Hi ION,
>I agree we should explore and develop even small effects, provided we have not already explored and mapped out the absolute practical limits and found them to be unworthy of further pursuit at this time. They may need to await an advance in material technology.
Yes, I realized that my statement before was not a balanced one. When effects are known to be small in magnitude, it may not be worth the man hours to investigate them, relative to other areas that may be lower hanging fruit.
Shanefield itself is not as promising as other things.
So I return to the general subject at hand...
We've discussed a couple of different concepts that can convert noise or thermal energy into usable power. I see several possibilities for a powerful thermal or noise coherence device, but the one that seems most promising to me right now involves transformed feedback loops, as shown in the Black patent.
There is the possibility of a variety of regenerative or feedback effects possible, which may result in energy gain. The condition for genuine energy gain in Etotal - Efeedback supply > COP 1, and I consider this even possible for an active device.
This energy gain can exist due to the noise from an amplifier connected to a resistor being amplified and transformed and fed back to the original noise. But I also noticed that even feeding back a part of an transformer's sine AC output to a third coil that opposes the primary and secondary fluxes, improves the transformer performance. This is the principle of the Cobb Energy Conservation circuit:
http://www.affs.org/html/the_energy_trimmer.html and the attached patent. This device was in commercial use to reduce electric bills in California. (I don't know if it still is..)
Feeding back current to a third coil opposed to the primary increases the primary input impedance, and decreases the secondary output impedance, to the advantage of the output power:
"Since the third winding produces magnetic flux in a direction opposing the magnetic flux of the primary winding, the presence of the third winding increases the impedance in the primary winding. This increased impedance results in a reduced current flow in the primary winding, thereby reducing the current drain from the public utility power supply lines. Since the current flow in the secondary winding is induced by the current flow in the primary winding, the secondary winding acts as a load with respect to the primary winding. The electrical current flow in the primary winding produces a magnetic flux in the core which causes a flow of electrical current in the secondary winding. Since the third winding also acts as a load with respect to the power coming in, the flux induced in the core by the flow of current through the third winding is in a direction opposite to that of the secondary winding. This flux produced by the third winding reduces the impedance in the secondary winding so that the electrical current in the secondary winding is not reduced by the reduction of current in the primary winding that results from the presence of the third winding.
The presence of the third winding on the load isolation transformer produces a magnetic field which decreases the energy input from the primary winding, but keeps the energy output in the secondary winding the same."
Feedback in this sense has possibilities that go well beyond what can come from noise power, even at high BW. The odd part about the above is, taking the patent logic to its conclusion, ALL the primary and secondary fluxes could be cancelled in a transformer, without any expense in the output! In this case, the primary input impedance is infinite, and the secondary output current is the same, since the output impedance is zero! Of course this cannot happen in reality without feeding some energy in, making the system not passive. But how close can this be approached by using feedback windings, perhaps transformed in the ways I see used in the Black patent?
Consider that coil 26 in the Cobb patent is usually directly coupled on the pot core to oppose the secondary and primary fluxes. But I can imagine improving the output characteristics even more, by magnetically uncoupling coil 26 from the pot core, using a new winding with a few turns around 26 and a few turns coupled to the pot core and primary and secondary. This new coil steps down the voltage from 26, getting a higher current which can then be set by turns ratios to to match the primary current. The reverse flux of the third coil can completely cancel the first coil's flux.
Is this possible?? Or have I finally lost my marbles, as many claim? ;-)
In any case, the important thing to note in my wanderings is that the Cobb device is a passive feedback loop. It doesn't require an amplifier in the middle of the transformer chain as does the Black Patent. This implies that there are unexpected possibilities even in passive feedback loops, without noise.
orthofield