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From: gwyn@brl-smoke.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.physics,net.misc
Subject: Re: "Free Energy Machine"
Message-ID: <1639@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Date: Sat, 8-Mar-86 18:15:11 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-smok.1639
Posted: Sat Mar  8 18:15:11 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 11-Mar-86 01:10:08 EST
References: <326@inuxm.UUCP> <702@osiris.UUCP>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.ARPA
Distribution: net
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL)
Lines: 16
Xref: watmath net.physics:3917 net.misc:9359

In article <702@osiris.UUCP> jcp@osiris.UUCP (Jody Patilla) writes (>):
>> Unfortunately, it will not work in a closed box.  This is not a hoax:
>> let me build it according to my plans and it will output work without
>> being plugged into an electric outlet.  It uses no magnets.  But it must
>> be built to take into account natural earth energies.
>> 
>	This sounds like the "engine" in ATLAS SHRUGGED. It was built by
>John  Galt and supposedly ran on static electricity from the air.

Although Galt's engine was invented purely as a fictional story device,
it is interesting to note that there really is a substantial potential
gradient in the atmosphere.  I don't think one could extract much power
from it with a modest-sized apparatus, however.  Nikola Tesla's research
may have served as the inspiration for the concept; this is the kind of
thing he worked with.  ("Broadcast power" was another, also mentioned in
"Atlas Shrugged" as I recall.)