Pendulating Gravity Sail

[jomoco]

Back in 2000, here in southern California the local power companies got together and decided to start putting the screws into what they assumed to be a helpless and passive population of customers.

In an effort to prove them sadly mistaken, I dusted off an old idea of mine. The idea was to generate clean electricity by mechanically capturing, storing and amplifying the tremendous force of large trees as they swayed back and forth in the wind. I had hands on experience of the forces involved as a 30 year veteran of the tree service industry, most of it in performing large take downs.

I built a very crude prototype utilizing various parts I had lying around in the garage, and succeeded in putting one together that proved the basic principle. Now I was ready to patent the idea so that I could put one together more suitable for commercial production. My attorney did a wonderful job, and I began work on a real prototype which I called a Tree Slave. It basicly consisted of a wire cable attached to a large tree 3/4 of the way up with an eyebolt through the main trunk.

100 feet upwind of the tree I poured a concrete pad on which I bolted my new machine. The machine had a 6 foot ratcheting arm to which I attached the opposite end of my cable. As the tree swayed in the wind it moved the ratchet arm forward and it's return spring brought it back to its original position. This reciprocating motion was used to bind a series of spring motors in the main drive drum of the machine. A timing mechanism kept track of how many turns of the binding axle were achieved before it activated a cam that dislodged a retension arm allowing the main drum to spin and generate electricity.

The machine worked well putting out 6.000 watts of clean power for over 2 minutes each cycle. The patent was granted ( # 6,825,574 uspto.gov ) and I began work on a second prototype that would slave 6 generation stations to one binding axle in an attempt generate constant power as opposed to pulses of power. It was at this time when a smart alick friend of mine said, " Jon what you need is a tree that falls down and stands back up! ". Later that day it hit me like Coulter pine cone to the head that he was right! I immediately began work on a small scale Pendulating Land Sail.

It consisted of a six foot square sail ( retracting window shade ) attached to a mast ( steel radio antenna pole ) with a hole through it 3 feet from the bottom into which I inserted an axle ( 1/2 in. greased steel rod ). By cutting the kids pull up bar in half and inserting the axle into the lateral section, I then attached a counter weight ( 20 gallon bucket of rocks ) to the bottom of the mast.

I eagerly watched as the wind blew this contraption over and lifted the bucket of rocks into the air, as the wind died and the sail returned to its upright position, I gleefully realized that I could utilize the changing orientation of the bucket to the lower mast attachment to pull sail and dump air as the sail blew over. Off I went to the hardware store for springs, small pulleys and nylon cord. It was very shortly thereafter that I watched in amazement as this homemade contraption blew over and stood right back up again in a constant breeze.

And so it was that I got into my trusty old truck and sped off to my patent attorney's office thinking to myself, " I'll show those so and so's at the power company who's helpless and passive! "

Any thoughts that you rebels out there have on this crazy new form of clean power generation will be appreciated.

JoMoCo

[TomW]

jomoco;

So, when / if I [we] help you design a super cool device which you patent. What do I/we get out of it?

I can't help but think this is totally inappropriate to seek help in this open forum for a device you intend to patent. Just my opinion and is obviously not held by all.

T

[Kwazai]

wave energy from trees- cool. is there any way to cheapin and enlarge it up enough to get off grid entirely?

[johnlm]

Interesting idea.  Seems like unless you mounted this tipping sail contraption on a big lazy susan so it could yaw around, it would only be able to take advantage of winds coming from one general direction.

John

[jimovonz]

If I understand your idea correctly, it can only make power from a change of wind velocity. You would not make any power in a constant wind. It would be interesting to see some performance data from such a device. It doesn't sound like a particularly simple system - no more simple than the wind turbines we frequently discuss here.

[jomoco]

Hello T,

Perhaps you misunderstand my intent, the patent and design on the PGS is a done deal. My purpose in going online with this new technology is to get feedback and comments on the system from my peers in the renewable energy community. I readily admit that I'm new and somewhat green at this online forum, but I see no reason that I shouldn't participate.

