The Faraday disk generator is a vastly misunderstood design and is considered a mere novelty to most folks. If we spin a smooth copper disk in the presence of a magnetic flux field, a positive voltage appears at the outer edge of the disk. If we spin the disk and a magnet together as a unit, the same voltage appears at the outer edge of the disk.
No cutting of flux lines is needed to achieve this generation of voltage and current that is required in standard generators. The Faraday disk in its simplest form should be called a "Centrifugal Electron Generator". Anytime copper electrons sense or feel a magnetic field, easier movement of electron potential is allowed. The centrifugal force of the disk moves these copper electrons to the disk perimeter. Potential rises as electrons move towards the outer fringes of the disk leaving behind a electron vacancy at the disk center. A simple separation of electron charge has occurred from centrifugal force. Very high amperage in a pure DC form can be removed from the disk perimeter. You may ask, why is this type of generator not utilized? A problem arises when the potential is removed from the disk by the use of brushes. Serious magnetic backdrag occurs. Anytime high amperage potential crosses a gap through brushes from a rotating disk, a strong attractive magnetic field occurs called drag. Have you ever shorted a battery across the positive and negative posts with a screwdriver? (Don't try this, as you can blow up a battery in your face) You can't easily remove the screw driver from one post because of the strong attractive magnetic field derived from high amp current flow. The same process occurs when you try to remove high amp potential from the disk perimeter through brushes on a Faraday disk. This causes a serious drag on the motor used to turn the disk. DePalma used mercury as a alternative brush method to remove high amp potential from his design with very limited success. In fact, a solid copper disk is not needed to build a high efficiency generator. You can use copper wire that is embedded or glued in a spiral pattern on a plastic disk. The potential collects at the end of the wire spiral at the outer rim of the disk from centrifugal force in the presence of a magnetic field. (See drawing below). My potential extraction methods involve making the outer rim of the disk into a large capacitor. The perimeter is wrapped with a thin copper strip, then a insulator, then another strip on top of the insulator. The last strip applied is considered ground and is connected by a metal wire to the center of the disk with a diode. The first strip being positive is connected to the centrifugal wire with a inline diode. This diode traps the potential in the cap. Then I bring the potential stored in the capacitor by metal wire back to the shaft where slip rings and brushes deliver the potential to a load. Strong neo magnets are placed at 90 degrees to the slip rings. This helps to cancel the magnetic field in brush arc from high current flow. Torque drag is far less at the center of the disk than at the perimeter. With a inline flywheel you can also cycle the drive motor off and on for a higher efficiency after the disk is up to speed. Simply remove potential when the motor is in the "off" mode. This method delivers a pulsed DC current flow. Smooth the DC current and use it to supply a inverter for 120AC or 240AC volt operation. You can perform small experiments using a drill press to turn a copper disk over a disk magnet or turn them together to see the Faraday effect. Do not underestimate the raw DC output of a properly built Faraday disk generator design.
Centrifugal Electron Generator Drawing
