Tom Vales Talk

Short while ago, our sustainability, energy and technology class had an exclusive opportunity to present us Tom Vales. He is an amazing professor who knew how to catch the students’ attention with his entertaining gadgets and machines. He showed us sources of energy that were related to the course.

Robert Stirling invented the Stirling engine and that from where the name of the creation came from. According to (comptune.com), Robert added to the design a “regenerator” which acts as a heat exchanger and heat-recycling device, increasing the efficiency dramatically. The concept of the device is simple. Imagine we are working on this kind of engine.

Stirling cycle2

Heat to the gas in the left cylinder causes pressure to build. This forces the piston down, doing work. The left piston moves up while the right piston moves down. This drive the heated gas into the right cylinder and the gas cools as it enters the cylinder. Therefore, the right cylinder compresses the cooled gas, so the heat generated by the compression is directly removed by the cooling source. Now the same process is repeated but from the cool side. The right cylinder moves down while the right cylinder moves up, and the gas heats up as it is driven to the cylinder. The machine was utilized for many purposes mainly for pumping water and is efficient because it does not use plenty fuel.

Another gadget that Tom showed us was the Tesla coil. It is a resonant transformer invented by Nikola Tesla in 1891. It is a ultra high tool that can take 120-volt alternating current and generate almost 1 million volts. It can send power wirelessly in the air and light a bulb that is a bit distant. To see the efficiency of tesla coil it you need to put the bulb right next to it Tesla concluded that everybody needed a Tesla generator because it is useful and efficient, but his research was never completed.

Tom

Another invention that Tom presented us was the Mendocino motor. It is a solar powered magnetically levitated motor. The motor hangs in its own magnetic field and transforms light into electricity and magnetism, which are later on converted into the movement of the motor. Such gadgets demonstrate the advance of technology exploring various fields such as electric motors, magnetism, and solar power generation.