conference would include a former Los Alamos scientist discussing cold fusion, he was appalled that federal real estate should host such heresy. He contacted Peter Zimmerman, who had just been hired as a State Department science advisor, and Zimmerman duly used his clout to have the conference evicted.

Worse was to come, as Valone found himself the target of a jihad waged by guardians of establishment science. At a meeting of APS, Zimmerman boasted about his efforts to have the conference shut down. Meanwhile, Valone was fired from his job at the Patent Office. He tried to get it back, but the process lasted more than six years, during which he furthered his education and received a doctorate. Finally an arbitrator reinstated him and awarded back pay for the entire period, less 30 days.

“My conference was just an open forum for people who had unusual inventions in the energy arena,” Valone says, still sounding genuinely puzzled that it could have sparked such retaliation. “Some were deserving of critical review, but others were solidly acceptable.”

The magnetically powered railroad car in his backyard does not seem solidly acceptable (to me, at least), but the local mosquito population is waging

PERPETUAL MOTION DEMO: Magnets separated by diminishing intervals provide a net force to drag a steel ball up a wooden ramp. The ball falls from the apex of the ramp into a channel, guiding it around for the next ascent. Would it work? The best way to find out would be to build it.

such a relentless jihad of its own that I decide I have given the railroad car as much critical review as it is going to get. We retreat into Valone’s house, where two walls of the living room are covered with shelves carrying books on topics from yoga to UFOs. A back room crammed with disorderly stacks of papers serves as an interim office for the Integrity Research Institute, a small enterprise that he runs with his wife.

Since I seem skeptical about the railroad car, he digs out the relevant patents: #5,402,021 for the linear track and #4,877,983 for the one with archways, both issued to Howard R. Johnson. The magnets are mounted in such complex configurations that analysis of the aggregate force is almost impossible. Valone nods enthusiastically. From his point of view, this means the design cannot be refuted. From my point of view, it means it cannot be evaluated.

He shows me another patent, #4,215,330, issued in 1980 for a similar array of magnets that entices a steel ball up to the top of a ramp, where it drops down and apparently could roll back to its starting point, ready for another trip. This idea has been picked up by Jean-Louis Naudin, a French free-energy advocate who provides detailed construction blueprints at jnaudin.free.fr/html/s102jlnp.htm.

THE KURE TEKKO MOTOR: Mutual magnetic repulsion forces the rotor around inside the spiral stator until it reaches a gap where an electromagnet encourages it to make the next revolution.

Electromagnet

Output Shaft

Rotor (permanent magnet)

Stator (permanent magnet)

52 Make: Volume 09