One of the drawbacks of the PGS is it's complexity when compared to a standard windmill, but then again the PGS can produce power in windspeeds as low as 3mph or as high as 100+mph. It's ability to regulate itself is very similar to a sailboat that goes from full sails to storm sails. By utilizing vertical vane assemblies made of steel or aluminum in place of any synthetic sail cloth as the main sail, the PGS is quite capable of performing well in adverse conditions. Ice and snow are factors that I have not been able to test in yet, but I hope to soon.

Thanks for the feedback, good or bad!

jomoco

[jomoco]

Thanks for the feedback John and Jim,

You've made clear that my original description of the PGS is somewhat lacking.

And believe me the original homemade prototype described in my post did not last very long because of its inability to turn and face the wind.

The prototype I'm working on now will be built on a semi trailer complete with outriggers, 360 degree swivel and will be a stacked triple sailed unit. Its heighth from the bottom of the counter weight bucket to the top of the upper sail assembly will be 75 feet. It's important to note that as the wind blows the sail assemblies over and lifts the counter weight, the mechanical advantage gained by the counter weights changing relationship to the lower mast attachment, is utilized to activate and turn the vertical vane assemblies of the sails to bleed off wind allowing the force of gravity to stand the unit back up even in a constant wind.

I have a CD animation of a triple sailed PGS in action, and will post it as soon as can figure out to post it.

Thanks,

jomoco

[PHinker]

Perhaps I'm not understanding the system but wouldn't it be easier to construct the sails kind of like venician (sp?) blinds?  Slats are vertical to push the mast down and slats are horizontal for the return stroke.  Also, it seems like you should be able to get power on both the down and up strokes although less on the down(mast) stroke since you're also lifting the counterweight.

[jomoco]

Hi Kwazai,

Thanks for your imput. The good ole Tree Slave is a machine that has special meaning to me, mainly because it so closely relates to the Tree Industry, the only industry in which I can claim some degree of expertise!

The answer to your question is yes and no.

Yes, by slaving multiple generation stations to the main binding axle, say six, and setting each stations timing actuator sixty degrees from the others, one of the six stations will activate every time the binding axle completes three rotations. This results in a fairly constant flow of power generation for as long as the tree does its dance in the wind. The amount of power generated is commensurate to the number of spring motors in each station and the weight of its flywheels.

As to any simplification of the system itself, I encourage you to pull up the patent at uspto.gov the pat.# is 6,825,574 it is entirely possible that I may have missed something that will be readily apparent to you. It may be of interest to you that a fellow in germany had a tree generator that rather than store the power in spring motors and amplify it with flywheels, chose to gear up off a direct drive flywheel, but never achieved any commercial success. The prototype in my garage is almost identical to the one depicted on the website of the patent office, it puts out 6,000 watts for about two minutes and falls to zero in three minutes time. It utilizes six Reelcraft spring motors and the generation station itself weighs a little over 450 lbs.

I wish I had more time and money to put into the Tree Slave, however the potential and promise of the PGS far out weigh that of my old freind.

Thanks for the imput,

jomoco

[jomoco]

Hi PHinker,

I find that vertically oriented vanes have worked best because of their ability to cut the wind regardless of whether their lying down or standing up. Vertical vanes will also probably function more dependably in winter weather.

As to generating more power by utilizing the backstroke, it might and probably would be possible, however I fear that it might interfere with the natural cadence

of the machines graceful cycling, also I've found that getting greedy can have unforeseen consequences that are usually detrimental in the long term.

Thanks for the interesting imput,

jomoco

[sven]

It would appear to me as a very original idea, and probably it's possible to make something very pleasing for the eye.  However, since you must counter the wind when going back, I would imagine it can not possibly be any more space efficient than a windmill would be.  It appears to use the drag force of the wind instead of the lift, which will lack efficiency.

[jomoco]

Hello sven,

You apparently overlooked the dual function of the counter weight bucket, aside from functioniing as a counter weight, its changing relationship to the lower mast attachment point as the sails blow over is utilized to turn the vertical vane assemblies of the sails so that air is effectively dumped or bled off, once this occurs the sails now cut rather than catch the wind as the force of gravity stands the whole unit back up on the back stroke. This process is repeated in a rapid sequence, the rate of which is determined by windspeed whether constant or not.

Thanks for the imput,

jomoco

[Gary D]

Good luck with your project. Hope you can get it to produce multiple megawat power otherwise the big boys won't look at it twice. Also unless the maintance is minimal, they won't even consider it do to high personnel wages ( money grubbers)...  Gary D.

