Arthur Axelrad: "PAGD, Aether Motors, and Free Energy"
Paulo & Alexandra Correa: "Power from Autoelectronic Emissions"
P. & A. Correa:US Patent # 5,416,391 ~ "Electromechanical Transduction of Plasma Pulses"
P. & A. Correa:US Patent # 5,449,989 ~ "Energy Conversion System"
P. & A. Correa:US Patent # 5,502,354 ~ "Direct Current Energized Pulse Generator Utilizing Autogenous Cyclical Pulsed Abnormal Glow Discharges"
- Labofex ~ Experimental and Applied Plasma
Physics ~ Press Release
Concord, Ontario, Canada, L4K 2J6
Fax: (905) 738-8427
Non-Polluting Electrical Power from Pulsed Cold Plasmas Delivers More Power than it COnsumes
Prepares for Manufacturing Development
Fully Protected by Recently granted American, British, and Israeli Patents
Dr. Paulo Correa, M.Sc., Ph.D., Partner and Director of Research at Labofex- Experimental and Applied Plasma Physics of Concord, Ontario and Partner Alexandra Correa, (Hon) BA are today announcing a significant breakthrough in the field of clean power generation. The technical basis for the extraction process has been a carefully guarded secret until full disclosure was secured through the granting of three US patents: US Patent #'s 5,416,391, issued on May 16, 1995 and entitled "Electromechanical Transduction of Plasma Pulses"; 5,449,989, issued September 12, 1995, entitled "Energy Conversion System" and 5,502,354, issued on March 26, 1996, entitled "Direct Current Energized Pulse Generator Utilizing Autogenous Cyclical Pulsed Abnormal Glow Discharges". The Correa grid-independent Energy Conversion System utilizes an energy reactor whose function is based upon heretofore unknown spontaneous emission properties of certain metals in vacuum and involves an anomalous cathode reaction force conforming to Dr. H. Aspden's Law of Electrodynamics. The associated Motor Drive provides for direct electromechanical transformation of the energy accumulated within the reactor. The reactor may be conceived of as a portable vacuum battery made active only when needed. The Correa technology employs cold-cathode vacuum discharge plasma reactors to set up self-exciting oscillations, in the form of pulsed abnormal glow discharges triggered by auto-electronic emissions, in order to produce power. The circuit is driven from a direct current source of impedance sufficient to prevent establishment of a sustained vacuum arc discharge. In combination with a special circuit, electrical power, in excess of the input power needed for operation, can be extracted. The System, therefore, may also be referred to as an over-unity system: where net energy output greatly exceeds net energy input. Unlike the cold fusion process, which claims to output low grade heat, the Correa technology directly generates electricity at power voltage levels, without any utilization of cold or thermonuclear fusion principles. Another important feature of the apparatus is that it employs no radioactive compounds and generates no nuclear radiation or radioisotopes. The energy system is entirely pollution-free, self-contained and composed of readily recyclable materials. Storage of the power produced may be carried out by traditional means, be these mechanical or electrical.
Energy conversion system applications for electric vehicles, stand-alone power supplies and autonomous housing are currently under development. The inventors hope that by making vehicles self-sufficient in terms of energy, this technology will offer the possibility of bypassing massive infrastructure expansions in order to make the electric vehicle a feasible reality while solving the problem of range which currently detracts from its appeal. Other potential applications include- pulsed lasers, inverters, transformer and motor circuits. The inventors are presently engaged in negotiating licensing agreements with a view to development of the applications.
Contact: Dr. Paulo Correa, Research Director
FAX: (905) 738-8427
aetherometry.com ( 3 April 2002 )
PAGD, Aether Motors, and Free Energy
I would like to tell you what I know about Dr. Paulo Correa and his partner and wife Alexandra, two people who have recently done something marvelous. What they have done is to make a series of startling discoveries in basic science - beginning with their work in plasma physics, a field that is almost certainly going to have a major impact on our world in the near future. The Correas have now convincingly demonstrated the principle that it is possible to release from charged metals in a vacuum amounts of free energy which exceed the amounts of energy put into the system.
Since I am not trained in this field, I will not be able to discuss the scientific details of the Correas' discoveries. However, what I would like to say should speak to what the experience and achievements of the Correas can teach us about the way science happens, what can happen to scientists, and why it matters.
I have known Paulo Correa for more than twenty years, first during his development as my graduate student, then as a biomedical scientist and partner, and over these many years, as a close friend. I can therefore claim to know him very well, giving me at least some of the qualifications required to be able to write about him. And I can also tell you a little about the work we have done together at the University of Toronto.
Our friendship is, I believe, unique. We listen to one another, we trust one another, and we can even criticize one another without fear. We seek and give each other advice without risking the other's ire. We can rev up each other's intellectual motors, and we can build on each other's ideas.
Perhaps our most exciting time in the laboratory came when Paulo and I were confronted with a contradiction that existed in the biomedical literature. It arose out of studies on patients with the chronic myeloproliferative disorder Polycythemia vera (PV), a potentially lethal condition of unknown cause in which a major increase in number of circulating red blood cells occurs. In such patients, the question arose 'Are the progenitors of the red blood cells entirely independent of the growth factor that normally regulates the numbers of these cells, or are the progenitor cells in this disorder overly sensitive to the action of the growth factor?' Opposite answers to this question appeared in publications from different laboratories. Experiments of this kind were all carried out on cells in culture, and it became evident to us that the question could not be resolved as long as research on the problem had to be carried out in culture media that contained serum. Serum is an extremely complex fluid that contains both known and undefined growth factors which can dramatically affect red blood cell production. Paulo and I tackled this problem by first devising a cell culture medium that did not contain serum and so was free of these growth factors. Cells in this medium remained alive but did not grow to form colonies unless growth factor was added. Now experiments could be done against a clean background. We first investigated the responses of PV and normal progenitor cells to different quantities of the growth factor that was known to be the one that regulates red blood cell production in the normal adult, ie erythropoietin (Epo). Surprisingly, we found that the sensitivities of PV and normal progenitor cells to Epo were identical. The PV progenitor cells were found to be much more sensitive than normal to another growth factor, Insulin- like growth factor-1 or IGF-1, the factor that regulates red blood cell production in the fetus!
Obviously, the critical entity that permitted these findings to be made was the serum-free medium we had devised. We patented this medium in the US and in Canada.
As far back as I have known him, Paulo Correa was unafraid to challenge his professors if he thought they were wrong, no matter what the consequences. He is a biomedical scientist who, after contributing to the field of fundamental cell biology, rather than becoming someone else's postdoctoral student, set up an independent laboratory (under the company name Labofex) together with Alexandra, where they have now worked for the past 15 years. At the same time as they pursued full-time research careers in this laboratory without benefit of grants, they wrote music, poetry, painted, and invested money in the stock market with some failures but also with some striking successes that have provided a living for the two of them and the capital and maintenance costs of a first class biophysics laboratory. From early on I have called Paulo my Renaissance Man.
The work of the Correas began with an investigation of the pulsed abnormal glow discharge that occurs during electron emission from a cold cathode in a vacuum. At Labofex, the Correas pursued an experimental investigation of the electrodynamics of anomalous cathode reaction forces made manifest when the abnormal glow discharge was conditioned to pulsate autogenously. External pulsation of the abnormal glow had been previously investigated by Ernesto Manuel, who obtained the 1969 patent for the method used to this day in the plastic coating of softdrink cans! But the Correas discovered that, under defined physical conditions, the abnormal glow could be made to pulsate 'autogenously' by field emission. Anomalous cathode reaction forces developed by field emission in vacuum-arc discharges had been well known to physicists since the 1930's, and had led Dr. Harold Aspden of Southampton University, UK, in 1969 to enunciate his principle of an anomalous energy transfer in plasma between electrons and heavy ions, resulting in a vacuum-induced acceleration of electron flow and a progressive increase in electric current. Dr. Aspden had predicted that in such discharge tubes, the current would increase without limit for a constant applied voltage, and the tube would be destroyed unless some means were taken to limit the current. Previous electrodynamic experiments of this type in the US and in Russia had ended in failure, apparently because of electrode burn-out.
Alexandra Correa is an expert glassblower whose knowledge and skills were essential for designing the special vacuum tubes in which the autogenously pulsed abnormal glow discharges took place and on which the early experiments depended. It was during this phase of the work that her expert knowledge of vacuum design overcame the obstacles arising from the excessive heat generated in these systems and which made possible detailed studies on the pulsed abnormal glow discharge (PAGD).
But plasma physics was not destined to be the pathway along which the Correa research proceeded. The stimulus for that came from an entirely different direction. Aspden's 1969 Law of Electrodynamics had already fully accounted for the anomalous phenomenon of cathode reaction forces observed in field emission, and had shown that the interaction was affected by the ratio of masses of the charge carriers. In fact, the Correas seem to have been pushed into their current theoretical and experimental work by a variety of observations about electrodynamic interactions which, instead of involving monopolar massbound charges - such as electrons and heavy ions - implicated 'neutral' or ambipolar charges that were devoid of inertia; the energy involved was therefore mass-free. During this phase of their work, conducted at a second laboratory that they set up for this purpose (the Aurora Biophysics Research Institute, ABRI), they were greatly inspired by their systematic and critical reading of the works of Tesla and Reich. This led them to a mathematical and physical reexamination of electrodynamic interactions by a different approach and from a completely different point of view. The beginning point of this new approach was an investigation of the hitherto unexplained anomalous arrest of electroscopic discharges under a variety of well-defined conditions. And by the time they completed this phase of their work, they had discovered a method for magnifying mass- free electric radiation in excess of the massbound electric power that it consumed. Eventually, when they extended this knowledge to an understanding of nonelectric interactions of mass-free energy, they rediscovered the principles behind the elusive 'Orgone Motor' of Dr. Wilhelm Reich, and improved upon it to devise what they designate as the 'Aether Motor'.
