Welcome to the March edition of the newsletter. This month is a bit car orientated again, but that seems to be where the interest is at the moment. Remember if you have a pet subject and want it printed in this newsletter pass it on to me and it will appear - it’s up to you!

The meeting began at 8 PM with 43 people present. After Ashley's welcoming comments, Peter started the proceedings by giving the Treasurers report in which he announced that we had $370 plus the nights takings. I then gave the Secretaries report which consisted of the ASTRO Vic’s info sheet on their monthly meeting.

It was then to the general part of the meeting with Andrew donating a copy of a book on energy and water from Bioenergetics Diagnostics International, and Athol giving the latest edition of the UFO magazine to the library. A video on Jock Lawrie’s electric car followed, and once again the video on Barry Hilton’s engine was cancelled. (This time Ashley left it home!) Randal gave a few comments on what he thought Jock was doing with the car and various subjects followed including video cameras in Foxtel decoders and the question of AC versus DC current and associated health effects.

Brian then introduced Chantal and Maralyn from a group called the Childrens Peaceful Environment Foundation. This group has been going for two years and are about to have a conference in Adelaide. The group works with young people and gives them something positive in their lives. As part of the conference there will be a parade down King William Street on August 1st., an open day at the Wayville Showgrounds and the creation of a “Magic Forest” in Bonython Park.

Jan was next with a talk on the “Gravity Wheel” which was known about back in the 16th century. Teachings from this period included perpetual motion (Issac Newton knew about it) but these have been dropped from todays physics. Jan said he was planning to build a gravity wheel once he had finished researching the information. Michael continued this subject with his ideas on using the earths gravity via a pendulum to create a F/E machine rather than the more typical circular designs.

Our old friend Frank came along again to give us the latest update on the Spiral calendar. Subjects discussed included the Bob Sutch resignation, the Lima siege (next event February 21st) and the Elliot Wave system on the stock market. (a depression is still on the way)

Andrew gave a talk on Lord Kelvins water experiment and explained how he in trying the theory to treat fuel in the fuel line of his car. He is creating an anti-clockwise spin on the fuel to negatively charge it while the positive charge on the outside of the device is taken away to earth.

Then came the members display of their experiments. Ashley and Peter showed the Tesla turbine they have made and gave a talk on how it works. Roger showed his Adams motor (working demonstration), Hendershot generator (beautifully constructed but not working), and TOMI device which does work! Leon followed with a static demonstration and explanation of the Adams motor that he and myself constructed several years ago. Unfortunately we ran out of time to see Andrews hydrogen generating equipmant that he had brought along.

The meeting finished at around 10.30 PM which was an amazing feat considering the amount that was presented during the night. A special thanks to Ashley, Peter, Roger and Leon for their input to the meeting - this is what ASTRO is all about, actually doing something and the SHARING what you have done.

This month’s is pretty easy,

it is what a lot of us do most of the time!!!!

EFFECTS OF HEATING ON LEAD ACID BATTERIES.

Thanks to Randal for passing on this information which was originally given to him by Bill Reynolds. The following extracts and graphs came from a book called “Electrical Installations” (1902) by Rankin Kennedy. The extracts deal with the effects of cold and heating on lead acid batteries.

Page 11: The effect of heating the electrolyte during discharge is to largely increase the capacity ; in fact, the cell gives out more energy than is put in at the charge, the heat in some way being converted into electrical energy. The effect however diminishes, and the cells become of less and less capacity. The heat affects all batteries by raising their pressure (voltage) and increasing the output of energy.

Page 13: It was to be expected that, owing to the increase in capacity through heating, if charging was conducted at a low temperature and discharging at a high temperature, a greater number of ampere-hours would be got out of the cell than was put in.

Page 15: For electromobiles, also, the principle might apparently be employed with advantage, more especially as the rise of temperature of cells on a car is usually not more than 7 deg above that of the atmosphere, even at high discharge rates and with the cells packed closely together.

The graphs below refer to the article on the previous page on heating and cooling batteries. The batteries had S.G. 1.210 acid used in them.

A Conceptual Hypercar: A smooth underbody, covered wheel openings, meticulously designed aerodynamic form, and smaller frontal area reduce air drag to between one-third and one-fifth that of today's typical production cars. This increases performance and efficiency without sacrificing interior space or safety. As a result, the hypercar needs much less power to accelerate or to cruise at highway speeds Lightweight composites and other advanced materials are used to construct an integrated body-and-chassis that is stronger and much lighter than in a conventional steel car. Composites also absorb more energy in a crash for a given weight of material. Furthermore, the significantly smaller propulsion system leaves room at both ends of the car for materials dedicated to crash energy management. These crush zones allow the hypercar to match or exceed the safety of a heavier car, even if the two collide head-on, and provide substantially improved safety when hitting stationary objects.

