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From: BILLW@SRI-AI.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: New elecricty generation technique
Message-ID: <16843@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 23-Feb-84 22:49:24 EST
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.16843
Posted: Thu Feb 23 22:49:24 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 2-Mar-84 07:51:56 EST
Lines: 37

From:  William "Chops" Westfield 

a066 23-Feb-84  14:54
BC-PATENTS ADV25
(For release on Saturday, Feb. 25)
By STACY V. JONES
c.1984 N.Y. Times News Service
    WASHINGTON - The holder of a number of patents on charged aerosol
power systems has invented, with federal support, what he calls an
incredible power fence, capable of supplying cheap electricity over
wide areas.
    Alvin M. Marks, president of Advanced Research Development, Inc., in
Athol, Mass., was granted patent 4,433,248 this week for a power
generator that employs charged aerosols, wind, solar energy, and
gravitation. The development was supported with a total of about
$300,000 by the National Science Foundation, the Department of
Energy, and the Solar Energy Research Institute.
    Solar energy is used to distill water and send the steam to a tank
atop the fence, where it condenses. Gravity moves the water; under
pressure, it forms the charged aerosols, which are then blown by the
wind to create electric power. Marks calculates that a fence one
kilometer ( 5/8 of a mile) long and about 300 feet high would, with a
wind of 12 miles an hour, provide 25 million watts. The construction
cost including towers and supporting cable is estimated at $10
million, but the electric power is expected to cost only one cent per
kilowatt hour. He expects commercial use of the invention to start in
about a year. His earlier charged aerosol inventions have so far been
used chiefly in air purification.
    Commercial rights are available in the United States and Western
Europe through Advanced Research Development, Inc. Marks has donated
rights to this and other energy-related patents through the World
Energy Foundation for free use by developing countries. He was
formerly president of the Marks Polarized Corp. in Whitestone, N.Y.,
which operated in the field of three-dimensional motion pictures,
using his inventions.
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