Nice! Thanks for sharing. I didn't know about the NaK alloy until today. Also, from your video I understand that this device was meant to work based on the energy stored in the spinning wheel. Homopolar, yes, but this was a big flywheel in the first place if I understood it correctly.
Very interesting indeed. I am interested in knowing more about this device.. Especially the liquid brushes. Is there documentation online? A follow up video perhaps ?
Hmm. Thanks for the suggestion. I'll think about doing a follow-up video. The details of the design, development, and testing of the generator were published in scientific journals at the time and lots of information can be found this way. The Australian National University also hosts a lot of the old information online. For the brushes in particular, you can find a lot of detailed information here: press.anu.edu.au/publications/design-brushes-canberra-homopolar-generator
HPG are also used to heat billets before they are forged in a foundry. The only one I know about could deliver forty two Volts at six hundred fifty million Amps. It took about one and half minutes to bring it up to speed before the energy is dumped. Lots of Joules and lots of Henrys. Solenoid activated brushes were slammed onto the outer edge of a two meter spinning disk to deliver the charge. It is all encased in a shell and driven by an electric motor. I don't remember any more details than these since it was about 1970. It was, however needless to say, IMPRESSIVE ....tfk
This is not an energy storing flywheel, it's a homopolar generator. It produces low voltage but very high amperage. Even though Faraday made it over a century ago it's still not understood and is not explainable by faradays law
A cylinder would make no difference. It's not the rotational gradient - you just need the conductor moving in the magnetic field. A cylinder would use additional material but not add generation capacity.
@@drgozzard Thank you for your response. Seems to me that a drum configuration could potentially increase the surface area of the conductor within the magnetic field. Do you not see any possible benefit in that?
@@karlswanson95 The magnetic field is applied through the thickness of the disk. So the area of the circle of the disk matters. The surface area of the main body of the cylinder wouldn't contribute anything to the generation.
BTW the HPG in this article is NOT the largest. The one I am familiar with is larger than this. HPG are probably used in the modern day electronic catapult used on our aircraft carriers. They are still used in foundries todey. Silver loaded graphite brushes (many) were used on the periphery of the disk. See my previous comment here. .......tfk