[Big All]

Don't the Amish use a simular contraption for pumping water?

I seem to remember something like that in the Kevin Costner Amish movie.

[jomoco]

Hello Gary,

I agree with your observation only to a certain degree. I feel that independence from the big boys should be the goal! They have made clear their intentions to charge whatever the market will bare. It is up to us to make clear to them that their greedy new policies are unacceptable as well as short sighted.

I firmly believe that wind power is the the way to accomplish this task. It has been said that there is ample wind in the continental US to supply our country with all its energy needs if means  can be found to capture it and distribute it economicly. It seems very logical to me to have the individual users of electricity that live in windy areas of the country, generate their own power and feed the excess back onto the grid at a fair price for others that don't. It also seems logical that by having millions of power generators, it is less likely that there will be any chance of collusion or price fixing or other undesirable things like massive power outages. The trick of course is to do it economicly.

Good things often take time and stubborn perseverance on the part of those that wish to enact change. I have tremendous admiration for the people in the renewable energy field that are currently erecting windmills,solarPV systems etc. because they are actually doing something vital to the countries future well being.

For my part in this, I developed the PGS system, it is scaleable, stackable and can be configured in many different ways, and not just those that I have patents pending on. I invite and encourage those of you out there with an inventive streak in you to take advantage of the many possible ways of improving on what I have rather serendipitously managed to accomplish.

Good luck and well wishes in your endeavors!

jomoco

[jomoco]

It's entirely possible All,

I didn't see the movie, but rather doubt that their contraption stored its energy in spring motors, but there again there are many ways of storing energy. Like maybe lifting a heavy weight off the ground and spinning a heavy flywheel by the force and velocity of its fall back to the ground.

Just kidding, but it would be possible, I think ?

jomoco

[wooferhound]

> I invite and encourage those of you out there with an

> inventive streak in you to take advantage of the many

> possible ways of improving on what I have rather

> serendipitously managed to accomplish.

I would love to see a picture or diagram . . .

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

Don't the Amish use a simular contraption for pumping water?

[...] there are many ways of storing energy. Like maybe lifting a heavy weight off the ground and spinning a heavy flywheel by the force and velocity of its fall back to the ground.

Or lifting water.  B-)

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

A horizontal axis wind turbine is a rather simple device and can get within single-digit percentages of all the energy that's extractable from the cross-section of the wind it intercepts.

This is a complex device which is limited to a much lower efficiency.

It seems to me that its advantages are that:

 - when it is built out of existing trees, it saves the construction of a large tower and set of blades.

 - It is less likely to come apart in a high wind.

 - It isn't as visually obtrusive.

[jomoco]

Hi there ungrounded,

A typical windmill blade is spun by deflection of the wind.

The PGS is more like a sailboat than a windmill in its motive force in that it catches the wind and is pushed over by it. My current proto type will have three stacked sails, each sail measures 15ftx20ft this works out to a surface area of 900 square feet. The heighth of the mast from the binding axle to the top of the upper sail is 65ft, think of it as a 65 foot long torque wrench. And while I haven't been able to calculate its binding force in varying wind conditions yet, I have no doubt that it is sufficient to to snap the spring steel in all 72 spring motors of the six generation stations, if for any reason the timing mechanism were to fail and not release the pent up pressure in each station on time. The incredible torque of this machine is far more than you realize, and it's entirely possible that it's because of my inept ability to describe it right in the first place, if this is the case my apologies to all, but what do you expect from a dumb ole lumberjack that's tired of cutting down trees for a living. I have tried and so far failed to post the CD animation of the PGS in action to this website. I'll probably have to mail the CD to Dan F. and see if he can accomplish what I apparently can't.

In my opinion the real drawbacks of the PGS are one, its complexity, and two its size in that unless built on a tower it will need a fenced off 150 foot radius to operate with any degree of safety for those pesky tresspassers. And thirdly, and worst of all it won't be cheap to put together. But be that as it may, I feel its potential power generation capabilities out weigh all those obstacles.

I appreciate your feedback and comments both good and bad.

jomoco@direcway.com

[gonedrovin]

What a great idea!! I reckon it has great potential.

You probably need to work a bit more on its cyclic nature..that's what'll take the clumsiness out of it.

