man with drill
First conceived by Nikola Tesla in the early years of the 20th century, the fuelless generator is a device that works without the need for a hardwired power source. Essentially, fuelless generators can make use of radiant energy to continuously power the operation of the generator. Although the device is not currently in use, Tesla’s writings indicate the feasibility of building such a generator, and there are instances of engineers creating prototypes based on Tesla’s research and published writings.
Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856 and is considered a brilliant and very visionary physicist and mechanical and electrical engineer. Born in Croatia, he immigrated to the United States at a very young age. After becoming a legal citizen in 1891, Tesla became involved in a series of experiments involving electricity and wireless power transmissions. Subsequently, there was some disagreement over who really invented radio, Marconi or Tesla.
Among the focus of his later work were wireless power sources for machines. In theory, his fuelless generator could employ the Second Law of Thermodynamics and generate power by constant motion. The constant motion would be provided by energy that could be harvested from the sun and even from the atmosphere itself.
While the fuel-less generator is considered by many to be nothing more than a fanciful theory, there is some evidence that Tesla has applied for at least one patent that could be considered a work in progress to achieve this goal. However, at the time of his death on January 7, 1943, a fully functioning fuelless generator had yet to appear. Although Tesla was a brilliant inventor, his invention did not catch on mainly because investors were unwilling to divert their money from existing technology, which they knew worked, to something new and untested.
Still, the concept of a mass-produced fuel-less generator remains an exciting proposition for engineers today. Many articles have been written on the feasibility of building such a generator based on Tesla’s work. At conferences and trade shows, it’s not uncommon to find engineers expressing support for Tesla’s fuel-free generator idea. From time to time, small-scale models are built. However, there does not appear to be a working prototype that can be produced for use in industry or the general population.