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The Norma Factor
I was speaking to Norma’s husband, while watching her play with several permanent magnets scattered about on a coffee table between us. She seemed raptly fascinated by the way the magnets pushed and pulled each other and I was enjoying her fun. Then as if perceived peripherally I noticed she was getting a reaction from the magnets that I had never before seen, and instantly a revelation door opened in my mind revealing a solution to a nagging puzzle.
Norma is a charming middle-aged lady who with good-natured mirth refers to her accidental contribution to this discovery in magnetic research as the, “Fool Factor”. What she accidentally demonstrated that night she considers dumb luck, but a better understanding of the phrase, Fool Factor, is found in a statement by, David Ruelle, a Belgium Scientist. “Always,” he said, “nonspecialiasts find the new things.”
So the first thing I must do is give credit to this delightful lady, who by chance showed this fool how to leap a research impasse that had been frustrating me for a long time. The Norma Factor illustrates why innocent, even playful ignorance can be a genuine part in the work of experts. Scientists, because of education inculcation, and repetitive experience can fall into knowledge dogmas that block otherwise open minds, but a “fool” has no restrictive facts to influence her contribution. The reader is therefore cautioned not to expect a conventional discussion of electromagnetics, and blind debunkers should stop right here, proclaim victory, and move on to their next absolute certainty.
Chapter Five in my book, The Golden Vortex, Conscious Publishing, 2000, is titled, The Motor in the Magnet, and I called it that because it’s highly probable that if a motor is ever invented that runs on permanent magnets alone, it will do so because Nature put the motor inside the magnet in the first place. In chapter Five is a discussion of a discovery I made about magnetic fields that I called simply segments, or sections, but which later a friend, an MIT trained PhDEE called, SpinDomains. Spin domains sounded much more scientific and were popular with a few people for a time, but then fell out of vogue because nobody knew how to prove they exist using conventional instruments, or how to put them to use. Because they are mine, I forged on, doggedly playing with those annoying magnets, until Norma showed me what was missing.
Spin Domains
There are only three magnetic spin domains, however this is only true of the North polarity. The South polarity has four domains, but really only three, a peculiar paradox which will be explained as we go along. In each polarity the domains are housed between “pizza-slice” lines radiating out from the center of the magnet, and within each slice the magnetic flux reacts differently in the presence of another magnet hovering orthogonally within the magnetic field. The illustrations depict standard donut-shaped ring magnets and the domains are identified as, a, b, c. The flux lines that define a domain are in red and blue.
The spin domains are found by holding another magnet 90-degrees to the ring magnet, and then lowering it into the ring’s field. The dots indicate approximately where to lower the orthogonal magnet in relation to the broad “track” represented by the ring magnet’s circumference. Until one magnet is brought close to the other the location of the pizza-slice lines are unknown. The 90’ magnet should be glued or taped to the end of a non ferrous stick so that the human magnetic field (the hand) can be held away from the magnet’s field. As will be explained later the body’s magnetic field can influence the reading gotten by the test if the hand is too close, generally within about 4 and a half inches.
The stick magnet is lowered into the ring magnet’s field so that its polarity is facing counterclockwise on the ring magnet’s N. On S this magnet will face CCW or CW, and depending on spin direction there are either 3 domains or 4. For simplicity the top view of all tester positions are shown as rectangles, but in the case of the ring magnet, which will be known as the Stator, the actual shape inside the pizza slices is curved, so it is necessary to make sure that at every test position the stick magnet is 90’ to the axis of the stator as well as to the surface track.
I found the spin domains in 1995, and most who looked into them felt strongly that they held the key to a working magnet motor, but these peculiar fields could never quite be made to function on their own. Whenever a group of magnets comprising altered spin domains on an armature were brought into conjunction in certain ways it was seen with some excitement that the armature was freed up inside the field, but couldn’t develop any sort of torque. The domains became the worst kind of tease. They promised but never delivered.
I was able to construct a crude linear “motor” whereby magnets on wheels whenpushed into the field would travel from one end of a straight track to the other, but when the linear track was bent in a circle that tantalizing movement disappeared. I learned that ratios and angles of arc played a part in setting up enticing pseudo freedom for the magnets in each other’s fields, but ever more complicated adjustments to the configurations only gave back the same frustrations.
