Does John Galt ride again?

[Xavier_Onassis]

I got a flyer from some promoter looking for investors in SEFE, which claims that it can put up tethered balloons, collect static electricity, process it and sell it. If you read Atlas Shrugged, this was how genius inventor John Galt proposed to power the engines that would replace internal combustion.

Apparently, some similar idea was circulating around in 1925, and Ayn Rand picked it up from there.

Is this workable? Who knows?

What happens when lightning strikes a SEFE balloon? SEFE has no comments on that.

http://sefelectric.com/

This stock has sold between 40¢ and $3.00 a share this year. SEFE has no product available to sell. The words "Pump and dump" seem to figure prominently in articles in penny stock forums.

But apparently John Galt lives... and this will probably make at least a few people rich, and perhaps impoverish some others.

[Plane]

I am an electrician.
I am veery interested in aircraft.



I think this can generate power, but there are a few problems to overcome.
A windless condition would reduce power generation to practicly nothing.
A tornado or hurricane would wreck the whole thing.
Building it to wistand lightning strike might be very difficult.
This might be a hazard to navigation for aircraft , so the system has to be well lit (including lights on the tether) and sited a long way from flightpaths.
You couldn't place two of them close together.

Last but not least, this would change the condition of the atmosphere locally, if exploited a lot it might change the condition of the atmosphere generally, environmental impact unknown.  Imagine the environmental impact statement what data would you use to fill it out?

http://www.google.com/patents/US8102082
http://investorshangout.com/board/view?id=69076&board_name=SEFE%2C+Inc.+(SEFE)+-+Nasdaq

http://www.stockspecialists.com/stock-report/sefe/
http://www.meridian-int-res.com/Energy/Atmospheric.htm

Theoretical Basis

The ultimate source of obtaining useable electrical power from the Atmosphere is the Sun.

The Sun emits continuously a solar wind of positively charged particles; these are captured by the Earth's magnetic field and create the Ionosphere, a highly charged region above the atmosphere.

This positively charged region in turn induces (by electrostatic induction) a negative charge on the surface of the Earth.  The Earth becomes in effect an enormous spherical capacitor.  A potential gradient or electric field is thus established between the two "plates" of this capacitor, the Ionosphere (or Electrosphere) and the surface.  While the upper strata of the atmosphere conduct electricity reasonably well, the lower levels act as an insulator or dielectric.


Near the surface of  the Earth, this potential gradient is in the order of 100 Vm-1 in summer, rising to 300 Vm-1 in winter.

In fine weather, currents in the order of 1000 amperes are flowing continuously from the atmosphere to ground.  During unsettled weather, the currents can be much higher.  As the charge flows down to Earth, the electrosphere is replenished by the solar wind.


If we interpose a collector to intercept and collect some of this flow, nothing will be lost since after use in a load or circuit, the charge will be sent on its way to earth.  By careful design, we can use a slow wave structure type of antenna that acts as if it is much larger than its real physical dimensions (i.e. it is electrically small) to capture greater quantities of charge and amplify the input. We can effectively apply a suction pressure on the electrosphere in this way to speed up and amplify the local natural flow of charge, since we are effectively "punching a hole with a conductor" through the dielectric of the atmosphere to join the two "plates" of the capacitor together. As charge is drawn down, the electrosphere will be simply replenished by the vast quantity of charge carried by the solar wind.

Ultimately, even if by some future stupendous need for electrical power we were to strip part of the ionosphere bare by shorting it to earth through an enormous conductor, this would simply create a potential hole that would immediately attract more solar wind to fill it.  Engineering on such scales is of course well beyond our capabilities, so there should be no concern about "depleting" the ionosphere.

[Xavier_Onassis]

I have entered the symbol SEFE in my pretend list of investments, along with others that were touted by full-color flyers heavy on the hype and light on the facts. Years ago, I had some shares in a oil and gas drilling limited partnership with Kelley Oil, which resulted in perhaps a 12% annual gain. Kelley went broke and was bought by Anadarko, and I think they sold the mailing list, because that was when I started getting these promo flyers.

There may or may not be something useful in SEFE's plan, but as you say, balloons get hit by lightning and a major zapping would probably bring the whole thing down. If you fill the blimps with Hydrogen, then there is the explosion problem. And besides that, there is the danger of aircraft straying into the area, or balloons and lines coming loose and running into aircraft.

For the moment, this seems to be a classic "Pump and dump" farce. I will not be investing, since to make money I would have to know when to dump.