Magnets Levitate Travelers

In the new movie "Minority Report," Tom Cruise plays a cop who chases after criminals before they commit a crime. The movie portrays a futuristic world of magnetically levitating cars riding on cushions of air. Not only do people drive across town over a bed of magnets, but roads go up and down the sides of buildings. As "Tech Live" reports tonight, this all might not be science fiction.

Inventor Jerry Lamb says he believes he's already developed the basic technology behind just such a transportation system. He calls it LevX and his company, Magna-Force in Port Angeles, Washington, is trying to convince federal and state officials to give his system much-needed funding and tax breaks to get it up and running.

"It's so simple, I can't believe someone else hasn't come up with this idea," Lamb said as he showed off his system inside a converted hangar near the Port Angeles Airport.

The basic principle behind the system is something we all learned in elementary school. Permanent magnets of the same polarity repel one another.

"That way, I can lift great amounts of weight," said Lamb, operating a remote control unit that moves a levitating platform hovering above a pair of tracks. "This platform has been levitating continuous for the last 18 months."

His system relies on a continuous string of neodymium magnets embedded inside two tracks that look similar to railroad tracks. Those magnets repel neodymium magnets embedded in a platform that can carry a car -- or anything else for that matter. Rollers keep the platform aligned above the track. "This is totally passive natural magnetism that's environmentally benign," Lamb said.

But wait. Maglev, or magnetic levitation, trains running in Japan do the same thing, transporting thousands of people each day over a cushion of air. But maglev trains operating today are electromagnetic, meaning they rely on electricity and coils to levitate and move the train at high speeds along a track.

Lamb's system of permanent magnets requires no electricity to keep the platforms aloft. The neodymium magnets have a half-life of 20,000 years, so the chances of them failing are nearly impossible.

On this day, a platform carrying an old Ford truck is being propelled back and forth by two magnetic rotors that straddle a single aluminum rail running down the center of the track. A 1-horsepower motor spins the rotors that never touch the center rail. By changing the direction of the spin, the platform moves up or down the track. The magnetism created by the spinning rotor moves the platform just like magnetism keeps the platform aloft.

"That's two and half tons of car I'm moving with less than 1 horsepower," Lamb said proudly. He says he envisions a day when people can drive their cars onto these floating platforms that run on railroad tracks.

Lamb says he can retrofit the nation's existing rail system with LevX and include a fiberglass enclosure for $12 million a mile. Lamb adds that he can lay just-new track for $2 million a mile, a far cry from the current $150 million a mile to build the power stations and lay track for electromagnetic trains.



	Magnets Levitate Travelers Inventor develops new magnetic levitation system that could shake up the nation's transportation system. By Matt Markovich, Tech Live June 21, 2002