On Mon, Jan 25, 2016 at 6:27 PM, Bob Higgins <rj.bob.higg...@gmail.com> wrote:
Electrets have been made for hundreds of years. These electrets, if > shorted, and then opened will have the charge return and a high electric > field will once again be present. In the shorting, charge was conducted > from one plate to another, so work was done. > Thank you for the clarification about the existence of electrets. What I don't understand is how you'd get a replenished potential out of one without doing additional work. If we consider the shorting to be doing work analogous to allowing a ball to roll down a hill, converting potential energy into kinetic energy (of the electrons in the current), what then moves the ball back up the hill after removing the short? Note that there was a claim that the Orbo works in a Faraday cage; if true, it seems like some kind of ambient potential in the environment isn't being tapped. There was a suggestion that the Orbo made use of a thermoelectric effect. That sounds like three things -- a lithium battery, a stack of electrets and some kind of thermoelectric device or effect. Could such a thing be made to do useful work? Eric
