Abstract: An ultralean fuel mixture ignition and induction system is disclosed in which very lean fuel-air mixtures are used in internal combustion engines by means of a novel method and apparatus which greatly increases the burning rate of extremely lean mixtures to thereby prevent afterfire and backfire which would otherwise result from these lean mixtures when used in an engine, this same improvement in burning rate being able to provide improved fuel economy in that less fuel is required per combustion event and it is also able to provide better control over exhaust emission products in that combustion is cooler and more complete. The increased burning rate producing these effects is achieved when fuel that is being directly injected by conventional methods is routed through a pyrolysis cell and a cooler on its way to the combustion chamber, the fuel being thereby stripped of some of its hydrogen and being thereby impelled along with the hydrogen into the cylinder during the compression cycle.

Abstract: In this solar steam driven water pump steam is periodically generated and then condensed within a cavity to produce first a period of pressure over a column of water and then a period of vacuum to thereby first expell water from the cavity through one check valve and to subsequently fill the cavity with water through another check valve at the time of the vacuum, the generation of said steam pressure within said cavity being effected by a separate small pump within the cavity when this pump moves a small quantity of water in the cavity to a solar heated chamber in the cavity and the subsequent effecting of the vacuum within said cavity being accomplished when the water pumping chamber is cooled by condensation of the steam on the column of water against which it is acting, the periodic cessation of the small pump causing steam generation to cease when thermostats contacted by hot steam as water is expelled from the water chamber open a circuit stopping the small pump.

Abstract: A wind powered turbine drive for an electric generator is disclosed in which both the generator and the turbine driving it are stationary and remain in a fixed position irrespective of wind direction. This turbine facilitates electric power generation by wind power in those higher power ranges where the greater generator and turbine weights otherwise make it difficult and costly to support and to rotate the generator to face the driving wind because this present generator obviates the necessity of the generator's changing direction in that this present turbine receives wind energy from any direction by the use of a weather vane which weathercocks to rotate a wind inlet to the direction from which the wind is blowing and thereby exposes only the receding turbine blades to the force of the incoming wind.

Abstract: An array of several convection tubes are positioned in a series configuration to provide the equivalent of a very tall convection current generating tower, the pressure and fluid flow of the array thereby becoming capable of significant pressures such as the pressures necessary to move solar heated air into the confines of a rock storage area, the pressure increases of this array being achieved by the additive effects of connecting heated and cooled convecting columns together alternately in such a way that the output of one is connected to the input of another.

Abstract: A reciprocating engine for water pumping or air circulation is disclosed which uses solar energy from a black box collector or other low temperature heat source to expand and contract bellows thereby providing large forces with low pressures by taking advantage of large working areas available with bellows. The engine is essentially a constant pressure, variable volume thermodynamic cycle engine having a compressor, a heater and a driver with the compressor and the driver sections both being bellows, the driver being capable of operating the compressor section by means of the former enjoying a force advantage or a mechanical advantage over the later.

Abstract: A direct current, high voltage generator is disclosed in which electric power is produced by repeated capacitance changes. In various embodiments of the basic electric circuitry, the required capacitance change is effected by various methods, including, especially in the principal embodiment, the method of capacitance change by radiation-variable capacitors the dielectric material of which is uniquely a non-photoconducting material. This generator is distinctive in two basic ways, namely in that it is a complete d.c. generator without an iron core transformer not merely a voltage augmentor and secondly in that the light-variable dielectric material is different from that of prior art generators.

Abstract: An improvement in a method of generating electric power by high voltage light or radiation variable electric capacitors is disclosed in which two distinct generating units are maintained in electrically separated circuits, neither unit interacting with the other electrically, thereby providing for a simple means of overcoming waste of collected and concentrated radiant energy in that a simple shutter alternates the beam of light or radiation back and forth between two or more radiation variable capacitors to prevent waste by preventing the concentrated energy from ever falling upon an unreactive surface and further to prevent waste by preventing momentary counter e.m.f. inherent in some prior art.