TREE DC POWER GENERATION:

While the basic concept of this invention – using a tree to generate electric power

– seems too incredible to be true, Lagadinos said it can be demonstrated quite simply.

"Simply drive an aluminum roofing nail through the bark and into the wood of a tree –

any tree – approximately one half inch; drive a copper water pipe six or seven inches

into the ground, then get a standard off-the-shelf digital volt meter and attach one probe

to the pipe, the other to the nail and you’ll get a reading of anywhere from 0.8 to 1.2 volts

of DC power," he said.

"You can’t do anything with it in that form because it is ‘dirty’ – i.e. highly unstable

and too weak to power anything," he added. In order to properly harness this potential

energy source, MagCap devised two test circuits: one with three capacitors that were

connected in parallel by means of a switch and charged to 0.7 volts each. When fully

charged they are switched to a series mode, multiplying the voltage to 2.1 volts and

flashing an LED to show that sufficient power could be generated to produce a useable

result.

The second circuit included a filtering device to stabilize and "clean" the current

so it could be used to charge and maintain a NiCad battery. The battery then could be

connected to the LED to keep the LED lit continuously.

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New Energy Source/5

Wadle pointed out that there seems to be no limit to the amount of power that

can be drawn from an individual tree, no matter how many "taps" are inserted – each

produces the same amount of energy, an average of 0.7 – 0.8 volts. Size of the tree also

seems not to matter.

Interestingly, while conventional wisdom would seem to indicate that the tree

draws much of its energy from photosynthesis via its leaves, the voltage output actually

increases to 1.2-1.3 volts in the winter after the leaves have fallen.

Headquartered in Canton, Mass., MagCap Engineering, L.L.C. is a leading

custom designer and manufacturer of magnetics of all sizes for the broadcast,

telecommunication, microwave, military, defense and energy industries. For more

information, see www.magcap.com.