One day, Barbara, my wife, and I witnessed a demonstration by Paulo and Alexandra Correa of this 'Aether Motor' - it was an electrical generating system that could deliver electrical power without any external power input save its connections to two 'orgone accumulator' boxes or to either our insulated bodies or a ground pipe. Since the device moved a motor and drove a circuitry, it had to consume some power; this appears to have been provided by the environment. The event occurred with incredible calm - no explosion, no noise even, no sudden heat, no bright light, just the quiet pulsation of a discharge tube and a quiet turning of a small rotor. Save for the driving of the motor from contact with our bodies, the effect was almost disappointingly banal. It has not always been that way. There were occasions during the evolution of these discoveries when accidental electrical discharges did threaten the lives of our intrepid pair. Fortunately, these accidents never deterred them.
The realization of what we were looking at was mind-boggling. Here before our eyes was what I was brought up to believe to be absolutely impossible! The implications were also enormous - a world of literally free energy without pollution by a 'product readily producible by available equipment and processes at a cost that allows mass marketing for multiple applications'. You would have expected a scene like a Boxing Day Sale in Toronto. But nothing like that happened. Why? I have given a lot of thought to that question.
When an investigator presents the scientific community with a concept that challenges previous beliefs, there follows a series of stereotyped responses: 'He (or she) is wrong.' 'He can't be right because it goes against what has long been accepted as true by everyone.' 'He is self-deluded but wants so desperately for his concept to be widely accepted that he unconsciously selects the data that fit and rejects the data that don't,' or - 'He's lying!' Or 'This isn't even his field, what right does he have to challenge the work of many years by highly trained experts?' Or 'He doesn't work out of a renowned university or institute or major company. How could he be doing anything like what he claims to be so important?' Or 'If we support a thing like this and it turns out to be a fraud, we'll have wasted our company's money and we'll be considered fools.'
Once all of these responses have been uttered and evidence overwhelmingly shows each to be unable to account for what is actually being seen, then it is time for a paradigm shift. I believe that this is what has been happening in the case of Paulo and Alexandra Correa.
The Internet is, in my opinion, the perfect medium for explorers like the Correas. It gets around any of the pettiness, the timidity, the ignorance, the lack of vision, the stupidity, the arrogance, the jealousy, the automatic negativity, the suspicion, or the dishonesty of some referees in the peer review system as it exists today. At the same time, the absence of a peer review system would be fraught with the danger of biases invisible to the scientists themselves; it thus places an enormous responsibility for integrity on them. Here the Correas shine.
And gradually, referees will emerge with the necessary qualities who can assess the work fairly no matter how blatantly it challenges the existing paradigm. In the case of the Correas, this is already happening. Dr. Harold Aspden is one such referee. Likewise, the presentation of the Correas' work on glow discharges written by the retired RCA engineer Mike Carrell - who visited the Correas' laboratory --- or the more recent testimonials of Mr. Uri Soudak, previously at Israeli Aircraft Industries, and of Dr. Eugene Mallove, editor of the journal Infinite Energy, on the subject of the 'Aether Motor' and their other technologies, constitute referee opinions. The same applies to the recent reflections on plasma discharges by William Tiller, Emeritus Professor at Stanford University - which Akronos Publishing has posted at its website.
The opinion put forth by Aspden --- whom Paulo regards as a mentor - is of particular interest to me because, on theoretical grounds alone, he had postulated the existence of 'over-unity energy generation' as far back as 1966. He now writes: "Suffice it to say that the apparatus uses the pulsed abnormal glow of a discharge tube', which, as physicists well know, has a negative resistance characteristic. What physicists have not appreciated, until this Correa disclosure, was the real possibility or the knowledge of precisely how to go about extracting 'free' energy by exciting self-sustaining oscillations in the plasma discharge. Undoubtedly, Dr. Correa's Labofex facility in Canada will have mustered a great deal of know-how from research on this project and we will hear more as that work comes to commercial fruition". These were good tidings indeed.
Much of the difficulty with this entire subject rests in the question: "Where does this mysterious energy come from?" Dr. Aspden had suggested that the ultimate origin of this energy may well be the 'vacuum energy' of space. Says he, "So now we are confronted with the Canadian breakthrough... I really believe that, after 30 years, the link between 'free energy' and gravitation is now emerging. Meanwhile, however, let us focus on the primary task of exploiting the new energy resource."
I have recently read the letter to the Correas by Dr. Eugene Mallove, and I was overwhelmed by it. We had been only partially aware of what we were seeing when visiting the Correa laboratory and witnessing their demonstration, but Mallove's letter brought it into strong relief for us. The letter he wrote was honest, detailed, full of clear memories of what he had seen and what it meant, and especially of its long-term significance and value. He was at the same time realistic about what its impact would be and the resistance to it, and he obviously cared. In an editorial, he wrote: "The discovery by the Correas is an amazing achievement: to have isolated a regime of self-oscillating electrical plasma discharge that produces electrical energy directly, with no intermediate thermal conversion step, is a wonder."
The Correas had set out with a careful critique of the present status of their field, discovered inconsistencies, set about to find the reasons for the inconsistencies, and used this information to build an internally consistent intellectual framework, designed tests of its integrity, and applied it to achieve successful demonstrations of its validity. Without being an expert in the field, I am able to see and appreciate the broad outlines of how they approach problems, what they are trying to do, and what they have succeeded in doing.
Overcoming obstacles was not foreign to the Correas, whether they were dealing with a stubborn, unyielding, mysterious Nature, unwilling to part with its secrets without exacting very high prices for them, both figuratively and literally, or in their interactions with interested but exploitative observers intent on taking advantage of their discoveries.
Despite all the exciting developments, however, money to commercialize these discoveries has not been forthcoming from anywhere. This has not been for lack of trying by the Correas, nor for lack of interest by potential backers. Many have come to them from all over the world and have seen striking demonstrations of the XS NRGTM PAGD reactor, the motors it drives and the batteries it charges, or of the Aether Motor developed at ABRI. These inventions are solidly protected by world patents. They are extensively documented in the patents themselves and recently on the Internet. Nevertheless, the Correas are, at the present time, in the process of shutting down their laboratory for lack of funds.
Arthur A. Axelrad
MD, PhD, FRSC, Emeritus University Professor
University of Toronto
http://medbio.utoronto.ca/faculty/axelrad.html
Power From Autoelectronic Emissions
P.N.Correa, MSc, PhD
&
A.N. Correa, HBA
Labofex Experimental and Applied Plasma Physics,
Ontario, Canada
Copyright 1992/1993/1996 by P. & A. Correa
1. Overview of Longitudinal Electrodynamic
Interactions and Anomalous Cathode Reaction Forces in 20th Century Physics
2. Overview of the COrrea PAGD/IVAD Technology
3. The Autogenous PAGD Regime
4. References
1. Overview of Longitudinal Electrodynamic Interactions and Anomalous Cathode Reaction Forces in 20th Century Physics ~
- "Our laws of force tend to be applied
in the Newtonian sense in that for every action there is an equal reaction,
and yet, in the real world, where many-body gravitational effects or electrodynamic
actions prevail, we do not have every action paired
with an equal reaction."
H. Aspden, 1993
In the 1940's, little work was done on the North-American continent on the presence of longitudinal forces in plasma discharges. The notable exceptions may have been the self-funded research of W. Reich and of T.H. Moray. Reich claimed to have discovered a spontaneous pulsatory activity of the space medium in cold cathode diodes sealed at high vacuum, and to have achieved oscillatory frequencies that reached 30 Kc (4). He equally claimed to have designed a motor circuit driven by the cyclic discharge in question, but all the details of the circuits were kept secret by Reich, and have remained so since the burning and banning of his publications by the FDA in 1956. His suspicious death in prison followed shortly thereafter in 1957. M.B. King (5) has suggested that anomalous lightning balls were produced in corona discharge tubes designed by T.H.Moray (6), possibly by tuning the plasma diode to resonate with heavy ion acoustic oscillations (7), but again the details are scanty. To our knowledge, no one has reproduced the vacuum experiments of Reich or Moray.
German electromagnetic cannons were retrieved by the Combined Intelligence Objectives Sub-committee in 1945, which reportedly were capable of firing lightning balls into the atmosphere (8), and Dr. H. Aspden has drawn our attention to the efforts of Kapitza, in Russia, to drive the formation of plasma balls in vacuum tubes with an RF source (9). Kapitza apparently realized that the energy densities of lightning balls were of the magnitude required to initiate nuclear fusion. During the fifties, the US fusion program also investigated the suitability of utilizing anomalous reaction forces in exploding wires subject to high current surges and in 'axial pinch' voltage reactors, to create alternative neutron sources (10).
Admission of longitudinal interactions has always been problematic for the relativistic law of Lorentz (11), as well as for the Bio-Savart treatments of Ampere's Law (12). Quantum treatments of (high) field-emission, such as the Fowler-Nordheim law (strong fields pull out electrons with low energies, ie Fermi electrons) (13), also did not take these interactions into account.
Subsequent research in the 1950's concentrated mainly on the study of cathode and anode spots, as well as on cathode erosion by crater formation (14-15). Confirmation of Tanberg's longitudinal flow hypothesis would have to wait until the 1960's, but mass spectrometric studies carried out by several groups (16-19) indicated that the atomic particles involved were not neutral atoms, but mostly singly and multiply charged ions with energies exceeding the total VAD voltage. Measurements performed by Kimblin (20-22) of the fractional ion current supplied to the VAD, suggested a nearly invariant contribution in the order of 6 to 10% of the total VAD current. Combined with the detection of some neutral atom contributions to this anomalous reaction flow, these findings caused much initial resistance among arc physicists.
