Fred A. BALDINELLI
Dual Relay Charger
Boston Evening Globe (Dec. 4, 1974)
"State Probes Magic Battery Invention"
by Richard Connolly
When Anthony Gallucio talks about the “little black box” and what he claims is its amazing contribution to the field of energy his description bridges the gap between Thomas Edison and television’s Mission Impossible.
Gallucio, a lawyer and former Cambridge School Committee member, says he and his partner, Fred A. Baldinelli of 135 Atherton St., Milton, are developing what he describes as a dual relay charger capable of creating AC power from a 12-volt battery.
Both Gallucio and Baldinelli, the inventor, cl;aim that the device, iunlike anything on today’s market, can power an automobile or provide 1000 to 1500 volts --- enough to illuminate a house.
Essentially it is a battery charger that has AC power”, Gallucio explains. “You can use it any place you use electricity”.
“The device is solid state”, Gallucio says. “It has not moving parts. No chemicals, no batteries or fuel cells. The materials and parts are readily available and the output can be varied by changing the size of the device”.
Gallucio describes the present model of Baldinaelli’s invention as about the same size as an automobile battery. He says the Ford Motor Company and Raytheon Company have expressed interest in the device.
Investigators in the office of Attorney General Robert H. Quinn also are interested in the invention and reportedly are prepared to present information to a Suffolk County grand jury next week.
State detectives assigned to the Criminal Division reportedly have investigated the Gallucio-Baldinelli venture as a result of claims made by persons who said they invested in the invention.
While Gallucio declined to say how much has been invested, investigators reportedly have estimated the figure at $100,000 or more.
They reportedly have been told that a Medford man invested $23,000, a Wakefield man $100,000 and a Springfield businessman $120,000.
But the big question involves the source of energy. Nobody seems ot know what it is.
Gallucio says he doesn’t know.
He lives at 86 Buckingham St., Cambridge, is counsel for the State Dept. of Labor and Industries and was secretary to the late John F. Kennedy when JFK was a congressman.
Gallucio says his partner, Baldinelli, whom he describes as “a genius, an electronic genius”, isn’t sure of the source of energy either.
“I can’t tell you”, Gallucio says. “We don’t know the source of energy. Mr. Baldinelli doesn’t know either. He’s a raw inventor. He doesn’t know how it happens. He doesn’t [… missing line of text]…
“He knows what you have to put together. He knows it happens”, Gallucio says of his partner.
But he is quick to point out that even if they did know the source of energy they wouldn’t say because they consider the invention so valuable.
In fact, Gallucio says, Baldinelli has been developing a self-destruct mechanism for the device so that it would ruin itself if anyone tried to open it for inspection during testing by engineers.
Gallucio says the self-destruct model should be completed by tomorrow.
The Harvard graduate says he became interested in Baldinelli’s inventions about 11 years ago when he represented Baldinelli as a lawyer.
Baldinelli’s device developed through his attempt to improve the automobile alternator, according to Gallucio.
Recently he equipped a Volkswagen with the device and it powered the vehicle without depleting the battery in a test which Gallucio says was witnessed by Ford engineers.
Baldinelli, who says he also invented a burglar alarm that fits in a doorknob, claims to have illuminated his home with power from his device on the night of the great Blackout.
The lights in his home drew so much attention in the darkened neighborhood, Baldinelli says, he decided to extinguish three spotlights which illuminated his backyard.
When the lights of the Northeast went out a few years ago, Baldinelli says, he merely plugged his invention into a wall socket and his lights went back on.
Gallucio says he used the device to feed electricity to a building daily for several months.
Getting sufficient money for research and attempting to sell the invention to such firms as Ford and Raytheon has been a struggle, according to Gallucio.
He says none of his friends who invested has been dissatisfied with the progress of development but he was told that some individuals who purchased an interest in the device from another person complained to the attorney general’s office.
Baldinelli, who says his primary experience in electronics dates employment in an auto radio shop, holds a patent on the device.
Baldinelli has discovered what engineers have described as “a very extraordinary thing”, according to Gallucio.
“What stuns the engineers is that it looks like there is no power depletion in the battery”, Gallucio says. “The engineers go crazy. They don’t believe it. They say it can’t happen”.
“They say you can’t do this (draw power from a battery without depleting it) and here he (Baldinelli) is doing it. They said we couldn’t fly to the moon. We flew there”.
When the Volkswagen was used in a test, Gallucio says, Ford’s engineers placed meters on the battery and noticed no power depletion.
Gallucio is apprehensive about the effect the attorney general’s investigation may have on his venture with Baldinelli.
But someday, he says, the invention will be recognized.
“Someday”, he says, “they’ll pin a medal on me
and the inventor will get a Nobel Prize”.