the piping is pressure-rated, so it isn't collapsed under the internal pressure
of the [larger] tank.
Once that is put together and engineered, then you have a compressor on the outside
of the larger tank, which is driven by an electric or gasoline-powered engine, and connected
by a slip-clutch of some kind, so that once the engine becomes operational from the [internal]
tank, you can disconnect the [external] compressor from the extrinsically-powered unit, and drive
it by an air-powered engine, which takes the air off the [internal] tank, out through the
dome.
We've specified an [Angelo] DiPietro Engine, [which we] like because it has a rotating
cylinder, it operates with very high torque and very high efficiency at a relatively low
consumption rate. So, at something on the order of 18 - 20 ft2 / minute,
the DiPietro Engine, powered by a tank that is compressed at 800 - 1100 psi will enable
that little engine to drive two things simultaneously.
[1] The first thing it will do is drive the external compressor so it is continuously
recompressing the [internal] tank; but you have 40-45% of the work potential provided
by the pressure in the [inside] tank left over to perform other kinds of work.
[2] So the DiPietro Engine can also be attached to a compressor, or an alternator, or a generator,
or a pump, or anything that requires shaft-driven torque in order to perform work function.
The reason this apparatus works is because the air that is put into the [inside] tank
at 100 psi as the initial value, without the use of any external, extrinsic, mechanical
or electrical power is driven through the internal re-compressor, which operates by
cams. That's what allows you to put low pressure into a tank that's re-pressurizing it to about
800 psi. By retaining the heat of compression, the 800 pounds-per-square-inch pressure coming
out of the re-compressor is further amplified so that you have a compressed tank at 1100
- 1200 psi at whatever the ambient temperature is inside the tank.
If you paint that tank black, and sit it out in the sunshine, you'll get an incremental
amplification of between 25 and 40% in addition to the retained thermal value that is retained
from the compression.
So, this engine would cost between $7500 and $10000 to build, using ubiquitously-available,
off-the-shelf materials.
When you put this thing together, you should have a good heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning
or refrigeration guy help you make sure that your connections and your tubing, and the
other interstitial pieces of your apparatus are going to be able to withstand the pressures,
so you don't introduce leaks and other kinds of anomalies into the system.
We're releasing this information. We've done the calculations, we've tested all the pieces;
we're in process of building a demonstration engine now. We hope to be able to bring that
with us to the next [[Events:2014:ExtraOrdinary_Technology_Conference|TeslaTech Convention]] in Albuquerque in 2014.
We're open sourcing this design. The reason I'm doing that is because I want the design
to be in the world. I don't own it. I didn't create it. I understand it. And I'm willing
to share it with anybody that wants to build it, with absolutely no charge, and no strings
attached.
If you want this information, it's ubiquitously available. Sterling is going to publish on
the PESWiki site. You go there and download it. If you want to correspond with me about
what to do and how to make it work, I'd be more than happy to entertain your calls or
your inquiries.
There are no fees. There are no charges. There are no strings attached. If you build it,
you own it. And more power to you.
>> STERLING: On the system you were describing that would cost between $7500 and $10000 in
materials, what would be the output of that?
>> DAVID: Somewhere between 45 and 48 kilowatts, continuous [That is in self-looped mode, with
no external input to maintain it.]
>> STERLING: 45 kilowatts.
>> DAVID: Yes sir.
>> STERLING: Wow.
>> DAVID: In 100 gallons [external tank]
>> STERLING: Would you care to talk about some of the other stuff you're doing, or is
that off the record for now?
>> DAVID: We'll do another tape about another application in about 60 days.
>> STERLING: Ok. Thanks
>> DAVID: Thank you.