The Mechanical Engine

[Inquorate]

My kingdom for a horse..

for want of a nail, a horse shoe. For the want of a horse shoe, a horse. For the want of a horse, a knight. For want of a knight, the line. For want of the line, the battle. For want of the battle, the war...

I've run out of quick-dry glue; taking hours now to try each adjustment..

The ratchets slowed the pendulum down; after catching the pendulum each ratchets tooth holds the pendulum IN for a brief moment. It's more effective to have the pendulum swing out past the latch and come back for a single impact.

I'm now glueing a sideways - displaced latch, as vertical displaced latch on the other side of the arm had too much give; I sawed off the extra teeth but the catch was too soft and the impact nowhere near as effective.

I also have a little mechanism to damp the pendulum's swing before it impacts the eccentric wheel, as that impact creates counter-torque.

And I've shortened the pendulum where it traverses the eccentric wheel, to reduce the 'cost' of holding back the pendulum..

From here it's a balancing act.. I still have to find an effective flywheel weight for the lever.

Love and light

[Inquorate]

Progress?

My current design is wasting energy at 11o'clock and is costing energy at 12o'clock. If I could get the wasted energy to do work at 12o'clock, I have little doubt that this will work.

Suggestions?

Anyone want to replicate?

YouTube - eccentric wheel over - impact

Love and light

[CloudSeeder]

Falling Hammers an upside down Power Pendulum?

I put two of my smack plate upgraded designs online for anyone wants to try their hand. It's a free ball for anyone not presently working on their own.

I've never been too big on pendulums but it occurred to me just now that a hammer falling forward is an upside down pendulum with a big head start. I believe you could fix it where a hammer would wait til passing 12 o'clock then drop forward with a right good force ~more than a swinging pendulum and yet still a pendulum~ swing through at the bottom of its radius and have enough remaining speed to reset back... which would also have it riding up the other side near the hub.

I think I'd call such a hammer a Power Pendulum. Three might would be enough.

[CloudSeeder]

Tilt-A-Whirl Design adapted to Gravity Wheels?

Amusement parks and County Fairs and traveling circuses usually all have a fun ride called the Tilt-A-Whirl. The common design when I grew up was one that had a rolling platform, it went up and down around the center. I found if the one I was in entered the next drop at just the right position (now referred to as 12 o'clock) and then leaned my weight into it, by the time the car was pulled down into the the bottom (6 PM) the continuing pull of the motor would flip the car back up spinning it with a lot of RAW POWER. I found I could get those suckers to do a lot more than come back up.

For these Power Pendulums the same thing could happen if & when we get the design right... to engage that same WHIPPING FORCE. Take the ride design and turn it vertical would be a good start.

The hammer should not swing from the end of its handle. The handle needs to be a bit longer than usual, then drill it about 1/3 to 50% the way up and add a smaller counterweight to the handle end. The trick would be for the hammer to not swing from a stationary spot. It needs to be attached to a teardrop-shaped cam guide, a track.

A latch or catch would hold it in position as it passes 12 o'clock then tripped to release. When the head swings through you would think there wouldn't be enough force or speed remaining to bring it back up for the next Go, except that the downward speed of the wheel helps the wheel go faster so the dropping wheel is actually PULLING AWAY FROM THE HEAD AS THE HEAD RISES. If the weight of the head is not too heavy -a "sweet spot"- this will work provided the wheel weight is also kept reduced. It worked with the Tilt-A-Whirls.

The down-hanging extended hammer handle would be what hits the latch/bump/whatever as it passes 12 o'clock top dead center, being dragged across a bump to raise the hammer head up to clear the latch holding it.

I've made some really good advances on my own wheel and am going to work with it the next days and week see if I can't get it going, then I'll start drawing on this one. I haven't been on this thread for a while so I don't know if Michael Nunnerley is still here but if he is, designing a vertical cam-shaped track for the hammer to fall through its tear shape would be right up his alley.

I realize writing it down like this leaves a lot to be desired. I just wanted to throw a new hat in the ring for consideration so you all could have something different to mull over or maybe add to your own devices too. Soon as I get my own going should be this week I'll jump into this one.

[Cloxxki]

Muse: Tilt-A-Whirl Chaos
Science for kids. I almost understand it now.

Would you expect generators on the "seats" to produce more energy than it costs for the chain of seats to be propelled around the track?

In my country there are/used to be these offset platform to stand on. Crazy fast and scary. I always thought my mis-timed over-responded muscle correction for weight shift was speeding those up.

[CloudSeeder]

Thousands of Ingenius Toymakers!

Excellent website find, Cloxxki. However, upon reading the page they say nothing about my trick of leaning hard into the far side of the seat to get it to go into a Power Spin. Instead, they present it as sitting in the seat "not knowing what will happen next". I was not that passive a child. I found a way to make it do what I wanted it to do.

My idea is this man, that for thousands of years at least 6,000 the sum total of the greatest minds of their time applied their every energy to designing TOYS FOR CHILDREN <> and when we copy ideas from those toys we get a hand up so we can clear this Gravity Wheel wall. Steve Martin cried out

HE HATES THE CANS and I'm crying out LOOK TO THE TOYS.

....

