Robert E Wehrle

US Patent:

40865061, Apr 25, 1978

Filed:

Aug 5, 1976

Appl. No.:

5/711903

Inventors:

Robert L. Kustom - Palos Heights IL
Robert B. Wehrle - Downers Grove IL

Assignee:

The United States of America as represented by the United States
Department of Energy - Washington DC

International Classification:

H02K 702

US Classification:

310 74

Abstract:

An apparatus for receiving electrical energy in amounts of the order of hundreds of megajoules, converting the electrical energy to mechanical energy for storage, and delivering the stored energy as electrical energy in times of the order of a second comprises a sequence of stacked electrically conducting cylindrical shells having a common axis. The conducting shells are free to rotate and are separated by stationary insulating cylindrical shells. Adjacent conducting shells are connected electrically by brushes at the edges and a radial magnetic field is caused to pass through the conductors. The apparatus permits the reversal in a plasma heating coil of electric currents of amplitudes up to 100,000 amperes in a time of the order of a second.