Magnets could be made to project a wide, ever expanding type of field described by science as torsion fields, but so far as the magnet motor was concerned I was beginning to be swayed by conventional wisdom that called such a thing an impossibility. About this time I began to work for a business called, The House of Mystery at the Oregon Vortex, a roadside attraction where reality is a bit out of whack, a spot on the map where people seem to grow and shrink depending on which compass direction they move toward. In this otherwise ordinary woodsy setting I found the same type of expanded fields that surround magnets, but I also located certain spots in the vortex that exhibit strong inductive electric effects. For instance, a magnet dangling on a string over these spots will begin to circle, and the closer to the ground the magnet gets the faster it rotates. The study of this electromagnetic, natural vortex anomaly led to the writing of my book, but I was also able to put the ratios and angles of the Vortex to use. For instance, the Oregon Vortex describes a circle on the ground with a diameter of a little over a 165 feet, and wrapped about it is a corona that is exactly one-sixth of the diameter of the circle, a bit more than 27 feet. In this case the ratio of one to six allowed me to get closer to the elusive magnet motor.
It became apparent that by dividing the diameter of a disk magnet in sixths, and then using that ratio as the spaces between other magnets of similar size the same freeing-up of the magnetic forces found in the circular devices were also present in the linear motor. By manipulating these spaces between magnets from one-sixth of a diameter to two-sixths (or one-third) to three-sixths (or one-half diameter) caused the linear track to exhibit the same a, b, c spin domain test results as a solid ring magnet. But I also found that the problems of the ring magnet not producing torque was present in the linear group of magnets as well.
The Moving Domains
When teaching others how to test for the domains I’ve frequently run into human nature problems. In order to perform the test a human being has to be part of it, and human beings are stronger than a couple of little bitty magnets, so most people grip the stick like they’re afraid it will get away from them. They tend to overpower the experiment, unable to hold the stick firmly enough so that the magnet won’t be torn from their fingers, but lightly enough to feel what the magnet “wants” to do, and then go with it. Going with it is a legitimate problem of subjectivity, but another problem seems strictly mechanical. It’s difficult to convey to a novice tester that after one test result is done the stick magnet has to be removed from the field before a new reading can be made. It must be lifted up then lowered back into the field at a different place. Most folks just want to naturally shove it ahead while still within the stator field. In some cases the magnet displays a sense of forward movement around the circumference of the ring and it’s too easy to just go along with that motion. It’s simple for the tester to fool himself, which brings on the charge of a prejudiced test. Early on I found that when the stick magnet moves through the field from one domain to the other the domain effects move with the magnet. The effects found in the domain move to the next domain, not the pizza-slice lines, which once found and marked always remain in the same spots on the ring magnet.
Not only is this spin flux hard to nail down during the measuring phase, but it becomes a huge stumbling block in so far as trying to make the motor function. I have never quite been able to put this frustration into words, but I try again: The forward movement of the domains with the very magnet that the tester wants to go on its own feeds monstrous false hopes because of this internal transfer of spin flux from one domain to the next. The magnet’s movement seemed fluid as my fingers repeatedly guided it around the circle, the magnet conveying to my hand a feeling that this was it! This is the key! Nothing was more appetizingly tasty than feeling the magnet freely moving across that track, straight or curved without twisting away or stopping!
In the above diagram a magnet is seen divided across its diameter by sixths, and then six magnets lined up on a steel plate relating with each other by first 1/6th of a diameter apart then ½ three times, and 1/6th again. The 90’ magnet eases into the field from a certain height from the left with no resistance, travels the length of the track and is spit out the other end without hanging up ... except that it only happens when the human hand is holding the magnet! I went through hundreds of hours trying to jimmy variations of this track so as to accept a magnet moving on its own but always ran into the same kind of problems. And yet it worked in my hand!
I’m giving only one of these variations because there’s no need to document so many failures. If anyone is interested they can read my notes. The main thing is to describe some of the work done up to the point of The Norma Factor. In fact, if I had not spent so much of my life chasing this will-o-the-wisp magnet motor that when Norma’s play came to my attention I wouldn’t have known what I was looking at.
