Engineering is based on the idea that we can create inventions that are either just cool to display or creating inventions that benefit our society. But what is most important to some is the act of reverse engineering and fingering out how things actually work. This is exactly what our presenter Tom Vales did with a few of his inventions. He took old inventions and modernized them and presented his updated product to the class. He presented to us the Mendocino Motor, Rocking Armature Motor, and the Stirling Engine, which he recreated. He also showed us his home made Tesla Coil and a Violet Ray Machine.
The first cool gadget he presented to us was the Mendocino motor. The wooden base is composed of 5 magnets. Four of which are used for levitating the actual shaft, which has 2 magnets on it. The center magnet gives the rotor the magnetic field it needs in order to fully function. On the shaft there are 4 small solar cells on located on the sides of the coil. When the light hits the solar cell the rotor rotates approximately 90 degrees. Since the light source is beaming the solar cells continuously the rotor keeps spinning. As Tom Vales explained, this cool gadget doesn’t have any real application in the real world because if anything were to be connected to it, it would result in the rotor being unbalanced and making contact with the other parts.
The second item he demoed was the Rocking Armature motor. When he switched a flip, the arm would extended and retract constantly. During this motion, the arm was connected to a wheel, which resulted in the wheel spinning. This motion was maintained by a battery that provided the necessary current in order to make it functional.
The third item he presented to us was the Sterling Engine, which runs of steam. He filled the coffee cup with hot water since it releases some steam and placed the sterling engine above it. The steam would lift up a small weight and then drop it continuously. This resulted in the wheel spinning continuously with only a small percentage of the energy lost. Energy is so well conserved because the coefficient of friction between the weight and the “glass” covering is very low.
One of the most interesting things he showed us was the violet ray machine, which was known to supposedly cure all diseases. People thought that through the use of this machine and placing it in the infected body part it would resolve the problem. They had many different shaped inserts for the violet ray machine which was suppose to be used based on the body part that was going to be healed.
My favorite presentation of the day was his homemade Tesla Coil. The tesla coil is named after Nikola Tesla who was an extraordinary inventor. He developed AC current, wireless transmission and more! The way the tesla coil worked was by increasing the voltage out of the wall socket and passing that current through the coil. At the top of the bucket their was a needle which released small strings of lightening. With this small electricity in the air, Tom Vales was able to turn on various fluorescent tubes through the wireless transmission of that electricity. The fluorescent tubes were filled with different noble gases which resulted in the tube lighting up in different colors. These lights did not have to make contact with the coil to turn on. Once they were in close proximity of the tesla coil they would light up.