Nexus - 0301 - New Times Magazine-pages

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THE HENDERSHOT (cid:1) the true north, and that by CUlling the mag to lift an airplane. MOTOR/GENERATOR (cid:1) netic field east and west he could develop a Major Lanphier's comments to reporters rotary motion. after the demonstrations were: MYSTERY (cid:1) With this principle in mind, he switched The whole thing is so mysterious and 'Lester J. Hendershot, my,father, his plans and began working on a motor startling that it has the appearance of was an inventor. In his many which utilised this magnetic power. He being a fake. I was extremely sceptical alte,mpts at producing practical built one that would rotate at a constant when I saw the first mode~ items, he was moderately success speed, a speed predetermined when the ful a few times with eiectronic toys, and motor was built. It could be built for a sold some of his ideas to small manufactur desired speed, he said, and he felt that a ers. His biggest idea, however, was so rev reliable constant speed motor was one of olutionary that it embarrassed the nation's the greatest needs in aviation at that time. top scientists because they couldn't explain The one he built developed 1,800 revolu it, and if it could be perfected it would pos tions per minute. sibly eliminate the need for public electric , In the following years he realised that the utilities in many instances, and completely idea of a magnetically powered motor was , change most of our present concepts of not as practical as a magnetically powered motivation. generator, so his later work was directed His first invention in this field was called toward the generator. To avoid confusion, a "motor" by the newspapers, but it was i.t should be pointed out that the early actually a generator which was powered by experiments hegan on a magnetically pow the magnetic field of the Earth. His later ered motor, and later a generator. . models created enough electricity to simul The first significant experiments on the taneously light a l20-volt light bulb and a motor version were held at Selfridge Field, table model radio. I witnessed it furnishing Detroit, under the direction of Major the power to run a television set and a Thomas G. Lanphier, commandant of the sewing machine for hours at a time in our' field arid leader of the First Pursuit Group. . living room. The device demonstrated at Selfridge was a small model of what he hoped would be A REVOLUTIONARY CONCEPT developed into an airplane engine. Quotes It was in 1927 and 1928 that my father in the newspapers referred to top aeronauti began to ·think seriously about this "fuel cal brass of the day and their impressions less" generator. He had taken up flying in of what they saw. 1925 and he soon realised ·that the ultimate One such report was credited to William development of aviation would be greatly B. Stout, President .' , enhanced by the creation of an absolutely .of the Stout Air true and reliable compass. His first efforts Service, Inc., and were to produce such an instrument. designer of the all He theorised that the magnetic compass metal-type plane does not point to true north and varies from used by the Ford true north to a different extent at almost Motor Company. every point on the Earth's surface. Also, Stout's' comments the induction compass has to be set before were: each flight, and at that time was not always The demonstra reliable. He claimed that with a premagne tion was ve.ry tised core he could set up a magnetised impressive. It was field ·that would indicate the true north, but actually uncanny. he didn't know just how to utilise that in the /. would like very compass he had set out to develop. much to see a In continuing his experiments, he found large modeI, that by cutting the same line of magnetic designed to devel force north arid south he had an indicator of op enough power DECEMBER 1995 - JANUARY 1996 but I helped to build the second one and witnessed the winding of the magnet. I am sure there was 1J.othing phoney about it. My father had first shown the military brass how his model worked, then he supervised Army technicians in building their own model which worked perfectly. Major Lanphier said that the electrical men to \\(hom they had shown the motor .laughed at the way we wired it up and U .. said it wouldn't work. Then it did work:' It was the Selfridge Field experiment whiCh touched off the series of stories in (cid:1) the national press-stories with blaring(cid:1) headJines in such papers as the Detroit(cid:1) Free Press, Detroit News, Detroit limes,(cid:1) Pittsburgh papers, The New York Times and(cid:1) many others. Most of them tagged the(cid:1) instrument demonstrated at Selfridge the(cid:1) . "miracle motor", and there were pictures of(cid:1) Major Lanphier and Col. Lindbergh, my (cid:1) father and the motor. Anything in the news during that period which could be connected with Lindbergh . was front page whether he had an active interest or just happened to be in the area ai the time. Headlines in the various papers .. ". >~.: .: ~ "n.. NEXUS· 53