By the 1960's, it had become apparent that the presence of tremendous electrodynamic forces acting longitudinally in the direction of the discharge could not be accounted for by the Lorentz/Bio-Savart Law. Moreover, as Plyutto et al remarked, the Tanberg vaporization hypothesis also could not explain the observed dependence of cathode reaction forces on gas pressure, nor the high velocity plasma streams emerging from the cathode (18). Plyutto's model of an ambipolar mechanism, where the electrons sweep the ions forward as a function of the anomalous rise of potential in front of the cathode spot, while the spot moves backwards, may well explain the dynamic relation of these forces, but not their initiation mechanism.
An understanding of the diverse experimental electrodynamic anomalies, and one that could unify disparate observations at that, would not be forthcoming however until 1969, when the Journal of the Franklin Institute published Dr. H. Aspden's seminal paper on his Law of Electrodynamics(23):
F = (qq'/r3) [(v'.r)v - (m'/m)(v.r)v' - (v.v')r]
where m'/m is the ratio of positive ion mass to electron mass. Analyzing the proportionality of the current quadrature phenomenon observed by Tanberg and Kobel in copper and mercury VADs, Aspden contended that if one took into account the mass ratio between electric particles of different q/m ratios, an 'out-of-balance' electrodynamic force would necessarily arise to act along the discharge path (23). In 1977, Aspden would file a British patent application (24) utilizing thermal conversion of the high anomalous acceleration of cathode-directed ions by electrons in VAD plasmas (25), but his circumstances did not permit him to pursue the work experimentally (26). Aspden's patent for a VAD-based ion accelerator and associated energy transfer processes, utilizes advantageously the anomalous reaction forces developed during ion acceleration to design a thermoelectric generator that would release the "intrinsic energy" of the interaction, as well as a coupled cyclotron-type chamber (devoid of the characteristic D electrodes) for centrifugal acceleration of the released ions (24).
Mounting evidence for longitudinal electrodynamic forces was then emerging from the study of relativistic electron beams (27-28), high-frequency plasma spikes (29-32), anomalous plasma heat transfer (28, 33-34) and anomalous discharge structures (35). Three possible plasma instability mechanisms have been discussed in the literature for the explanation of the observed anomalous energy transfers, invoking magnetosonic waves (35-36), ion-acoustic plasma instability modes (37-38) or the vacuum-field effect caused by the Zero-point energy (ZPE) (39-45). More recently, others have suggested that these nonlinear interactions, such as the ion-acoustic plasma instabilities, high density abrupt electrical discharges, and microprotuberance field emission indicate the presence of resonant coherences with the ZPE (46-47).
However, all these phenomena were predictable from, and in agreement with, Aspden's Law - but this fact was simply ignored, even if the Lorentz's Law could not account for the experimental anomalies observed when a circuit was closed by distinct fluxes of charge carriers of different mass, while Aspden's Law effectively did. Particularly vexing to researchers, was the behaviour of cathodes in cold VADs and the emergence of the electron distribution required to satisfy ion production in the gas (48).
Since the 1980's, Aspden's theoretical framework has received recognition (49-53) and direct or indirect experimental confirmation (49-50, 54-55). In the mid-eighties, Prof. P. Graneau and his group showed that electrodynamic explosions induced by kilovolt pulsed ion discharges in pure water were greater by three to four orders of magnitude than expected by established theory (54-55). As Aspden pointed out, these results again should be understood in terms of the m'/m scaling factor (56-57), but Graneau has rejected this explanation. Yet, Graneau's proposed model of the alpha-torque forces (58-59), is not warranted by the findings of Pappas, which instead are consistent with Aspden's model of electrodynamic action (49).
More recently still, G. Spence has patented an energy conversion system exploiting the electrodynamic mass ratio difference of electrons and ions in a magnetic separator and accelerator chamber having a basic analogy with Aspden's patent (24), but utilizing a different technique for the centripetal capture of the accelerated charge carriers, as based on a modification of the betatron principle that employs an homogeneous magnetic field (60). Spence's device, however, suffered from periodic breakdown, usually after several hours of operation, owing to problems believed to be connected with the thermionic ion-emitter guns (61).
During the same decade, investigation of externally pulsed electrodynamic anomalies in Russia was in full swing, with the objective of harnessing a new source of power (62) and, in 1989, the Novosti Press Agency released news of Prof. A. Chernetskii's design of a plasma reactor that operated with a "mysterious" regime which was termed by Chernetskii the "self-generating discharge", and which appeared to serve as a source of overunity energy, as it allegedly played havoc with the one megawatt substation driving it (63).
Despite all these rather significant strides in theory and experiment on the investigation of anomalous electrodynamic interactions, little in fact has been done, since Tanberg and Kobel, on the investigation of cathode reaction forces in parallel or coaxial electrode discharges that involve autoelectronic emission, particularly with respect to the initiation mechanisms on the unstable region straddling the abnormal glow discharge (AGD) and the "vacuum"-arc discharge (VAD) regions. At the time that, at Labofex, we were making the first inroads into this problem in the wake of our X-ray studies, an interest in this region was also kindled by the search for high-power switches that might replace flash-over switches (triggered gas gap breakdown switches), rotating arc switches and other VAD interrupters.
For planar electrodes having aligned central holes (the so-called pseudospark channel), it has been shown that a different type of discharge exists between the Paschen minimum and the vacuum arc breakdown, having more characteristics in common with the glow discharge rather than with the VAD, and which has been termed the pseudospark discharge (64-67). Because of the fast-switching on action of this discharge, in addition to power switching applications, the triggered pseudospark discharge has also been utilized as a source of high-density electron and ion beams, and to generate both laser and microwave radiation, as well as X-ray flashes (64, 68-70). Coaxial and multigap pseudospark discharge switches have been designed and patented which, because of their fast breakdown phase, operate with anomalously high cold-cathode emissions much greater than possible with thermionic emission devices (71-72).
Prior to these recent developments in pseudospark discharges, the cold-cathode abnormal glow discharge (AGD) region had only been utilized for the uniform transport of vaporised organic coatingsin vacuo, with externally DC- or AC-pulsed abnormal glow discharges, as based on a patent by E. Manuel (73). Manuel, who coined the term Pulsed Abnormal Glow Discharge, did not employ auto-electronic 'field' emission to trigger the pulsation of the glow discharge - in fact he wanted to avoid it, and thereby avoid slippage of the externally pulsed AGD into a VAD regime- as he intended that only the organic coating of the cathode, but not the cathode itself, be vaporised.
External pulsation of an electrical field, eg a plasma, may be achieved by very different methods that belong to well known prior art: in gas breakdown devices (eg Plasma-pinch accelerators, Lewis-type or other bombardment engines, and MPD thrusters (74-77)), as well as in arc discharges (eg. arcjet engines (78)) this may be typically achieved by the advantageous utilization of the Paschen law (when the required gap breakdown voltage falls below the applied open circuit voltage as a function of admission of the gas propellant) or by the utilization of older methods, ie capacitive or high-frequency discharges, the latter being apparently Chernetskii's method; the utilization of externally shaped pulsed DC or AC input waveforms, as in Manuel's patent (73) is another form of externally switching a plasma discharge on and off; segmentation of continuous current flow can also be achieved utilizing any manner of switches, mechanical, electronic, opto-electronic, plasma discharge-based (glow, pseudospark or arc switches) or commutators (including contact separation switches, relays, rotary commutators, etc); finally, as in pseudospark switches, a trigger electrode receiving an external signal is utilized to switch on the discharge (71-72).
2. Overview of the Correa PAGD/IVAD Technology ~
- "Nietzsche, as a critic of science,
never invokes the rights of quality against quantity; he invokes the rights
of difference in quantity against equality, of inequality against equalization
of quantities. (...) What he attacks in science is precisely the scientific
mania for seeking balances, the utilitarianism and egalitarianism
proper to science".
G. Deleuze, 1962
Pulsation of current saturated abnormal glow discharges (AGDs) was originally described by E. Manuel (73) who utilized externally formed DC pulses or AC oscillations to drive the cyclic operation of a plasma discharge tube in the AGD region (see Fig. 1), but in the absence of auto-electronic emission.
The pulsed plasma discharge regime we had isolated also operated in the AGD region, but it cycled autogenously between points F-E (Fig. 1) as a function of being triggered by spontaneous auto-electronic emissions from the cathode. What characterizes the functioning of the Correa reactors and differentiates them from all the foregoing arc emitter devices and the triggered pseudospark switches (PSS), as well as from Manuel's externally pulsed abnormal glow discharge apparatus, is the method of the discharge initiation as much as the method of its extinction. The discharge of interest is a pulsed abnormal glow discharge, but this pulsation is triggered autogenously at low applied field by a spontaneous electronic emission under cold-cathode conditions (80-82). Furthermore, this emission-triggered pulsed abnormal glow discharge is repetitively cycled in a self-generating or endogenous action, thus originating quasi-periodic discharge rhythms, whose frequency depends on a host of identified parameters. Both the spontaneous electronic emission and the auto-generating aspects of the discharge are joint cathode and reactor properties affected by multiple operational and physical conditions, foremost amongst which figure the metal composition of the cathode (work function), the negative pressure range, the magnitude of the input current, the large electrode gap distance, the nature of the residual gases and the cluster of electrode area effects discovered by the Correas (79-84).
Given the self-pulsing and self-producing characteristics of this discharge, we have termed this veritable regime of plasma discharge we have isolated in reactors with diverse geometries designed to optimalize it (and its volt-ampere characteristic), the emission-triggered Pulsed Abnormal Glow Discharge, or autogenous PAGD for short. The PAGD regime is an homeostatic structure (a fluctuating order) of cyclically recurring discontinuities. Reactors designed to operate in the PAGD region of plasma discharge constitute effective plasma pulse generators with diverse applications (85).
