L’électron libre

There is a lot of buzz on Youtube on what is referred to as being a permanent source of energy: Perendev or Bedini motors. The mere idea of “free energy” and perpetual movement necessarily sounds idiotic to any scientist or researcher, yet the large popularity of any topic always leaves a glimpse of doubt to even the most sceptical and rigorous scientists.

A plethora of videos indeed show motors made out only of magnets. Unlike conventional electric motors, the Perendev or Bedini motor is purely magnetic. No rotor or stator, no copper wire bobbin to convert magnetic flux into electricity is therefore used. A picture will explain more than a long description:

The opposing poles and the tilted angle are supposed to maintain a permanent rotation of the “rotor” (central part).

There is tons of videos on Youtube on such motors, and the web is also full of sites copying the contents from each other.

Just to kill the doubts I had on the potential interest there might be in those devices (I believe more in trying to keep a movement for a limited long time than perpetual movement), I looked into research literature to see whether these motors where seriously under academic research. Here is what I found out:

I intentionally omitted the expression “magnet motor” due to the fact that any electric motor uses magnets, so the results would not be relevant.

I used Engineering Village 2 as a search engine, which looks into the following databases: Compendex, Inspec, NTIS, Chimica and CBNB. Altogether this represents a very large amount of scientific journals (500+), including of course the most serious and prestigious ones such as IEEE, Science, Nature, etc.

Under the names of Bedini motors and Perendev motors I found :

• 0 (zero) records for Perendev motors, versus 22,800 results on Google
• 3 records versus 83,600 results on Google
  • The Bedini free energy generator
    Bedini, J.C. Source: IECEC-91. Proceedings of the 26th Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, 1991, p 451-6 vol.4
  • Bedini free energy generator
    Bedini, John C. Source: Proceedings of the Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, v 4, 1991, p 451-456
  • Proceedings of the 26th Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference – IECEC ’91
    Anon Source: Proceedings of the Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, v 4, 1991, 575p

Notice how the only relevant articles found are all from the same conference: Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, 1991.

Did someone put something funny in their food that day ?

Two years later, in 1993, at the same conference, those two guys (Bailey and Grotz) present a serious overview, bringing the conclusion that such systems remain to be seen.

.

A critical review of the available information regarding claims of zero-point energy, free-energy, and over-unity experiments and devices Bailey, P.G. (Los Altos, CA, USA); Grotz, T. Source: IECEC-93. Proceedings of the 28th Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, 1993, 905-10 vol.2 ISBN-10: 0 8412 2722 5 Conference: Proceedings of 28th Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference – IECEC ’93, 8-13 Aug. 1993 , Atlanta, GA, USA Publisher: American Chem. Soc, Washington, DC, USA Abstract: A summary review is presented of the experiments, motors, generators, devices, and demonstrations that have been reported in the past few years to produce near-unity or over-unity operation. It is noted that the concepts of free-energy, zero-point energy, and over-unity devices are not new, and that many examples of such devices have been built within the last 100 years. Twenty-six researchers are reviewed, and 11 are selected for immediate interest and support. It is concluded that, whether a new form of potential energy can be demonstrated and successfully utilized within the near future for the ultimate benefit of the human race, remains to be seen (27 refs.)

Moving on the the request “free energy motors” I found ONLY ONE more recent article (2001) that supports the idea that those free energy motors exist. To be honest this paper is a joke, both in form and content.

The motor in the magnet
Nelson, Nick Source: Journal of New Energy, v 6, n 2, Fall, 2001, p 150-152
ISSN: 1086-8259 CODEN: JNENFI
Conference: Institute of New Energy 2001 Symposium (INE 2002), Oct 26-27 2001, Salt Lake City, UT, United States
Publisher: Emerging Energy Marketing Firm, Inc.

Abstract: Nearly thirty years of my experiments and investigations have led to the possibility of producing continuous motion from magnetic motors. Following US patents, I have built and tested several magnetic motor designs. Working for several years at the well-known magnetic anomaly attraction “The Oregon Vortex” (our earth-based local magnetic field anomaly) has allowed me to take notice of the effects of several unknown properties of magnetic fields, and their associated vortices. It has been discovered that the magnetic field at each pole of a magnet consists of 3 or 4 separate and distinct magnetic spin zones, depending on the pole, where each zone is defined by its own unique property. Learning the properties of each of these zones and how to align them has resulted in some very interesting and successful magnetic motor designs. Now that the secret of a permanent magnet motor has been found lurking inside the magnet itself, I hope that working models, and ultimately production models will be developed soon that will bring the world closer to free energy, and the United States closer to energy freedom.

Let me give you a funny extract of the full version or the “research article”:

The Book: The Golden Vortex

Time passed, I wrote a book ‘The Golden Vortex” (Conscious Publishing, 2000) using a computer a good friend gave me, and then much later he convinced me to get on this thing called the Internet. One day I came across a website called, Keelynet, and learned that other inventors had experienced this same problem of the machine only working when a human being was part of the circuit. I was not alone!

It is not a research article, this person is nearly telling their life in this paper. Note that the author (Nick Nelson) declares himself as an “Independent Inventor and Researcher”. The last self-titled “independent researcher and inventor” I saw is a strange reclusive man claiming to have invented fundamental rock powder energy and is followed by not a single academic or industry researcher in any of his claims. (If you find his name or videos please inform me, his case is popular).

Besides making sure that such systems are not seriously considered, this case study opened my eyes on something really important:

The influence that largely spread media can have on people, especially when these have not had the chance to properly learn to have a scientific approach to things. Unfortunately, very few people have the education that allows them to develop scientific criticism. The take-home lesson is two-fold:

Ignorance and trust: Ignorance leads to trust (some sort of religious belief) in what seems to make sense, especially when the information is brought by so called experts.

Mass Media Influence: Youtube and Google results have a far more powerful impact and inflence than academic scientific publications, which are simple far more reliable when a technology is at the heart of the debate. For an overwhelming portion of any demographics, in any culture, TRUTH (as perceived by people) is whatever most people believe is true. It does not have to be scientific, tangible, repeatible or questionable for people to deeply take it for granted as fundamentally true.