Rather than using a large internal combustion engine, as nearly all cars do today, or an electric motor powered by a massive battery pack, the hypercar would be driven by four small electric wheel motors, a small generator set, and a buffer for temporary storage of excess energy. The generator set could be a small combustion engine or turbine connected to a generator, a thermo-photovoltaic burner that converts heat to electricity, or a fuel cell that converts gaseous fuel directly to electricity. Depending on the particular technology, it could run on gasoline, diesel, alcohol, natural gas, or even hydrogen. The small buffer of batteries, flywheels, or ultracapacitors would be optimized to absorb or release energy quickly, since it would ony be used during braking, acceleration, and hill-climbing. During braking, the electric motors that drive the wheels function as generators, recovering up to 70% of the braking energy, all of which would be thrown away as heat by conventional brakes. Recovered energy is then stored in the buffer for later use during acceleration or hill-climbing. Full-time all-wheel drive, traction control, and anti-lock braking are inherent benefits of this system. There would also be standard mechanical antilock brakes, used only as an emergency backup or supplement in severe conditions.

Selective superwindows and exterior finishes, and insulated walls, keep out the heat of the sun on hot days but retain interior heat on cold days, reducing space conditioning loads by more than 75%. In addition, solar-powered fans rid the car of excess heat. These and other

passive technologies could eliminate the need for air conditioning in most climates. Any small air conditioner still needed could be driven by engine waste heat. Hypercar design focuses on synergistic relationships between all parts of the car as a system. For example, the small series hybrid-electric drive replaces heavy conventional automobile engines, or huge battery packs used in battery-electric cars. With a lighter drive system and ultralight composite construction, the electric motors, brakes, and other components can be even smaller, while providing performance now confined to the best production cars. Cutting weight also provides nimble handling without bulky power brakes or power steering. Less structural material is then required to carry these lighter components. The weight reductions snowball to 3-4 fold altogether, so what remains is devoted to accelerating, carrying, and protecting the occupants. Hypercars may even be cheaper to manufacture, since the integrated composite body-and-chassis requires only 6-20 parts, as compared to 250 or more for a steel car. Needing far fewer mechanical parts would also cut costs and improve reliability.

Ultralight vehicles, with special low-rolling-resistance tires, have about 65-80% less rolling drag than a typical car. Together, ultralight design, slippery aerodynamics, and efficient hybrid propulsion can provide 150-300 mpg or more, with about 100 times less emissions than today's cars. The portion of energy used by the car to transport the driver and passengers goes from the current average of 0.7-2% up to about 10-30%, depending on how many people share the ride.

Information from “Rocky Mountain Institute, Snowmass, CO 81654”

It’s here, the car that runs on water at a fantastic rate of 100 miles per gallon. Scientists in England say it is impossible, but yesterday I drove the water car, a Leyland Mini, and it does work. I drove it on the roads of Guernsey in normal traffic at up to 53 kilometres per hour under the watchful eye of a Royal Automobile Club officer. The engine was lively and powerful. It accelerated normally and travelled about eight kilometres with nothing but water in the tank - until a pump burnt out. The Mini runs on hydrogen gas produced from water by electrolysis on the move. The hydrogen from water device, estimated to cost about $A170 in mass production, is the invention of New Zealander Mr Archie Blue, 74. It is well known that hydrogen can replace petrol to power a car, but it is regarded as expensive to produce and costly to carry in a heavy pressurised cylinder. However, Archie Blue says that, in simple terms, he has added a pump which forces the mixture of hydrogen, oxygen and air into the carburettor in place of the normal petrol - air mixture. At Leyland headquarters in Birmingham a senior spokesman said, “This sounds interesting. An engineer from Leyland will be happy to talk to Mr Blue”.

The Radiant Energy Capture Device does not generate power, it captures energy as implied by it’s name. It utilises Alpha particles that absorb ions. When an alpha particle is absorbed by a radiation detection tube or a radiant Energy Capture Device, an ion vacuum is created. The device using an ion vacuum will require ions to rebalance itself so it will begin to suck them out of it surrounding medium. If you use a substance that is a beta emitter, you will get energy, but it will be just the fission energy of the beta emissions. These emissions are high speed ions that will cause an ion pressure in your device. You will get a charge that forces itself by means of pressure. This form of energy we are all familiar with, it is conventional and is how voltaic batteries function. batteries that use beta particles are traditional nuclear batteries. Clearly, conventional energy is based on creating an ion pressure. This is inefficient and results in the heating of conductors. Radiant Energy Capture is based on an ion vacuum which is created by an alpha source. When a Radiant Energy Capture Device utilises this ion vacuum state, it will suck ions out of anything it can. It becomes an ion conduit for Radiant Energy conversion. The ideal “R” source would be an element that emits only alpha particles. If you construct a Capture Device as indicated by the diagram below you will have a device that will convert ions into useful electron flow that are sucked in from its given medium.

