Thomas Vales Visit

Tom Vales, who works in electricl and computer engineering, came to visit us in our classroom. He brought with him several different machines that generate electricity to run motors. The first machine he brought is called a Peltier motor. The Peltier device, named after the French physicist  of the same name, uses heat differential to generate electricity. This works by placing one wire in a cup of hot water and another in a cup of cold water adjacent to it. Charge carriers diffuse from the hot side to the cold side of the wire creating a current. The electricity then causes the a fan at the top to turn. The next machine we saw was a hot water engine. This engine converts heat energy directly to mechanical energy. The Mendocino Motor works using solar energy. He fixed a light so that it would shine on a solar cell. The cell converts light into usable electricity. There is a wooden shaft with a four magnets around the middle of it. He places the wood above another magnet (and between two hoops at each end, for guidance). The magnet at the bottom repels the magnet attached to the wood and causes it to turn 90 degrees. The repetitive, continual 90 degree turns makes the wood essentially spin and hover in the air.

The final machine he showed us was the Tesla Coil. This was much larger than the others, standing perhaps 5 or 6 feet tall. MR. Vales’ coil is made of a plastic bucket with wire wrapped around it, sitting on a wooden cart, with an antenna on top. The machine creates a high voltage of electricity but at a low frequency. The low frequency is important because that makes the light visibly purple to us. As Mr. Vales turns on the machine, it appears that lightening in shooting out of the top of the machine. He raises a photoluminescent light, which then ‘turns on’ due to the electricity in the air. The machine is used hypothetically for the wireless transferral of electricity, but in reality is mostly for entertainment and educational purposes.