Inventor seeks to tease energy from power of magnet

photo Randall Clay holds a neodymium iron boron magnet and an Imada force guage Wednesday afternoon.

RANDALL CLAYAge: 58Education: Bachelor of science degree from West Virginia Institute of TechnologyHome: ChattanoogaCurrent title: Head of Revival Innovative TechnologiesPast work: Coal industry engineer, photography studio operatorFamily: Wife and two children

Randall Clay is just a simple engineer.

At least that's how he introduces himself, before launching into a detailed explanation of the forces at play in a $100,000 gyroscopic apparatus he is building.

Of course the machine is anything but simple. There are dozens of moving parts, including magnets so strong that mishandling one can break bones.

"You have to be careful," he said, as a fist-sized magnet flew from the ground and thundered into another as he held it. "They'll jump up and bite you."

Clay hopes to create a machine with the magnets that will produce more energy than it takes in, a sort of perpetual motion machine. He's spent almost $200,000 so far on unworkable prototypes, but this time he said he's got it figured out.

This time he's using magnetism-absorbing iron slabs to temporarily block the magnetic field, so that the machine is only pulled in a single direction.

On paper, at least, it appears to work.

Breaking rules

Clay is aware that the idea of perpetual motion sounds impossible. Limitless sources of energy so far have appeared only in science fiction. Other scientists embrace the idea about as warmly as they would embrace alchemy, he said.

Yes, his theory could violate two or more laws of thermodynamics, but Clay says that some laws were meant to be broken.

"I don't blindly accept something created 300 years ago, before the invention of new materials created in my lifetime," Clay said.

The materials he's referring to are rare earth magnets. Specifically, neodymium iron-boron magnets, which were developed in 1982 by General Motors.

A string of sugar cube-sized magnets can draw blood, as the strong magnetic force slams them together. The big ones can break an unwary hand. He hopes to harness that same energy to power the next generation of innovation in the energy field.

Most scientists, however, have refused even to speak with him.

"I've written every national laboratory in the country about this, asking for help," he said. "They view it, and I'm quoting, as misguided, destined for failure and foolish."

And yet, he won't take "No" for an answer.

Committed to change

Clay said he has never been afraid to try new things.

Playing football at the West Virginia Institute of Technology, he showed up as a quarterback, and graduated in 1976 at linebacker. Following his graduation, he secured a job in the coal industry, before moving to Chattanooga in 1982 and later getting into the then-prosperous studio photography business.

As traditional studio photography declined in the face of digital cameras and commercially available photo editing software, he began tinkering with magnets.

"I was pumping gas, and realized our economy is tanking due to uncontrolled energy costs, and that somebody should do something about it," he said.

Now he's Chattanooga's newest scientist, working to better understand the forces that shape the world, even though "the whole world says I'm wrong."

Determination

Many scientists have faced rejection during early stages of their experimentation, he said.

Some even were persecuted.

His failures so far have made him cautious, but he's still determined to succeed where others have failed.

"My college team I played for had the longest losing streak in the nation, but that didn't make us give up," he said.

He's sold his photography business, and is using the proceeds to invest in his project.

The way he sees it, "we spend $100 million every week on the Department of Energy, and what have they done for us?"

Investing a few hundred thousand dollars to re-examine a hundred-year-old idea doesn't seem much worse, he said.

"I don't think we know everything there is to know about anything," Clay said. "For someone to say they know everything there is to know is a tad arrogant."

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