Re: starship-design: Steel Ring Flywheel, Tabletop Scale

[Johnny Thunderbird <jthunderbird@nternet.com>]

"L. Clayton Parker" wrote:

> I think you just reinvented the air core motor....
>
> Lee Parker

No shit, Sherlock. That ain't the point. Well, for one thing,
you can't use this for a motor, because no mechanical
connection is feasible if your ring is fully wound with coils.
Nor can you use it for a generator. It will not transduce
external mechanical energy to or from electric power.

That ain't the point. The point is the steel material. The
lab setup is to make mild steel, a strong but conventional
material, into a super strength material by holding it in a
condition of full magnetic saturation. That makes your
steel ring several times stronger than a ring of mild steel,
putting it into the category of other superstrength materials
such as silicon carbide or diamond. That means you can
spin a relatively low cost flywheel, ( low cost compared to
diamond, ) several times faster than you could spin a
normal ring of mild steel, before it blows itself apart.

That, in turn, means we have a high density energy storage
device suitable for terrestrial use. With suitable precautions,
needless to say. A battery for use Earthside. Are any bells
ringing for you yet? This lab design is useless for a motor,
and it's useless for a generator, but makes a damn fine
flywheel and a pretty good gyroscope. Put power in, take
power out, that's all you can do. But you can do that better
than any other box the same size and weight. We're not
doing antimatter today, and we're not doing fusion today.
We could sure use a good battery. Here you go.

Petulantly,
Johnny Thunderbird
http://www.dejanews.com/~liteage