I was reading a recent post about electric cars - and it reminded me of something in a book I recently read (Atlas Shrugged). Anyways, in that book, there is a motor which 'pulls' static electricity outta the atmosphere. Two questions - what was the name of the motor - and would this be possible? It sounds really interesting.... IF anyone has read the book Atlas Shrugged, you should know what I am talking about... Moderators, please dont lock/delete (well, at least give it a day or two, please!), as it is engine related (hell, its about an engine!)
:hail:

 

The only thig I'm aware of that even sort of "pulls static electricity from the air" is a van de graaff generator. This is the type of static electricity generator they use at science museums with the huge ball you put your hand on and get your hair to all stand up.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/vdg1.htm

 

im reply to the electric car idea, Im assuming you're proposing to power an electric car from a built up static electric charge. Doing this is really not feasable, mainly because of the fact the type of work you can do using an electric charge is mainly make a spark, which is a very fasy, very high voltage, very low current static discharge. To do any real work with electricity you need to have maintained current at a lower voltage. If it were possible to store a static charge and make it do real work we'd be using the power from lightning to power our cities.

If you do come up with a way to do this, call up the patent lawyer immeadiately.... theres tons of lightning out there waiting to power my hot tub.

 

LOL. I guess I was pretty vague... If anyone is actaully interested, or knows what I mean post/email me... I am gonna try to find some info out...