Unlike pseudospark switches, the PAGD events do not need to be triggered externally or by the interposition of third (trigger) electrodes, though they can be triggered inductively or "electrostatically" at prebreakdown potentials. They are in fact autogenous events where the observed emissions occur at low applied fields for quasi-regular periods, to generate quasi-regular cathode current jets. Unlike the PSS, which utilizes intermediate gap insulators to prevent the degeneration of the discharge into a full fledged VAD, the PAGD regime in the Correa reactors is self-extinguishing because of the inability of the discharge to complete the channel, as promoted by the synergism of the diverse physical parameters we have identified and analysed (79-82, 85). Whereas in the PSS switches the discharge channel is formed by the electrode holes or guides, the incomplete PAGD channel is free-forming.
The autogenous PAGD regime deploys extraordinarily large cathode reaction forces, associated with the rebound of anomalously accelerated ions striking the cathode and the anomalous ion counterflow (vaporized cathode metal and gas ions) being swept forward by the emitted electronic flux. The PAGD abnormal reaction forces depend on the intensity of the electronic-emission events that trigger the abnormal glow discharge, and are thus rather distinct from the externally pulsed, emission-independent abnormal glow discharges of the Manuel apparatus (73). In fact, these forces are virtually absent in externally pulsed flashover glow regimes, be they normal or abnormal.
In comparison to VADs, the autogenous PAGD reaction forces also appear to be much greater. Whereas the particles leaving the cathode in the Tanberg VAD device had average kinetic energies in the order of 80 to 90 eV (1,18), the particles forming the PAGD vortex have extraordinarily high energies that have been calculated to reach 0.5->1 MeV (86-88)! And they do so with typical power input consumptions that are lower by >1 order of magnitude, with cathode fuel losses <2 orders of magnitude and with vapor velocities >100x those typically observed in VADs. Because of these characteristics of the emission-triggered PAGD, the regime transduces anomalous reaction forces that are 100x greater than those found in VADs (82, 86, 88), in the range found by Graneau's group for arc-water explosions (54-56, 89). This extraordinary behavior is intimately related to the incompressible nature of the medium (56) in which the autogenous PAGD occurs, the ratio of the cathode ion mass to the electron mass (26, 86, 90), and the nature of the plasma regime, particularly the PAGD extinction mechanism, which prevents the discharge from reaching a steady-state plasma generation (91). In other words, the PAGD appears to obey precisely the tenets of Aspden's Law of Electrodynamics.
Given the self-pulsed characteristics of the autogenous PAGD regime, the pulse generator effectively functions as a simple DC inverter producing quasi regular large discontinuous "AC" pulses that, once filtered from the associated DC signal, can be directly utilized to power and control electromagnetic motors, relays and transformer circuits. This line of investigation culminated in the patented design of basic PAGD motor and other inverter circuits (91-92). This was the origin of the Labofex Motor Drive (LMD) which utilizes innovative motor principles based upon a total control of the variables affecting PAGD production (applied voltage, applied current, residual gas nature, pressure, electrode area, reactive gap distance, electrode geometry, cathode work-function, etc) (91-92). Similar applications would soon follow for transmission of the generated impulses across space, the design of DC inverters and of polyphasic systems (91-92).
Once we had isolated and optimalized this novel plasma discharge regime with respect to all of its parameters, we found that our measurement instruments indicated the deployment of discharge energies greatly exceeding the energy input responsible for the release of the charged carriers and the initiation of the discharge (91,93). Through the coupling of a secondary circuit to the PAGD reactor, now made double-ported, we succeeded in capturing directly, as electrical power, the anomalous energy deployed by the ion discharge pulses at the cathode. This was the basis of the XS NRG (Excess Energy) Conversion System, a patent for which was granted to the authors by the USPTO in 1995 (90). We had discovered that the PAGD-based abnormal cathode reaction forces could be used for the generation of power, if the excess energy that they deployed were electronically captured in a system effectively functioning as a power generator. Conversion of energy by creation of plasma instabilities with energies in excess of breakeven would thus result in the production of power. One arm of the closed system performs an entropic operation of loss of energy (this energy is spent in the injection of the pulse generator, to trigger its spontaneous plasma discharge), while the pulse output is then captured by a second arm. On the energy balance sheet, the energy accumulated in the second arm of the system consistently and substantially exceeds the energy lost by the first arm (88, 90, 93). Like all known experimental energy-surplus generating processes, such as the thermonuclear fusion process or the Spence machine (60), energy has to be spent for energy to be generated through the PAGD plasma regime. Unlike any other claim that we know of, for a machine capable of achieving breakeven conditions, the XS NRG results are reproducible and measurable. In other words, these are experimental results and not mere theoretical inferences. In fact, unlike many patents we have discussed above, our patents show explicit and extensive results for the operation of our energy converter system.
In accordance with Aspden's treatment of the Law of electrodynamics (23, 56, 95, 97), our invention of the XS NRG Power Generation System is made possible by the engraftment of the extraordinarily large PAGD reaction forces transduced by distinct plasma flows, as a surplus of electric energy in closed charge systems. To borrow the language of Prigogine, these apparently closed systems give rise to self-organizing structures that are in fact transiently open physical systems, when they elicit anomalous reaction forces under specific conditions of performance. It is as if, through the auto-electronic metal/plasma interaction and the self-extinguishing characteristic of the PAGD regime, electrical power is directly squeezed out of metal 'in vacuo', by virtue of a pulsatory interaction with the polarized 'vacuum' field energy.
It is possible that, as Aspden has suggested (94), field polarization of the vacuum results in reversal of the cyclic motion of the local space lattice (the ZPE), the displacement of which, in turn, causes transient resonant vacuum-field states in the system. A closed system would thus behave as an open system, and it could systematically develop out-of-balance forces (94-96). To paraphrase Aspden on this subject, it is the correct interpretation of Newtonian Dynamics and Newton's 'rule' that prevents us from ignoring the reacting field environment of electrodynamic interactions, all the more so, when these interactions develop mutual actions that appear to contravene Newton's Third Law (97).
In a speculative fashion, it is indeed interesting to remark that the PAGD energies associated with emitted cathode ions are in the range needed for electron-positron pair creation. Significantly, the study of narrow, nonrelativistic positron peaks and of electron-positron coincidences in heavy ion collisions has led to the identification of low-mass "photonium" resonances in the 1 to 2 MeV range (lowest prediction at ~1.2 MeV (99)), which have been theorized as possible e-e+ quasi-bound continuum states of a pure electromagnetic nature (98-99), suggesting the existence of a new (ultra-nuclear and infra-atomic) scale for QED interactions (99). Lastly, it has been formally shown that pair production can be supported by a photon field in a nonstationary medium and in a threshold-free manner (ie for any electromagnetic wave frequency) (100).
From the foregoing, the question obviously arises as to whether there is any contribution on the part of the locally pervasive Zero-point vacuum-field energy to the tremendous events elicited during autogenous PAGD or IVAD functioning of the Correa reactors. In his US patent (46), K. Shoulders describes an energy conversion system having some analogies with our own, in that he is able to generate microscopic coherent charge entities (which he terms EVs, for electrum vallidum) by a field emission process (utilizing Nothingham heating of point cathodes or pure field emission mechanisms). By external pulsing of the discharge field, he theoretically obtains energy outputs that are greater than the energy input spent in driving the system. Shoulders has invoked the Zero-point energy of the vacuum as an explanation for the coherent charge behaviour he has identified in his studies (46).
While the microscopic Shoulders' EV entities have minimal and maximal values of 10E8 to 10E11 electron charges, and deploy energies in the order of 10E7 erg per triggered pulse, the macroscopic energetic events of the PAGD regime deploy 100-fold greater energies in the order of 10E9 erg per pulse (86-87, 101).
It is rather likely that the out-of-balance reaction forces observed in the PAGD plasma reactors are the result of the interaction of the PAGD/IVAD apparatus with the local fluctuations of the dynamic vacuum-field. Such behaviour has been described by Aspden, for a dynamic zero-point field obeying the principles of Quantum ChromoDynamics (94). Aspden has put forth a model for aether spin as triggered in response to a radial electric field vector and involving "inflow of kinetic energy in the aether itself" (102). He has readily recognized the importance of pulsing the glow discharge and interrupting the autoelectronic emission, in the context of tapping the aether spin while denying return of the kinetic energy fed into field system back to the plenum. Aspden writes (103):
- "In other words, what is stored in the spin state as aether input energy becomes available as electric field energy which can be trapped by drawing power from the electrodes of the Correa tube. To do this, it is necessary to have pulsations and here there is an aspect which warrants theoretical research, but which seems to have already found a practical solution in the Correa device."
In distinction from quasi-thermionic field emission, the cold-cathode autoelectronic emission characteristic of the autogenous PAGD and IVADs appears to employ a different initiation mechanism, as it is facilitated by large cathode areas rather than points, under the appropriate conditions of work-function, pressure, input current, etc.
It is likely that there is some relation between the mechanism responsible for the PAGD regime we have isolated, and its cluster of area-dependent effects, with the electrode area-dependent transient voltage instability of the glow discharge plasma recently reported in low power high-nitrogen/high-helium partial pressure CO2 lasers, albeit that this lasing instability is non-periodic (105-106). The periodic and current pulse aspects of the PAGD may in fact be what explains these nonperiodic lasing voltage spikes, in that their fortuitous occurrence probably stems from the PAGD threshold voltage-current characteristics: at low input currents, the auto-electronic PAGD emission is a rare event(79-82, 91). At these levels of activity, the deployed reaction forces are minimal or absent.
