The Rev. Antonio d'Angelo, S.J. was an Italian Jesuit priest and missionary who, in 1928, announced a motor claimed to draw "inter-atomic" energy from ions and to generate "many times the power it receives originally from an electric battery." He is the inventor named in US Patent 2,021,177, "Motor Generator & Other Transformer," granted November 19, 1935.
Background
According to the New York Times report of March 7, 1928, d'Angelo became interested in electricity about 20 years earlier as a student at a Jesuit seminary in Naples. A year and a half before the article, he was sent by his Order to Brazil to carry on missionary work at Ribeirão Preto among Italian emigrants. He obtained a special dispensation from Bishop Alberto Gonzales of Ribeirão Preto to visit the United States, arriving in November 1927, and asked his Bishop to extend a six-month leave. He spoke no English and communicated through his brother, Biagio d'Angelo of 1475 LeLand Ave., the Bronx.
The 1928 claim
The Times reported that d'Angelo's motor "makes use of 'interatomic' energy to generate many times the power it receives originally from an electric battery," and that it was then in Washington "undergoing the Patent Office investigation." He was quoted as saying the motor could supply home electric lighting cheaply and even heating, and could run trains, airplanes and automobiles. He described the machine as starting from a battery impulse and then generating "many times its power through the 'electricity produced by the inter-atomic energy of the ions'."
He explicitly rejected the "fuelless motor" attributed to Hendershot: "I challenge anyone to use the magnetic field of the earth for running a motor. The energy from that would be too small."
No measurements, independent tests, or demonstration data accompany the claim. See Inter-Atomic Ion Energy Claim and d'Angelo Claims vs. Evidence: The 1928 Press Report, the 1935 Patent and the Absence of Measurement.
The patent
The 1935 patent granted to d'Angelo describes an electromagnetic motor-generator and rotary transformer with a secondary winding whose pitch differs from the primary's, and whose turns encircle two, three or four poles. The patent text as reproduced does not claim over-unity and does not mention ions or inter-atomic energy. See US2021177 Motor Generator & Other Transformer and Differential-Pitch Pole-Armature Winding.
Related
- US2021177 Motor Generator & Other Transformer — the patent granted to d'Angelo
- Inter-Atomic Ion Energy Claim — the 1928 press claim
- over-unity-claims — the broader pattern this claim belongs to
Source notes & attribution
- https://rexresearch.com/angelo/angelo.htm