Dunno how though.

gonedrovin

[jomoco]

Hey there gonedrovin!

Yu wouldn't happen tu be frum down under wud ya? I'd heard that Aussies like to compliment yu before they poke yu in the eye. Is that anyway to treat your American mates.

Seriously though, I appreciate the initial compliment and can only say that if the cyclic nature of the PGS is clumsy, I'll take that and trip along with it all the way to the bank. You see mate it's that very cyclic nature which allows the PGS to store and amplify the power of the wind through its spring motors and flywheels. You see the 12 motors in each station are bound 18 revolutions before the timing actuator releases their energy, it only takes a few seconds from that point for the station to spin 18 times, that stored energy is sufficient to spin the 750lb station like a childs top up to 575 rpm for over two and a half minutes, at which point it slowly falls to zero over four minutes time. This is more than enough time before the next station is activated by the timing mechanism. So in effect all that power exerted after the first few seconds is due to the inertia of the heavy station spinning at that rpm. The harder the wind blows the sooner each station comes on line and rpms remain high in the agregate.

If this is clumsiness, I'll take it!

I appreciate your feed back mate, and wish yu a gud day!

jomoco

[gonedrovin]

Ummm..guess that was a poor choice of words, twice.

Just reflecting on it, I would probably say, if given a second opportunity, that smoothing the change in output between oscillations would make its output more compatible with currrent energy requirements.

[jomoco]

 Hey Gonedrovin,

No worries mate, I like Aussies and their habit of speaking what's on their mind. You also provided me the opportunity of elaborating on the workings of the machine a little more.

I hope you and your countrymen came through that recent cyclone without too much damage or injury.

Thanks for the feedback mate!

jomoco

[TERRYWGIPE]

I'd love to see pic's or a sketch or a diagram, because your verbal depiction of your device although sounds very interesting, i'm not quite visualizing it. from what i'm gettink you have your sail cinnected to a tree(which flexes with the weight of the windand sail), then connected to a counterweight(connected to the gen.).

  Why not use something with more flex (like a fiberglass rod). More moovement more power? if I'm getting you right

  Anyway you should be able to save some of our forsts.

                              More power to you;

                                 Terry

                 

[TERRYWGIPE]

I've had this thing on my brain all night. Does anyone remember the movie "E.T."? He used a machine similar to this when he called home. it consisted of an umbrella for a parabolic dish,(which has no baring here), a string tied to a tree branch(i think a pine),which went to a gear, which would advance the gear one time every time the wind blew.

   Now let's say that E.T. would hook that gear to a clock-spring mechanism,which stored the tree branches energy until the proper amount was stored. Now, hook up several of these clock-spring gizsmo's together on a shaft to, with one way gears(like the gear on a 10 speed bike-that when spun backwards just exercise your legs),to turn a pm theoretically, you could gear down the output to a constant so that while one clock-spring is releasing it's energy  another is storing energy. wait why not have two machines gathering energy sort of like geared in series.

   now that you got me crazy, I've got to see some pic's. Now how old were you when you first saw E.T. anyway? If you don't post some pic's, I'm sure there are some left on the cutting room floor. I may be way off base with this. But if I'm close try gearing your system so when one spring gets about 1/4 or 1/2 to full pressure, the next starts to gear up, and so on, and so on... next gear down the release energy so it's constant and it may work.

                         Terry

[jomoco]

Hi Terry,

You may find this strange but I never watched the movie E.T.  I'm a lumberjack-climber. The Tree Slave is an entirely seperate machine from the Pendulating Gravity Sail, though the PGS is an offshoot of the Tree Slave.

If you look under Diaries you'll find one called PGS Animation 2nd Try, In Chagrins comment is a link that will allow you to view the animation.

Good Luck,

jomoco

[jamesjones]

Hi Sven, could you explain this part of your response?

"It appears to use the drag force of the wind instead of the lift, which will lack efficiency."

Why is this so?

To the original poster- I think it would be better to just use your sails on a sail based VAWT, the huge amount of power you have been able to generate shows just how impressive drag based devices are.

This would require a bigger device as it would have far more sails, but it would always face the sails correctly into the wind.

The WindH.O.G. looks like the nearest commercial device to what I had in mind.

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