Electrostatic Motors: Their History, Types and Principles of Operation

The most authoritative and comprehensive book on the subject of using high voltage electric charge to power a motor. The book shows the type of electrostatic motor that was first invented by Ben Franklin in 1748. It also reviews and illustrates electric pendulum motors, electric wind motors, Franklin's spark motors, capacitor motors, inductance motors, corona motors, liquid immersed motors, electret motors and more. The last chapter shows how the electrostatic motor can be designed to be powered by atmospheric electricity, which Professor Jefimenko experimented with at the University of West Virginia. The author is very meticulous to give dates and references for the historical use of particularly unique electrostatic motors. Dr. Jefimenko's articles from <I>Popular Science</I> magazine are reprinted in the Appendix for those who want to build their own electrostatic motor. He also reviews the atmospheric potential for generating energy, pointing out it is in the gigawatt range. The book also includes his review article on the earth's electric field as a natural source of electrostatic energy.

Professor Jefimenko (1922-2009) was hard-working, gifted, and lucky. He was born in the Ukraine. Caught in the buildup to World War II, he was forced into the Russian army and sent to Siberia for training. He was wounded at the Russian-German front, avoided capture and received medical treatment from a witch-doctor in a nearby village. Later he was apprehended and sent to a German work camp. His independent spirit attracted attention and extra beatings from guards. He managed to trade food rations with another prisoner for a book written in Russian about how to speak German. Guards stopped beating him once he began to speak their language. He improved his situation by learning to run a metal lathe and spent the rest of his time in the camp machining gun barrels. After the war he studied physics at the University of Goettingen, Germany (Vordiplom, 1950) where he attended lectures of famous scientists of those times. He married and came to the United States in search of new opportunity. His formal education was completed at Lewis and Clark College, Portland Oregon (BA, 1952), and University of Oregon (MA, 1954 and PhD, 1956). Oleg spent his entire career at West Virginia University Department of Physics. His lectures were enlivened by lecture room demonstrations. Most novel was his water stream loop-the-loop . Oleg s serious research work involved both theory and experimental aspects of spectroscopy, electricity and magnetism, and electrostatics. After retirement he had more time to explore new topics and wrote books on gravitation - cogravitational fields, electromagnetic retardation, and relativity.