Bruce has published a Research Guide (U.S. $25) which contains the full constructruction plans for this device. He is also selling prototypes “for experimental purposes only” which come without the radioactive material - it is up to the experimenter to add this material. (quick trip up to Roxby Downs?) Morays book and Bruces Research Guide is included with the purchase of a prototype. Also soon to be released is a video containing an explanation of Moray’s principles, how to construct a prototype, what the government can do to you, the prototype in action, improvements to the device and instrumentation measuring input and output.

The information about the following fuel treatment devices arrived on my desk from different sources in the same week, so I thought I had better report on them. They all claim to offer the same benefits and operate in a similar fashion in that they all connect in the fuel line just before the carburettor. The internals of each device are slightly different however, so what the actual performance difference between them is can only be determined by trying them, which could be an expensive experiment.

The VITALIZER is an American device and is distributed in Australia by Electro Technics Australia Pty Ltd in New South Wales. The patented design properties of the unit’s core, enclosed in a copper housing, causes the fuel to be electrostatically charged and the fuel molecules, when atomised, to be more efficiently burnt thus providing more power, more economy and less pollution.

The core consists of an alloy comprising of 50 to 60% copper, 20 to 28% zinc, 0.5 to 8% nickel, 0.005 to 2.5% aluminium, 7 to 15% manganese, and 1.3 to 4.5% tin, based on the total weight of the alloy. The core also has elongated ridges that promote a swirling, cavitating action in the fuel flowing over the core activating an electrostatic charge. When the fuel is sent into the combustion chamber and atomises, the electrostatically charged fuel mol;ecules, tend to repel one another causing them to be dispersed more thoroughly and evenly throughout each combustion chamber. The fuel then burns more completely and efficiently, which in turn creates more power, cleaner emmissions and in many cases an improvement in fuel economy. Although they are not cheap at around $300 per unit for the average car, the VITALIZER is covered by Australian patent No. 627844 and comes with a 90 day money back guarantee. For further information contact Electrotechnics Australia on (02) 899 9492.

This is an American device designed by race engine builder George W French. The TRIPLE CHARGER employs a catalytic cartridge which contains precious and semi precious metals which have undergone a secret nine step chemical process. This involves precise amounts of alloyed precious, semi precious and common metals being machined into chips and packed into a mesh cartridge. The cartridge then goes through the secret chemical process which grows crystals on the metal chips. Fuel passing through the device becomes ionised and then immediately passes through specially designed, extremely powerful magnetic fields which align the fuel molecules and break the molecular clusters apart. When this charged fuel reaches the intake, it combines with the oxygen much more thoroughly than normal and so when it reaches the combustion chamber you get a more complete burn. It is claimed that there is a reduction in hydrocarbon emmissions of 70% to 90%. French’s company, Jet Set Life Technologies which sells the device, give a money back guarantee that a minimum of 20% increase in fuel economy will be made for petrol engines and 15% for diesels.

Cliff from ASTRO in Byron Bay is testing one of these units at present, and if it works as claimed will be selling them. Contact ASTRO, P.O. Box 202, Bangalow, NSW, 2479 or ring (066) 87 1387.

The next meeting will be held at 8PM (doors open at 7.30 PM) on the second Friday of the month once again, this time being......

This month we will have the third attempt to show the video on Barry Hilton’s engine, plusan excerpt from a recent Quantum show on water experiments, including blowing holes through wood and aluminium and the Griggs steam generator.

Because of the interest created by his comments at the last meeting, Frank Chapman is going to give a 20 minute talk on......

Also we will have two more of our own members demonstrating their experiments.

Jan Rutkowski: Prototype Gravity machine.

Andrew Shore: Hyrogen generating equipment.

The committee has been trying to get more grass roots, local content into the meetings and judging by the response to last month’s meeting this is what people want, so if YOU have something to bring along and share let us know.

Don’t forget your $3 to get in and bring along something to share for supper - see you there!

PHRENETIC PHRASES ANSWER: Walking in circles.