The Stationary Stator
Norma was holding a string in her fingers on which was attached a short piece of a mild steel rod (a nail), and as she moved it close to a group of other magnets it moved to one, bounced to another, and then another before beginning to circle the entire group.
The diagram below shows how The Norma Factor changed the spacing I had been using. At first glance it doesn’t appear any different than the spectacular failure above, but there is one huge dissimilarity. The two end magnets in the line of magnets are not 1/6th of a diameter from their neighbors, but 1/6th plus ½, or 4/6th , or 2/3, which in decimals is 66.6 of one diameter. The hand has no influence on this set-up. When the test magnet passes across it the effects of the spin domains do not move. In other words, not only are the stator magnets themselves motionless, but the spin domains within the magnet are also stationary. Only the armature moves, and the magnets making up the armature disk switch from CW to CCW as each magnet in the armature passes over each magnet in the stator. Not only is the motorinthemagnet but so too is the motor’s switching mechanism.
Nature always knew how to do it, and Norma showed the way.
The next thing needed to done was to bend the linear track in a circle to see what happens.
The Closed Circle
One way to close the circle, but there are other ways.
The steel plates are not necessary, it is just the easiest way to hold magnets together when the same polarities are side by side, and there can be more magnets between the 4/6th spaces to adjust the size of the disk. The fastest way to test this configuration is to glue or tape a string on a steel ball bearing or a short piece of steel rod, as in the illustration to the right. Lower the pendulum slowly into the center of the disk. At a certain height it should begin to move, even attracting then repelling to a couple of magnets before starting to circle the ring on its own. Still, it’s possible that even this configuration can get out of phase with itself so that the pendulum’s motion is erratic. When this happens it will be because the ball bearing touched one of the magnets, the operator touched one or more of the magnet faces, or another magnet came too close to the stator track. The test, as always, is done with the stick magnet, and if all the magnets between each 4/6th gap do not test the same hold the stick magnet at 180’ to the magnets in the ring a short distance from them at an opposingpolarity then quickly pass it around the ring. This should reset the domains. Retest to make sure.
For an armature to use with this configuration I made a disk the same size as the stator and placed in it six magnets precisely 60-degrees apart so that they are directly over the magnets in the stator. Six magnets will work with either polarity, but if other numbers are tried it may be found that an even number is best in South and an odd number in North. The armature works by both repulsion and attraction regardless of whether the increments are at 90’ or at 180’.
All of this was quite exhilarating, except it again only worked when held in the hand. Something else was still needed; something Norma did demonstrate but hadn’t yet bubbled to the surface of my mind.
Revelations suddenly come out the blue intact, but never perfect. Information that comes in a second can take days or weeks to check out and write down, but I didn’t know I would be on a search of several months. My starting place was clear, however. I suspected the solution was bound up within the spin measurements themselves. But the most nagging problem of all was that even though I had managed to free up an armature spin within a stator field I had not achieved force or torque. The goal of actual magnetic push and pull still had to be added to the mix, and because of Norma’s accident I knew it was there to be found.
Hiding in the fields
If you beat the grass hard enough and long enough pheasants concealed in a hay field will sooner or later take to wing for a clear shot. Since there’s no desire to describe all the fields trod and all the grass beaten before the bird flew into my sights I’ll just go straight to the kill.
There are three spin domains in the north polarity of a magnet. There are four spin domains in the south polarity depending on flux direction. Since one of those domains (A) is oriented in the direction of the magnet track in straight lines it seemed logical that the objective was to orient the entire magnet or collection of magnets to the (A) aspect. I’d known how to do that for a long time, but I also knew that the logic was flawed. What Norma essentially showed me was that all three main domains must be brought into play to make any device function, but the natural locations in a single magnet is not a workable arrangement. The spin of each magnet has to be changed from its normal flux design and the only way to do that is by introducing a second magnetic field to the first magnetic field. I had long ago found that a careless test with the stick magnet could change the results. At a certain distance between magnets the testing magnet will no longer act as a gauge, but as an instrument of change, another reason why the novice tester can have so much trouble interpreting a reading. The way to change field spin lines is by the use of an extraneous magnet.