The anomalous PAGD cathode reaction forces are inextricably linked to the intermittent ejection of metal plasma jets (from the PAGD cathode) under optimal conditions of operation in the PAGD regime and to the cyclic plasma instability that develops tremendous field reactions in the nonstationary vacuum gap. Independently from whether the PAGD singularities result from capture of some of the immense reservoir of energy priming the vacuum (107-108) or from some other unknown mechanism, cathode spot formation involves a net expenditure of the cathode metal per event, thus defining a process of fuel consumption (82, 83, 86, 88, 90).
At our laboratory, Labofex, we have broken new ground in plasma electrodynamics and in electron emissions from metals. We believe that, with our work in this field, plasma physics has acquired a new, practical and affordable significance for power generation, quite outside of thermonuclear fusion.
More recent developments at Labofex have further broadened the scope of the XS NRG technology. The design of improved autogenous PAGD reactors (83, 109), and of reactors capable of physical commutation of interrupted "vacuum"-arc discharges (IVAD) elicited under low-field conditions (110-111), has resulted from this ongoing effort. Utilization of IVADs in the XS NRG Converter System has several mixed advantages: larger input currents are possible (which the voltage-current characteristic of the PAGD precludes) with IVADs than with the PAGD, resulting, under the necessary conditions of operation, in still larger emission catastrophes; separation of the potential switch function from the trigger function (which may be electrodeless), and of both of these from the pulse output function at the collector, permits the utilization of triggered IVADs reactors integrated with the XS NRG Converter circuitry (11-113). Utilization of multireactor XS NRG Systems operating in either the PAGD or the IVAD regimes can be coupled to create modular power plants (84, 112) for diverse commercial and industrial applications (114-116).
3. The Autogenous PAGD Regime ~
- "It may be concluded that the resolution
of this long-standing problem of the true nature of this basic electrodynamic
law is not a mere academic topic. Some deeper understanding of the law
will have practical consequences in discharge and plasma control."
H. Aspden, 1969
Figure 1
Essentially, the autogenous PAGD regime relies on the use of gas discharge tubes designed to avoid premature transition from the NGD to the VAD regimes, and capable of being operated in a stable manner in that region of the characteristic curve of Figure 1 extending between points E and F, within the AGD region. The peak F that characterizes the abnormal discharge region means that as the applied current is increased linearly within this region, the resistance of the 'vacuum' medium in the tube first increases with increasing current, only to subsequently decrease, still with increasing applied current, down to the minimum resistance value corresponding to the sustaining potential of a "vacuum" arc. Expressed in terms of resistance characteristics, the autogenous PAGD regime spans, as a function of applied current, a subregion in which a positive resistance characteristic changes into a leading negative resistance characteristic. The pulsed regime of the AGD is only sustainable when the intensity of the applied current is greater than that needed to rapidly saturate the plates, but not so great as to set up a VAD.
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US Cl. 318/558; 307/106; 313/581 ~ 16 May 1995
Electromechanical Transduction of Plasma Pulses
Paulo N. Correa & Alexandra N. Correa
Abstract ~ A direct current power transducer for driving alternating current devices utilizes a discharge tube connected across a current source, the construction of the tube and characteristics of the source being such as to maintain endogenous pulsed abnormal gas discharge within the tube. The tube is capacitatively coupled to an external load including an alternating current device, typically an electric motor. Electric motors of the asynchronous induction or synchronous types are particularly suitable, but other alternating current devices may be used. By adjustments to the current source, the capacitance in parallel with the discharge tube, and connections to auxiliary electrodes, the pulse repetition frequency of the discharge may be adjusted, thus allowing variable speed control of types of alternating current motor not normally amenable to such control.
References Cited ~
US Patent Documents:
3,205,162 ~ Sep., 1965 ~ MacLean.
3,471,316 ~ Oct., 1969 ~ Manuel.
3,628,164 ~ Dec., 1971 ~ Tikhomirov.
3,663,855 ~ May., 1972 ~ Boettcher.
3,678,510 ~ Jul., 1972 ~ Walthard et al.
4,063,130 ~ Dec., 1977 ~ Hunter, Jr.
4,194,239 ~ Mar., 1980 ~ Jayaram et al.
Primary Examiner: Ro; Bentsu ~ Attorney, Agent or Firm: Ridout & Maybee
Description ~
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a high power gas discharge tube of novel characteristics, and to applications of the tube in the control of electric motors and other alternating current devices.
2. Review of the Art
As the current passed through a gas discharge tube is increased beyond the levels at which normal glow discharge takes place, such normal gas discharge being characterized by a negative resistance characteristic leading to decreasing potential between the cathode and anode electrodes of the tube, a region of abnormal glow discharge is entered in which the negative resistance characteristic changes to a positive resistance characteristic leading to increasing potential between the electrodes. Typically this increased potential rapidly leads to breakdown into vacuum arc discharge between the electrodes, again characterized by a negative resistance characteristic. Accordingly, gas discharge tubes have been operated in the normal glow discharge or vacuum arc regimes in which stable operation can be achieved by suitable ballasting of the tube, the former regime being suitable for low current applications and the latter for high current. It is possible to utilize a normal glow discharge tube in a low frequency oscillator circuit by placing capacitance in parallel with the tube and in series with the ballast because such a tube is characterized by a comparatively high striking potential at which discharge is initiated, and a lower but still high extinction potential at which discharge ceases. Operation in such a mode with vacuum arc devices is difficult because, in order to turn off the device effectively, the arc must be extinguished or otherwise interrupted or divested for long enough to disperse the intense ionization formed in its path.
Devices operating in the vacuum arc regime have other problems, particularly in terms of ensuring adequate electrode life, which have led to gas diodes and triodes (thyratrons) being superseded by semiconductor devices in most applications. A further limitation of such devices is that the great difficulty in turning them off, except by terminating current flow through the device for a finite period, limits their usefulness as control devices to rectification, current turn-on and low frequency alternating current applications.
The only prior art of which we are aware which successfully exploits the abnormal glow discharge regime is the process described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,471,316 (Manuel) issued Oct. 7, 1969, which we understand is commercially utilized in forming organic coatings on metal cans. It relies on the application of externally generated current pulses to force a discharge tube temporarily into the abnormal glow discharge region, the pulses being sufficiently short that no vacuum arc is established. There is no disclosure of any endogenous pulsed abnormal glow discharge, the apparatus is dependent upon an external pulse generator to operate, and its utility is completely different from the present invention because it uses externally generated pulses rather than generating such pulses.
We are also aware that the use of vacuum arc discharge tubes has been proposed for the control of inverters, as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 4,194,239 (Jayaram et al), which discloses the use of vacuum arc discharge tubes in which the discharge is steered magnetically between multiple electrodes to provide a commutating effect. Such an arrangement acknowledges the difficulty of extinguishing a vacuum arc, and seeks to overcome the difficulty by instead switching the discharge between electrodes by the use of externally applied magnetic fields.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The problems associated with the operation of vacuum arc devices are typically associated with the establishment of a continuous channel of low resistance ionized plasma between the electrodes of a device operating in this mode, typically accompanied by intense heating of the electrodes. Such a channel is difficult to interrupt in rapid and predictable manner once established. The pulsed abnormal glow discharge regime is characterized by no such continuous channel having been established, and predominantly cold-cathode auto-electronic emission rather than thermionic emission, these characteristics provide the ability to extinguish the discharge readily.
We have found that, by suitable design of a low pressure gas discharge tube, we can sufficiently inhibit transition from the abnormal glow discharge regime into the vacuum arc discharge regime that we can successfully exploit characteristics of the abnormal glow discharge regime to provide a device having valuable and controllable characteristics as a high power, pulse generator when fed from a current source. Such a pulse generator has useful applications in for example motor control and other applications requiring high current pulses. It is a valuable characteristic that the pulse repetition frequency can be varied over a range, the extent of which itself varies according to the physical characteristics of the tube and the environment in which it is operated. According to circumstances, the frequency may range as low as 10 pulses per second or range as high as 10.sup.4 pulses, these figures being exemplary only and not limitative.
The purpose of the present invention is to provide a means to operate alternating current machines, and in particular to derive useful electromechanical work from any vacuum discharge tube capable of sustaining a stable pulsed abnormal glow discharge (PAGD). The present invention provides a simple circuit having at least two parallel arms: a pulse generator arm containing the vacuum discharge and an electromechanical arm which transduces electrical pulses into mechanical energy. In the latter, the electromechanical device is integrated into a reactive load presenting a capacitance in parallel with the tube. The present invention was specially devised to work with specific cold cathode vacuum tube pulse generators as disclosed in the parent application, using either diode or triode connections, but the circuitry can be made to work with any suitable vacuum device capable of being operated in an endogenous pulsed abnormal glow discharge regime under cold cathode conditions.
The advantage of using a spontaneous emission self-pulsing device such as that described in the parent application lies in the fact that the speed of an AC motor and its torque can be varied directly by altering any of the parameters that affect pulse frequency as described in that application. Two of these parameters, parallel capacitance and applied, constant direct current, are of particular usefulness, since when all other parameters are the same, the rate of pulsed abnormal glow discharge, controlling motor speed and torque, can be made to vary as a function of increasing current applied to the cold cathode device, for any given discharge capacitance employed. This yields an extremely simple method of motor speed control, particularly suited to drive synchronous and induction AC motors from a starting DC supply, but also generally applicable to any motor, whether rotary or linear, whose speed or rate is dependent upon the frequency of a pulsed or alternating current. Rather than placing an alternating current machine directly in the circuit containing the discharge tube, it may be connected indirectly through a transformer or synchro-transmitter system.
SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a graph illustrating the current to voltage relationship exhibited by a notional vacuum discharge tube;
FIG. 2 is a graph illustrating the current to breakdown, extinction (PAGD) and sustaining (VAD) voltages of a particular vacuum discharge tube;
FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram of a first embodiment of the invention, using a single phase permanent-split induction or synchronous capacitor motor connected in parallel with a pulse generator using a vacuum discharge tube configured either as a diode or as a triode;
FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram of a second embodiment, employing two motors in series, and a triode connected vacuum tube pulse generator;
FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram of a third embodiment, employing two motors in series, and two vacuum discharge tubes placed in series;
FIG. 6 is a circuit diagram of a fourth embodiment, employing a two-phase motor, and two vacuum discharge tubes placed in series;
FIG. 7 is a graph illustrating the results of tests using the first embodiment of the invention, using a permanent split capacitor induction motor, showing how motor speed in RPM varies with the total series value of the external capacitance placed in parallel with the vacuum discharge tube by the electromechanical arm of the circuit;
FIG. 8 is a graph illustrating the synchronous RPM vs. pulses per second linear response, in the circuit of FIG. 3, of a single phase, synchronous hysteresis capacitor motor for four different series capacitance values in the electromechanical arm of the circuit and the maximum pulse rates obtained for each combination;
FIG. 9 is a graph showing the rotor blocked torque, measured by a rope and pulley method, of a single phase, synchronous hysteresis capacitor motor in the circuit of FIG. 3, as a function of the increasing direct current input resulting in increased pulse rate;
FIG. 10 is a graph showing the rotor blocked torque, measured by a rope and pulley method, of a single phase, synchronous hysteresis capacitor motor both in the circuit of FIG. 3 (as a function of increasing PAGD rate due to the increasing direct current applied to the circuit), and when run at AC line frequency of 60 Hz, torque being shown in each case as a function of the rms volts at the motor input;
FIG. 11 is a graph exemplifying how the pulse frequency of a PAGD discharge is related to direct current applied to the tube in the circuit of FIG. 1, accompanied by curves showing the potential applied to the tube and the power in watts drawn by the tube;
FIG. 12 is a graph exemplifying variation in RPM, rms current drawn, input volts, and true and apparent power (watts and volt-amperes) of a synchronous motor in the circuit of FIG. 1, and under the conditions of FIG. 9;
FIG. 13 is a graph showing the rms volts per pulse per second at various pulse rates for two different single phase capacitor motors (induction and hysteresis) utilized in the circuit of FIG. 1;
FIGS. 14 and 15 illustrate two configurations of inverter according to the invention which may be utilized to drive alternating current devices through a transformer;
FIG. 16 shows in simplified form a variant of the circuit of FIG. 3 in which the discharge tube is connected differently;
FIG. 17 shows a variant of the circuit of FIG. 3 in which the electromechanical arm is a synchro-transmission system.
FIG. 18 illustrates a pulse generator having a glass housing and tetrode geometry;
FIGS. 19a and 19b illustrate central cross sections of the pulse generator of FIG. 18, and a modification thereof, respectively;
FIG. 20 illustrates a Fowler-Nordheim plot of the Vx or Vs values for the PAGD and VAD regimes, respectively, in a pulse generator excited with a positive-polarity constant voltage DC power supply, the PAGD and VAD values being shown respectively in closed and open squares;
FIG. 21 illustrates a continuous variation of NGD sustaining/PAGD extinction voltages (Vs/Vx), from breakdown to glow extinction, with decreasing pressure (at a rotary pump), in 4 pulse generators having different plate areas but the same electrode material (H34 aluminum), the same gap distance and the same potential of 860 VDC prior to breakdown;
FIG. 22 illustrates a continuous variation of PAGD frequency with decreasing gas pressure in 3 pulse generators having different anode and cathode plate areas (16, 64, 128 cm2) but the same cathode material (H34 aluminum) and the same gap distance of 5.5 cm;
FIG. 23 illustrates a shift of the PAGD regime to higher pressure regions during pumpdown with a rotary vacuum pump in an argon atmosphere;
FIG. 24A illustrates the circuit used in the tests that supplied data for FIGS. 2 and 20 to 23; FIG. 24B illustrates the circuit used for test results described in Example 10.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Throughout the following detailed description, the same reference numbers are used to denote identical elements present in more than one Figure.
The context of the invention in terms of vacuum discharge phenomena will first be discussed with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. Referring to FIG. 1, which plots the potential between the principal electrodes of a vacuum discharge tube with increasing current, potential being shown on a linear but arbitrary scale of voltage, and current on a logarithmic scale in amperes, curve A, below its intersection with curve B, represents a typical relationship between current and voltage for cold cathode discharges, including auto-electronic emissions, whilst curve B represents a typical relationship for thermionic glow discharges, including thermionic emissions. The high-current intersection of the two curves at point E represents a transition into the vacuum arc discharge (VAD) region (curve C) with the establishment of a continuous low resistance plasma channel between the electrodes.
It will be noted that curve A exhibits, with increasing current from very low levels, an initially rising voltage or "positive resistance" characteristic, through the Townsend discharge (TD) region, a flat characteristic through the constant discharge (CD) region, a falling voltage or "negative resistance" characteristic through the transitional region discharge (TRD) and normal glow discharge (NGD) regions, to a minimum, before once again rising to a peak of F and then falling to an even lower minimum, equal to the sustaining voltage for a vacuum arc discharge, through the abnormal glow discharge (AGD) region. The rising potential over the first portion of the AGD region is believed occasioned by saturation of the electrodes by the glow discharge, which causes the potential to rise until autoelectronic emission sets in allowing the potential to fall again as the current rises further. In practice, the increasing interelectrode potential following saturation, and other factors such as electrode heating, leading to thermionic emission, will tend in conventional tubes to result in a premature transition from the AGD into the VAD regime, following a curve similar to curve D shown in FIG. 1.
The present invention relies on the use of gas discharge tubes designed to avoid premature transition from the AGD to the VAD regimes, and capable of being operated in a stable manner in that region of the characteristic curve of FIG. 1 extending between points E and F. Referring now to FIG. 2, which plots test results for just such a tube, constructed as described below with reference to FIG. 18 and 19, and shows, again on similar coordinates to FIG. 1 (except that the potential units are defined), the extinction or sustaining potentials of the tube (the same information as plotted in FIG. 1), together with the breakdown potential (i.e. the potential required to initiate the autoelectronic discharge). It will be noted that the breakdown curve shows two discontinuous portions X and Y, corresponding to the vacuum arc and abnormal glow discharge regimes respectively. The intersection of curve X, and curve Z representing the sustaining or extinction potential is illustrative of the difficulties inherent in extinguishing a vacuum arc discharge, since a decrease in current is accompanied by a decrease in breakdown voltage until it equals the VAD sustaining voltage which does not vary greatly in this region. On the other hand, the combination of a fairly high and constant breakdown voltage (curve Y) combined with an extinction potential which rises with decreasing current in the region E-F (see FIG. 1) of the pulsed abnormal glow discharge regime means that the pulsed abnormal glow discharge will be extinguished if the current source during the tube operation ceases to be able to sustain the increasing current required to maintain the discharge as the potential between its electrodes drops, at some current below the intersection of curves X and Z.
If the effective internal resistance of the source is above some critical level, then as the current through the tube rises, the proportion of the source potential developed across the tube will fall until it intersects the curve Z at a current below the intersection with curve X, at which point the abnormal glow discharge will self extinguish, and the current flow through the tube will drop abruptly until the current through the tube combined with the potential between its electrodes again intersects the curve A in FIG. 1. This permits reestablishment of a rising current through the tube traversing the abnormal glow discharge region as the potential across the tube rises to the peak F and then again falls to a point short of E. Accordingly, under these circumstances, a pulsed abnormal glow discharge will be exhibited, accompanied by high amplitude current pulses through the tube. It should be understood that the curves of FIG. 1 are indicative of the static behaviour of a nominal discharge tube under particular current and voltage conditions, and are not fully indicative of the behaviour of the tube under dynamic conditions in which tube current and inter-electrode potential vary with time, nor with changes of the many other factors which may influence tube behaviour. In particular, the plasma effects generated in various phases of tube operation require finite time to form, reform or dissipate as the case may be, and in the case presently under consideration this time factor, combined with time constants of the external circuit in which the tube is placed, are determinative of the pulse frequency of the discharge.
The definition of any regime of electrical discharge in a vacuum is usually presented as dependent upon the major operational parameter being considered, i.e. upon the variation of direct current passing between the primary electrodes. For a given optimal vacuum (which must necessarily be less than perfect) all gas electrical discharge regimes can be presented as dependent upon this parameter. FIG. 1 is such a presentation and the peak that characterizes the abnormal discharge region means that within this region, as the applied current is increased linearly, the resistance of the vacuous medium in the tube first increases with increasing current, only to subsequently decrease, still with increasing applied current, down to the minimum resistance value corresponding to the sustaining potential of a "vacuum" arc (which is somewhat above the ionization potential of the gas, or in fact of the metal vapour, in the enclosure). As the transition from a normal glow discharge into a vacuum arc discharge is made either directly (in thermionic devices) or indirectly, in cold-cathode conditions, via an abnormal glow discharge that may be more or less precipitous, it is only in the ideal diode and the ideal vacuum that both linear functions (corresponding to the regimes that have a sustaining potential) and nonlinear functions (corresponding to the transition regions, such as the TRD and the AGD) appear to depend exclusively upon the input current. In fact, many factors affect the AGD, foremost amongst them, pressure, plate distance and plate area. Hence the peak in the curve of FIG. 1 is an idealized view of events.
This said, we are left with the experimental observations and what they tell us. In this respect, auto-electronic emissions characteristic of the pulsed abnormal gas discharge (PAGD) regime can be seen to emerge from the NGD, as the current is increased beyond the point when the cathode glow has reached plate saturation (if the current is not too low and the plate area not too large).
The same effect occurs when the pressure is reduced and the current is kept constant at a suitable level (neither too high nor too low, exact figures depending on other factors such as gap distance and plate area, etc.).