[CloudSeeder]

Tilt-A-Whirl Chaos

Here's an excerpt from further down the page:

The only thing that a Tilt-A-Whirl operator can adjust is the speed at which the platforms travel around the track. When the platforms move at very low speeds, each car completes one backward turn as its platform goes over a hill. At high speeds, a car gets slammed to its platform's outer edge and stays in that position. In either case, the motion is predictable. It's only at speeds somewhere in between these extremes that a car's motion becomes complicated and unpredictable. So it's important for a Tilt-A-Whirl operator to make sure the ride runs at the proper speed, about 6.5 revolutions per minute.

All that is assuming the passengers in the seat remain seated. I saw that the car slamming to the opposite side and stopping would go much further if I leaned my weight into the side as it entered the spin. I'm sure others have done that.

If a ride operator can do it I reckon if we can't we'll have to find a place to hide.

[Aaron]

Just an idea

I hope this is on topic. I don't contribute to this thread because I'm not building anything relevant to this. But, there is one thing that has stuck out to me for a long time and I feel I just want to bring it up.

In my own viewpoint of what gravity is, it doesn't come straight down, it doesn't come down perpendicular to the ground. Therefore, a wheel that is perpendicular to the ground isn't taking advantage of the actual direction that the gravitational push is coming down to the surface.

This is what I mean.

From the North Pole looking down, the Earth is spinning counter clockwise so the sunlight hits east and moves west. The gravitational push is slightly ANGLED in my opinion.

So if you're hovering way up in the air over Eastern Washington state, the gravitational push is coming down at an angle towards the Western part of Washington. The angle would have to be calculated in some way but the POINT is that it doesn't come straight down.

Therefore, I think to take advantage of the strongest gravitational push, the wheel could be setup in two ways.

The flat face could be on the north and south side (obviously meaning align the wheel east west so the flat faces are north and south). Then the Gravity will push strongest on any weight.

Or if the wheel was aligned north and south so the flat faces are east and west...in this alignment, the top of the wheel should be tilted slightly towards the east past center of the wheel.

I doubt that anyone will see a difference doing this because the difference would be too small to measure on the scale we're dealing with in this thread, BUT, the POINT of the concept is something I haven't seen considered.

Of course this concept is ideal on the equator and of course would have to have slight variations in angle settings but just wanted to bring it up.

There are interesting gravitational concepts that are actually measurable on small scale. For example, not all objects fall at the same rate of speed. A solid iron ball and a solid aluminum ball do NOT fall at the same rate of speed. The solid iron ball falls faster. The non-ferrous aluminum sphere falls slower since it is repelling against the counter emf induced into it from the Earth's magnetic field. Sounds reasonable but actually proven in labs with precision measuring equipment.

Will something in the concept I mention make any difference, I have no idea but thought I would bring it up. Many of these wheels can just ALMOST to "over the top" but not quite and perhaps something like this being considered just might give the extra push.

I know it isn't all about gravity but also swinging motion, but if the gravitational push is a bit stronger then so should the swinging motion, the wheel should be too.

[CloudSeeder]

Gravitational Direction

@Aaron: Yeah, I know you are correct. Some people sleep better with their feet to the north, and if you pee into a commode faced west the splatter out of the commode is much less than a commode faced the other direction, partly because the 1,000 mile per hour spin not just gravity. If the stream is going with the earth spin then less, something like that.

You're making an assumption that gravity is just gravitational lines of force that are indeed angled. Gravity is more than that <> it's the sum total of pressure reaching the earth's surface from the rest of the universe. So for all intents and everyone's purposes it is the great majority pretty much straight down.

You're an exceptional thinker to have noticed all that stuff.

[Stealth]

Yes, actually a spiral would be the correct design to best capture gravity. I suppose that is why a vortex is so efficient. Nothing in nature has more destructive force than a hurricane, or tornado. It is simply a vortex of swirling wind. I have seen grass straws stuck into trees. Try to do that with any other type of force. Good Luck. Stealth

[CloudSeeder]

Fighting an opponent who has no right to remain standing.

In a way, all Gravity Wheels are a vortex, but like Redeagle said they are rather low rpm... certainly not on the level of a tornado. But, a home doesn't need a tornado-level engine to turn a generator either.

If all circuit boxes were designed to switch major appliances on and off to prevent doubling of power drains, plus the water heater fixed to use 30-50% less electricity and in fact be their own pre-heater, Gravity Wheels need only ballpark supply 50% of what homes now use.

We're fighting an opponent who has no right to remain standing.

[Stealth]

You are absolutely correct. We only need less than half of the electricity we use in our daily lives. We waste far too much enegy doing simple things such as lighting, heating, and water heating. I have cut back, but I am no where near where I want to be shortly. Good Luck. Stealth

[CloudSeeder]

Psychologically speaking, if Obama doubled the tax rate 200% across the board on everybody then offered 50% off if they saved X amount of electrical usage you'd see people scrambling tomorrow's eggs on the sidewalk.

[CloudSeeder]

aiming to have 3 wheels running by summer's end

Perhaps a system like this added to some other systems would
assist them past their rebound effects or flat spots:



I'm aiming to have 3 wheels running by summer's end, and if I do I was hoping
I would have company not just me standing their taking all the tomatoes.

[CloudSeeder]

Maybe some will throw onions, lettuce, bread and a cooked burger...