Read this press release and see if you don’t start humming the Jetsons theme song to yourself: Future Transportation: Powered by Electricity. Pretty standard title, right? You’re thinking, Of course the future will be powered by electricity. What kind might this piece focus on–some new kind of solar, holographic maybe? No? How about…MAGNET POWER!
Forgive the melodrama. It’s just that when I read of technology like this, I feel like I’m really living in the future. If Arthur C. Clarke were around to see this, I’m sure he would just pat himself on the back and keep drinking his tea, but I’m no science fiction visionary and I can’t take this sitting down. Though technically, Clarke was around to see it: the original idea of using magnets to create usable energy belongs to a man named Wesley Gary, who in the unthinkably distant 1870s patented a device that essentially manipulated magnetic fields to spin a motor. No other equipment needed–just a magnet. It looked a little like this:
I took this image from, and am referencing the original text of, the 1879 Harper’s magazine article which discussed the invention, available here (you can find the invention, the Harper’s article, and the details of the patent easily via a web search; this was the clearest reproduction I found, though the site is not confidence-inspiring). If you subscribe to Harper’s already, you can view the original on their website.
The press release that got me started on all this is from Magnetic Power Inc., what looks like a brand-new company claiming to produce generators whose “principle energy source is the Zero Point Field, which permeates the universe and is abundant, renewable and pollution free.” The tone of the press release and their website is one of rabid enthusiasm for the product and for their vision of a shiny clean future. I can’t quite imagine auto manufacturers jumping for joy at the thought of a car engine that never wears out…but if it makes them happy to dream, hey, who am I to judge?
This technology is, if it’s viable at all, in its infancy. And commercial application is so far behind that it seems quite premature to be pushing adoption of this energy source. On the other hand, we know we’re looking at a future–and not a distant one–of fossil fuel independence, and we’re still struggling to figure out how we’re going to make that happen. There are so many proven renewable technologies that desperately need funding and development, not to mention implementation, that it’s difficult to imagine where magnetism would fit into the panoply. But if it’s possible, if it’s clean, if it’s actionable…the Jetsons may stroll on to this scene yet.
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