Nexus - 0301 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

THE HENDERSHOT the true north, and that by cutting the mag- 0 lift an airplane. MOTOR /GENER ATOR netic field east and west he could develop a Major Lanphier's comments to reporters rotary motion. after the demonstrations were: MYSTERY With this principle in mind, he switched The whole thing is so mysterious and _ ester 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 attempts at producing practical] built one that would rotate at a constant when I saw the first model, but I helped to items, he was moderately success- speed, a speed predetermined when the build the second one and witnessed the ful a few times with electronic toys, and motor was built. It could be built for a winding of the magnet, I am sure there sold some of his ideas to small manufactur- desired speed, he said, and he felt that a was nothing phoney about it. ers. His biggest idea, however, was sorev- reliable constant speed motor was one of My father had first shown the military -olutionary that it embarrassed the nation's the greatest needs in aviation at that time. brass how his model worked, then he top scientists because they couldn't explain The one he built devéloped 1,800 revolu- supervised Army technicians in building it, and if it could be perfected it would pos- tions per minute. their own model which worked perfectly. sibly eliminate the need for public electric In the following years he realised that the Major Lanphier said that the electrical men utilities in many instances, and completely idea of a magnetically powered motor was to whom they had shown the motor change most of our present concepts of not as practical as a magnetically powered "...ldughed at the way we wired it up and motivation. generator, so his later work was directed _ said it wouldn't work. Then it did work." His first invention in this field was called toward the generator. To avoid confusion, It was the Selfridge Field experiment a “motor” by the newspapers, but it was it should be pointed out that the early which touched off the series of stories in actually a generator which was powered by experiments began on a magnetically pow- the national press—stories with blaring the magnetic field of the Earth. His later ered motor, and later a generator. headlines in such papers as the Detroit . Models created enough electricity to simul- The first significant experiments on the Free Press, Detroit News, Detroit Times, taneously light a 120-volt light bulb and a motor version were held at Selfridge Field, Pittsburgh papers, The New York Times and table model radio. I witnessed it furnishing Detroit, under the direction of Major many others. Most of them tagged the the power to run a television set and a Thomas G. Lanphier, commandant of the instrument demonstrated at Selfridge the _ sewing machine for hours at a time in our’ field arid leader of the First Pursuit Group. “miracle motor", and there were pictures of living room. The device demonstrated at Selfridge was a Major Lanphier and Col. Lindbergh, my small model of what he hoped would be father and the motor. A REVOLUTIONARY CONCEPT developed into an airplane engine. Quotes Anything in the news during that period It was in 1927 and 1928 that my father in the newspapers referred to top aeronauti- which could be connected with Lindbergh * began to think seriously about this “fuel- cal brass of the day and their impressions was front page whether he had an active . less" generator. He had taken up flying in of what they saw. interest or just happened to be in the area at 1925 and he soon realised that the ultimate One such report was credited to William the time. Headlines in the various papers 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- SS reliable. He claimed that with a premagne- tion was very i 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 J would like very compass he had set out to develop. much to see a In continuing his experiments, he found large model, that by cutting the same line of magnetic designed to devel- force north and south he had an indicator of op enough power. nf 4 SOE DY Bare . THE HENDERSHOT MOTOR/GENERATOR MYSTERY NEXUS ¢ 53 DECEMBER 1995 - JANUARY 1996