If the current is increased further, in either case, the PAGD regime fully emerges (in other words, in pumpdown tests, the applied current also has to be sufficient). In this regime the plate is not so much saturated with a negative glow (which remains, but is attenuated), but exhibits local concentrations of the plasma that arise in a given area of the cathode as a function of the auto-electronic emission mechanism. If the applied current is increased in steps, a stage is reached at which the extinction potential of the PAGD falls until it meets the minimum potential of an arc discharge, as demonstrated in FIG. 2. With reference to FIG. 1, this means that the current-dependent variation of the PAGD in these devices passes from a high to a low extinction potential or from a high to a low electrical resistivity of the medium, and is thus localized on the descending slope of the peak in FIG. 1. Expressed in terms of resistance characteristics, the regime of the pulsed abnormal glow discharge spans, as a function of applied current, a subregion in which a positive resistance characteristic changes into a leading negative resistance characteristic. The pulsed regime of the AGD is only sustainable when the intensity of the applied current is greater than that needed to rapidly saturate the plates (but not so great as to set up VAD), the result being development of auto-electronic emission with its associated inverted cone-like discharge and a residual, faint glow of the entire cathode (rather than a saturated NGD).
Each PAGD cycle begins as a singular emission and performs a cycle of functions whose electrical characteristics vary accordingly with time. During a charging process (which eventually leads to emission), the plate potential rises to a maximum at F (see FIG. 1), while being limited by the maximum virtual value of the applied current. Any substantial increase in the applied current is blocked by the insulating properties of the intervening medium (as if a very large resistance characterized the device); in the discharge process, beginning with the initiation of auto-electronic emission at F, conditions for conduction across the (operational) vacuum are established and, as a consequence, the resistance characteristic of the device becomes increasingly negative until the extinction potential is reached, at which point the glow discharge ceases. This endogenous on/off behaviour is exactly what characterizes the PAGD cycle.
Two boundary conditions arise. In the first case, the available current is not quite enough to sustain the PAGD. In this instance, full escape from the NGD regime and the characteristics associated with its sustaining potential will not occur, while any heating of the cathode will eventually lead to the establishment of a semi-thermionic cathode glow. In the second instance, there is a risk of degeneration into a thermionic NGD or a VAD if the available current is too high or sustained too long. This degeneration will set in during the second phase of the PAGD unit cycle, and may lower the resistance of the device to the point of constant conduction of current across the vacuum; the result is that the auto-electronic emission is not quenched, as spontaneously happens in the PAGD. Thereafter, extinction of the resulting VAD, which may be promoted by a variety of factors is an unpredictable event; if the current is available, the arc will burn for as long as there is energy supplied and as long as there is cathode material available to consume. A VAD in no way resembles a regular, cyclic oscillator, which is the outstanding aspect of the PAGD. Whilst an arc discharge is, like the PAGD, an auto-electronic emission phenomenon characterized by intermittences (the apparent constancy of an arc is the result of the high frequency of these intermittences), such an arc does not exhibit the regular or quasi-regular cyclical nature of the PAGD, nor its inherent current limiting characteristics.
In order that a stable pulsed abnormal glow discharge (PAGD) as discussed above may be obtained, the discharge to be utilized must be capable of repeated excursions into the region E to F of FIG. 1. This entails that the tube be constructed so that, as the tube operates and the current through it rises, the potential across the tube can reach the peak F in FIG. 1 and beyond, without the abnormal glow discharge degenerating into a vacuum arc discharge. This will be influenced, among other factors, by the extent of thermionic emission from the cathode which will itself be influenced by resistive heating of the electrodes and their work function, as well as by their separation and configuration, and the nature and pressure of gas within the tube, as well as the presence of auxiliary electrodes or probes. The influence of these various factors is extensively exemplified below, with reference to the description associated with FIGS. 18 to 24b, which description; discloses tubes capable of sustaining PAGD. Whilst the present invention is described with reference to its use in connection with such tubes, it should be understood that the invention may be implemented utilizing any tube capable of sustaining a stable PAGD discharge whether or not disclosed in our earlier application.
FIG. 3 shows a first exemplary embodiment of the invention operating in the examples described with a single phase permanent-split induction or synchronous capacitor motor having a rotor R, stator windings 15 and 16, and a capacitor 17. The motor is connected to terminals 13a and 13e and via capacitors 10 and 11 to the electrodes of a vacuum discharge tube 7, capable of producing cold cathode abnormal glow plasma pulses and constructed in accordance with the principles set forth in FIG. 18 to 24b and their associated description. Motors with other characteristics, such as single phase capacitor-start induction motors, two-value (start and run) capacitor induction motors, repulsion-induction motors, repulsion-start induction-run motors, reluctance motors, universal motors, split phase motors, two-phase induction or synchronous motors (wired as single phase capacitor-run motors), or single phase rotor input synchro-transformer generators could also be connected to the same terminals 13a and 13a.
As shown in FIG. 3, the voltage source may be either a line-fed DC power supply 1 (preferably constant current), a DC generator 2 or a battery pack 3. For best results, one of the latter two should be employed because line-fed supplies will contain other parallel circuitry, including an internal bypass capacitance and, unless they are very well regulated, will leak alternating current from the line which may influence the pulse rate or stability of the PAGD discharge. The supply voltage and current may be controlled by using methods known to those skilled in the art, whichever source is used. With line fed power supplies it is preferred to control the DC output by varying the power input using the autotransformer method. With a DC generator, the power output can be controlled directly by varying the speed of the generator. With a battery, simple control of input direct current and output pulse frequency from vacuum device 7 is best achieved with a variable series resistor 4. Diodes 5 and 6 prevent transients from the pulse discharge from reaching the DC source.
The discharge tube 7 is shown in FIG. 3 connected in a diode configuration with cathode 8 placed between rectifier 5 and capacitor 10 and the anode 9 placed between rectifier 6 and capacitor 11, by virtue of a switch 22 being turned off (position NC). When switch 22 is turned to position 13a' so that an axial member or probe 12 within the tube is connected to the terminal 13a, the pulse frequency increases by an amount depending on the parameters of the circuit as a whole. In this configuration, the axial member of the pulse generator functions as a plasma excitor member, as it lowers the potential and increases the rate of discharge by adding its spontaneous emissions to those of the cathode. The same result obtains when switch 22 connects axial member 12 to position 13e' instead, thus joining it to terminal 13e.
The capacitors 10 and 11 are placed in parallel with the reactive electrodes, with the motor 14 in series between capacitors 10 and 11, but in parallel with either the plates (diode configuration) or the axial member and the cathode or anode (triode configurations) as the case may be. For best results, it is desirable to have capacitances 10 and 11 disposed symmetrically in the circuit as shown in FIG. 3. An unbalanced circuit results when one capacitor is absent, and anode counter-emissions become frequent. Capacitance values for discharge capacitors 10 and 11 are determined as a function of the type of vacuum pulse device employed and the nature and performance characteristics of the AC motor 14 chosen. If the capacitances are too small, the motor will not start nor maintain rotation; if too large, the motor will not turn smoothly or continuously, and spontaneous anode counter-emissions may occur which will break the rotation of the motor by reversing the direction of the electromagnetic flux. The critical parameter is the total series value of the capacitance placed in parallel with the pulse generating device, and there is no need for the capacitances 10 and 11 to be identical; in fact it is preferred that there be a higher capacitance on the side of the cathode (capacitance 10) than on the anode side (capacitance 11) when the triode configuration has the axial excitor member connected to 13a via switch 22 at position 13a', or the reverse when the axial member is connected to 13e.
The AC motor employed may, in general, be of any type. Split phase, single phase, or two phase AC motors, be they universal, induction or synchronous types, having squirrel-cage, wound-type, eddy current, drag cup or hysteresis-type rotors, will all respond to the pulses generated in this circuit. Single phase, permanent-split capacitor, AC induction motors having squirrel-cage rotors and single phase AC synchronous hysteresis capacitor motors are preferred. The latter, in particular, have the advantage of developing a nearly uniform torque from stationary or blocked rotor positions to synchronous speed as well as producing a smoother response to the pulsating nature of single phase power (e.g. in a 60 Hz circuit, power is in fact delivered in pulses at 120 Hz) than that of other single phase motors. The motor 14 in FIG. 3 has its main winding coil 15 in parallel with the discharge tube and an auxiliary coil 16 connected in parallel with the main coil 15 via the phase capacitor 17. This corresponds to the connection as a single phase AC permanent-split capacitor motor. To reverse the direction of the motor it is sufficient to switch the position of switch 18 from pole 19 to pole 20. If motor 14 were a suitable two phase AC induction or synchronous motor wired as a permanent-split capacitor single phase motor, then the reversal obtained by switching 18 would provide an equal torque in either direction of rotor rotation of the motor. A less efficient start-up or phase displacement utilizes a resistance in place of capacitor 17, in a manner known in the art. The resistance may be varied to alter the motor speed.
Replacement of pulse generator 7 by a suitable vacuum device, as diverse as a fluorescent light bulb (as a diode) or a deuterium triode indicates that, despite the absence of desirable physical parameters identified in the parent application, any cold cathode operated vacuum tube device capable of endogenous pulsed abnormal glow discharges through spontaneous autoelectronic cathode emissions when operated in the abnormal glow discharge region, is capable of serving as the pulse-forming discharge tube in the circuit. By contrast, whilst discharge tubes operating in the normal glow discharge region can be used to form pulse generators, the mechanism is different and the power output would generally be too low to be useful in an electromechanical application.
Any inductive AC electromechanical device such as a relay solenoid or linear motor, may also be employed in place of motor 14 at terminals 13a and 13e, FIG. 3, to derive electromechanical work from the on and off switching action of the vacuum discharge tube 7 when operated in the abnormal glow discharge region.
