Roy Jerome Meyers' device is documented in
British patent 191301098. The
Rex Research website also has a newspaper article from around 1912 re this device along
with the patent text and figures.
Near the beginning of his patent he states that "I have by actual test been
able to produce from a very small apparatus at comparatively low elevation,
say about fifty or sixty feet above the earth's surface, a substantially
constant current at a commercially usable voltage and amperage."
The patent describes two versions of the device. One appears to be an advanced
version, and dominates most of the patent and figures, and the other was his
first successful one (Figure 8 in the patent.) Both make use of a "specially constructed
rectifier which also has the capacity of intensifying the current". This
rectifier consists of coils and a Cooper-Hewitt mercury vapor lamp. The advanced
version uses four of these recifiers for a bridge rectifier. The first successful
version uses just one rectifier.
You may still need to read the patent to fully understand this. The purpose
of the drawings below is to highlight things that I found in my analysis.
They took some work to figure out, especially the wire to coil assignment
which was a total surprise (see diagram of that name below), so
this should save you some time.
Advanced version
Roy Meyers' first successful version
For completeness sake I've included Roy Meyers' first successful version. Meyers said he was
"able to obtain a constant current of 8 volts" (conflicting terminology aside, 8 volts
is pretty good.)
My attempt at replication
Testing done with simple air core coil from a crystal radio. See below for
where to get all the parts. The results were nothing more than you'd get with
a normal antenna, but this was only a quick test. There are many variables
still to play with.
The zinc plates were purchased from
Home Science Tools. Warning - they don't bend. If you try to bend them
they snap in two. The bare iron wire was purchased from
Boreal Northwest
(they're in Canada. For US, use
SK Science Kit & Boreal Laboratories.) Unfortunately the manufacturer
of the U-shaped magnets went out of business.
Roy Meyers device and the Linden Experiment
Note the similarity between the Roy Meyers device and the
Linden experiment. Might the
Methernithans have studied, replicated and improved on the Roy Meyers device?
