Professor Tom Vales instructed our Sustainability, Energy and Technology seminar on different types of engines, a quack medical device and a tesla coil. Professor Vales is the lab coordinator in the engineering department at Suffolk University. He brought with him a rocking armature engine, a stirling engine, and a Mendocino motor, as well as ultraviolet comb that was once used as a medical cure-all. He gave demonstrations with his tesla coil, showing that without even making contact, the coil was powerful enough to lighten light bulbs or illuminate a neon tube.
The small rocking armature engine he brought to class is powered by magnetic field, the device created energy using the magnets and mechanical energy. The stirling engine was once used for refrigeration, it is a closed circuit system that allows a fluid through that expands and compresses based on the temperature of the fluid. The Mendocino motor is a magnetically levitated and solar powered motor, the motor has a turning column which is held up by several magnets, it is controlled by a resting point in the motor that holds the column, and the motor is powered by solar panels placed on the part of the motor that is in motion.
Professor Vales also brought his ultraviolet comb that was once thought to cure headaches. There was an ultraviolet movement in medicine, because it was thought that ultraviolet was a cure-all. It was then dispelled after research proved it did nothing to aid in pain relief, and now viewed as “quack medicine” a term that is used to referrer to old medicinal ideas disproved with modern science.
He also brought a small tesla coil that he had made himself. A tesla coil is used to generate electricity, and he gave a presentation by turning the coil on and allowing us first to see and hear the coil run; it was loud and there was visible electric current coming from the top of the coil. He then gave one student a typical industrial light bulb, very similar to the ones used throughout campus. The coil is so powerful that when the student held up the light bulb anywhere near the coil, it illuminated; the coil was so strong that there was not even a need for the student to make contact with it in order to get the bulb to turn on.