An advantage of the invention is that a constant current supply coupled to a suitable vacuum discharge tube can be used to obtain smooth rotary action from certain AC motors in an easily controllable fashion, without having recourse to a conventional inverter system in order to produce alternating current, and provides a simple means of frequency control. Whereas the main limitation imposed on the use of induction or synchronous AC motors is that they are essentially constant speed motors which can only vary their torque as a function of the magnitude of the AC voltage and current input (given that the frequency of the power supply cannot normally be changed), the present invention allows the torque and speed of an AC motor to be controlled by varying the DC voltage and current applied to any cold cathode vacuum device 7 operated in the pulsed abnormal glow discharge regime as discussed above, as well as by varying the pulse rate of the vacuum discharge by other means such as through the probe 12 in a device as described in the parent application. Furthermore, the electromechanical force is developed from a nearly even sequence of discontinuous energy bursts, of controllable frequency, rather than continuous sinusoidal power pulses at a fixed frequency.
FIG. 4 shows how two single phase permanent-split capacitor AC motors 14a and 14b may be connected symmetrically in tandem, both placed in parallel with a single vacuum discharge tube 7, following the principles described above for FIG. 3. Independently of whether the axial member 12 is or is not connected to junction 13b, a capacitor 21 may be advantageously introduced between junctions 13b and junction 13c, to even out the rotation of the two motors, although it is not essential.
FIG. 5 shows how two (or more) discharge tubes may be connected in series to drive two or more motors 14a and 14b also in tandem, from the output of two or more vacuum devices 7 placed in series with each other. Connections 13a' and 13d' from axial members 12a and 12b, as well as capacitor 11 and its connection to 13b may be omitted and the circuit will still function. The circuit of FIG. 5 will produce a pulse sequence at the output from the second tube which is phase shifted with respect to that of the first tube, with further shifting as more tubes are added. It is thus possible to couple multi-phase motors as shown in FIG. 6, (showing a two phase motor) with a suitable capacitance 21 being introduced between junction 13b and junction 13c to control further the firing rate of the second vacuum device 7b. The addition of more tubes in series will further displace the phase of the pulse sequences in each successive device. Sufficient relative angular displacement of two tube-generated pulse sequences can also be achieved by introducing a suitable delay relay between points 23 and 24, at the cathode input to the second vacuum device.
In general, the pulse frequency developed by a discharge tube operated to produce PAGD in the circuits described will depend on several factors: some are circuit factors, such as the total discharge capacitance placed in parallel with the vacuum device, and the characteristics of the power supply (direct current and voltage values); others are physical factors, such as the pressure, the chemical nature of the gas fill and the field-emission work function of the cathode material and its composition and still others are geometrical or dimensional in nature, such as the interelectrode distance, the plate area and the parallel plate arrangement. All these factors are discussed in the parent application.
The following examples relate to tests of the circuit of FIG. 3.
EXAMPLE 1
The circuit of FIG. 3 was tested with a single phase squirrel cage induction motor, the capacitor 17 being 2 .mu.Fd. The RPM of the rotor was measured with a stroboscopic tachometer to determine how it varied with the total series value of the external capacitances 10 and 11 (FIG. 3) placed in the electromechanical arm of the circuit, in parallel with the anode and the cathode of a discharge tube constructed as described with reference to FIG. 18, with 64 cm.sup.2 plate area, 5.5 cm interelectrode distance and an air fill at 2 Torr. The tube was excited in a triode configuration (switch 22 at position 13a' and switch 18 at position 19, FIG. 3) by an AC line-fed DC power supply. The results are shown in FIG. 7. Provided that the capacitance is not too high or too low, other factors such as the frequency of the pulses generated by the vacuum device (which increases with decreasing parallel capacitance) and the type and characteristics of the windings and of the rotor of the motor employed, have a greater influence on the motor speed.
EXAMPLE 2
The total value (internal to the power supply and external to it) of the capacitance placed in parallel with the discharge tube in the same triode configuration of the previous Example, in turn affects the maximum frequency of abnormal glow discharge pulses produced, and the effective synchronous motor RPM, as shown in FIG. 8. This figure presents motor RPM as a function of the total series value of the external capacitances placed in the electromechanical arm of the circuit, and shows results obtained with a single phase hysteresis capacitor motor (rated as 110 VAC 1/10 Hp, with the auxiliary winding motor capacitance 17 having a value of 2.4 microfarad). These tests indicate that for any given AC motor there will be optimal values for the pulse rate produced by the discharge tube, and that this pulse rate will have a maximum value for any particular value of the total capacitance placed in parallel with the pulse generator, and specifically in the electromechanical arm of the circuit, and this capacitance itself will have an optimal value. Conversely, for any given motor characteristics, a pulse generator can be designed with optimized circuit or electrical, physical and geometrical parameters.
EXAMPLE 3
With a rope-and-pulley type of torque meter, the rotor-blocked torque developed by a synchronous hysteresis motor was tested using the circuit of FIG. 3, and the same vacuum device as the previous two Examples. This type of motor was chosen because in an "ideal hysteresis" motor, the torque developed is constant at all speeds from standstill to synchronicity, locked rotor, pull-in and pull out torques being identical. Even though a single-phase capacitor-type hysteresis motor departs more from the ideal curve than a polyphase hysteresis motor does, on account of the elliptically shaped rotating fields set up by a capacitor motor, most manufacturers make permanent-split capacitor single phase hysteresis motors with identical full-load and locked rotor torques. We have utilized one such motor for our tests. FIG. 9 illustrates the range and mean of at least nine tests conducted at each of three different input direct currents into the pulse generator, the extinction voltage remaining relatively constant at about 330 VDC, with the results expressed as standstill torque developed related to the pulse rate of the pulse generator. The discharge tube was triode connected as described with reference to FIG. 3, and the total series value of the external parallel capacitance to the pulse generator was 36.6 microfarads. It is readily apparent that the torque developed is proportional to the pulse frequency as is desirable for the purposes of the present invention. The torque developed is also proportional to the voltage input into the motor (i.e. the tube output voltage) as is exemplified in FIG. 10, where tests of the PAGD-induced torque (closed squares) obtained and measured under the same conditions described for FIG. 10, over the frequency range of 11 to 45 PPS, are compared with tests of an AC 60 Hz line sine wave generated torque (shaded circles), as a function of the input volts into the motor from each source.
EXAMPLE 4
An example of the relationship of operational parameters involved in the performance of the circuit of FIG. 3 is shown in FIGS. 11 and 12, using the same pulse generator device employed in the previous Examples 1 through 3 at an air pressure of 1.75 Torr, and using the same hysteresis motor as described in the previous Examples 2 and 3. The tests of FIGS. 11 and 12 utilized a total series capacitance for the external electromechanical arm of 7.9 .mu.fd (with reference to FIG. 3: capacitor 10 = 440 .mu.fd, capacitor 11=8 .mu.fd)). The same triode circuit was employed as in previous examples. FIG. 11 illustrates how the discharge rate of the pulse generator is controlled by the steep increase in applied DC amperes (open squares) while DC volts (closed squares) decrease to a near plateau as the pulse frequency reaches 40 pulse per second. Total wattage input to the discharge tube in the PAGD regime, at the output from the transformer secondary of the DC power supply, is shown in shaded squares. FIG. 12 shows the corresponding pulse output from the vacuum tube into the motor arm of the circuit and illustrates how the AC rms current (open squares), the AC rms voltage (open circles), the true and apparent power (respectively, closed and shaded circles) as well as the rpm of the synchronous hysteresis motor increase proportionately to the discharge rate of the pulse generator. With reference to FIG. 3, the effect of the connection to the axial member 12 through the switch 22 is to promote, other conditions being equal, an increase in discharge frequency: at these tube input and output parameters changing from a diode to a triode configuration typically increases the maximum discharge rate from 30 to 43-45 PPS.
With the triode configuration and all other conditions being unchanged, the effect of a larger total series capacitance value placed in parallel with the pulse generator, in the electromechanical arm of the circuit, is to limit the maximum pulse rate of the PAGD and the related motor parameters, as illustrated by FIG. 8.
EXAMPLE 5
When a motor is wired as a single phase motor and connected to an adjustable frequency power source, the voltage applied to the motor stator terminals should change proportionately to the change in frequency in order to maintain the constant air-gap flux that permits the motor to develop its rated torque over its speed range. A provision is thus desirably made in the power source not only to maintain a volts to pulse rate relationship which is relatively constant over an operating range, but also to maintain it at a value suited to the motor. In the present invention this is easily accomplished by adjusting the total series capacitance in the electromechanical arm of the circuit to the set value of the operating motor for any given input frequency range. Two such examples of volts per pulse per second curves as a function of PAGD frequency at the motor input are shown in FIG. 13, one (shaded circles) obtained with a squirrel cage induction motor (110 VAC, 1/20 Hp, 2 mfd auxiliary winding capacitance) and the other (open circles) with the same hysteresis motor used in the previous Examples 2 through 4. Total series capacitance values for the parallel electromechanical arm of the circuit were respectively 3 and 8 mfd. In both instances shown, the volts per cycle value tends to become a constant with increasing frequency, reaching a plateau at around 25 PPS.
In some instances, it may be appropriate to incorporate a discharge tube operating in the PAGD regime in an inverter circuit so that the pulse output may be utilized by a remotely located alternating current device. The intermittency of the pulses produced by the arrangements described above are not conducive to efficient operation of conventional transformers, and a push-pull circuit arrangement is preferred. While such an arrangement could utilize two discharge tubes, an advantageous arrangement utilizes a single tube of the type described in the parent application, as shown in FIG. 14. In this instance, both plates 8a and 8b of the tube act as cathodes and are connected to the diode 5, and the probe or auxiliary electrode, which is typically of tungsten, acts as a common anode 9 and is connected