Professor Laithwaite spent a lot of his life advocating Linear Induction motors (like the travelling aluminium sheet) He spoke of the bed as carrying a magnetic river with (if I remember correctly) a tendency to keep the sheet on the bed as it travelled along. I am not sure how this is related to the idea of Maglev trains, which are with us. But in my books, prof Laithwaite is an unsung hero. And if we must have HS2, at least let it be a Maglev.
If Eric Laithwaite had taught at my school, i would have listened to every word as opposed to my school report which states : "If he spent more time actually working, rather than looking out of the window, he might have something to show for his time at school".
This is how our lectures were, and the key was they had on the most part seen nation service and been in industry before going onto higher academic achievements. Good days and you had a quick pint at lunchtime before afternoon lectures. Lol
Rejected as a heretic, I hope they build a statue for Eric. The military and transport now use the technology he was tinkering with. Rail gun and high speed trains that levitate.
I love he gets a big smile on his face when he says "Magneto Hydro Dynamics." The iron coil and magnetic flux bit must be the basic theory behind wireless battery chargers I assume?
Eric was a very smart and logical man. He was observing the effects of the ether circulating in both his electromagnets and his famous gyro demonstrations. The fact that all matter interacts in the high density energy field called ether was just outside of his understanding. I believe that if he had lived longer he would have made the connection. God Bless Eric Laithwaite!
Correction? The little piece (shim) of steel at the 5 min mark was not a magnet, therefore its domains would align/adjust according to the local magnetic fields. Orientations of one shim to the single magnet were s-n:N-S but when the steel was placed between both magnets the orientation became S-N:s-n-s:N-S. The shim did not become a magnet, especially not a N mono-pole nor an extension of the first magnets' N pole as implied in the demo. Next, the two steel shims oriented S-N:s-n : n-s:N-S and therefore both magnet-shim combos repelled each other from the n to n shim interface.
He did say that when attached to the single shim that the two magnets were trying to pull the shim into two pieces. So he kinda explained what you are saying. But thank you for typing out how the poles were working it made it really easy to understand!
