Roy J. Meyers claimed in his British patent 191301098 that a small apparatus could draw a steady, usable electric current from the air. The RimStar page described here is the only replication attempt known to this dossier. It appears on rimstar.org, a hobbyist project site whose footer credits Steven Dufresne. The page does two things: it interprets the patent drawings to explain how the device is wired, and it reports a brief home-built test. The write-up is informal and records no measurements, so it is weak evidence either way.
What did Meyers claim?
According to the page, the patent asserts near its opening that Meyers had tested a very small apparatus, mounted only about fifty or sixty feet up, and obtained "a substantially constant current at a commercially usable voltage and amperage". This is the inventor's own statement; the patent is not evidence that the device worked. The page also notes that the source archive website hosts the patent text and figures alongside a newspaper article from around 1912. That archive is described in Jerome Meyers and 'The Absorber': The source archive Energy Dossier (Provisional Record).
What is the device supposed to contain?
The RimStar author reads the patent as describing two versions of the apparatus, both depending on a rectifier of Meyers's own design. A rectifier lets current flow one way only, turning a fluctuating input into a one-way output. In Meyers's version the rectifier combines coils with a mercury vapour lamp of the Cooper-Hewitt type, and the patent credits it with strengthening the current as well as rectifying it. That boosting role is the patent's assertion; the page does not test it.
- The earlier version, shown in Figure 8 of the patent, uses a single rectifier. The author describes it as Meyers's first successful version.
- The later version, which the author regards as more advanced and which occupies most of the patent's figures, links four rectifiers together as a bridge rectifier.
To make the figures easier to follow, the author redrew them, and reports that working out which wires connect to which coils took the most effort and was the biggest surprise.
How much output was claimed?
For the single-rectifier version, the page quotes Meyers saying he was "able to obtain a constant current of 8 volts". That figure is Meyers's own and nothing on the page verifies it. In a passing aside, the RimStar author notes that the phrase mixes up current and voltage, but still calls 8 volts a good result.
What did the replication test find?
The one test the page describes used a simple air-core coil taken from a crystal radio set. The build is also described as using zinc plates, bare iron wire and U-shaped magnets, but the page does not say how these parts were arranged. The author reports that the output was no better than an ordinary antenna would give, and gives no measurements. The author also calls it only a quick test, with many variables still to explore.
What this does and does not show
The attempt gives no support to Meyers's claim, but its design and reporting are too thin to count against it either:
- No numbers are reported. The page gives no voltages, currents, loads, mounting height or weather conditions. Likening the output to an ordinary antenna's is a comparison, not a measurement.
- Key parts were not copied. The page describes a crystal-radio air-core coil. It does not say that a Cooper-Hewitt mercury vapour lamp or the patent's rectifier was built. The patent treats that component as central to both versions.
- There is no apparent attempt at the patent's height. The patent's claim refers to 50–60 feet above the ground. The page does not say how high the test rig was.
- It is a single, self-described preliminary trial.
The page also offers an independent reading of the patent's wiring, including the four-rectifier bridge, though nothing here checks that reading against the patent.
For physical background, Kelvin's 1859 Atmospheric Electricity Measurements: The Potential Gradient and the Water Dropper Equaliser (Aplin & Harrison) reports a fair-weather potential gradient of roughly 100 V per metre at the ground; the RimStar test measured nothing comparable.
A speculative aside
The page closes with the author's own suggestion that Meyers's device looks similar to something the page calls the Linden experiment, and asks whether the Methernithans might have studied Meyers's device and built on it. The page offers no evidence for this link, and it is not part of the patent record.
How it fits the dossier
The source dossier gives the inventor's and the press's figures: 8 volts in about 1912, and 4.5 volts in a 1914 meter test. The Absorber (Meyers Dossier Device Claim) sets out what the device was claimed to be, and Jerome Meyers covers the inventor. This page adds a practical test whose author reports results no different from an ordinary antenna. This dossier holds no independent confirmation of Meyers's claim; it rests on the patent and on press reports.
Source notes & attribution
- https://rimstar.org/sdenergy/rmeyers/index.htm