Engineering, 2019, 11, 801-805

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ISSN Online: 1947-394X
ISSN Print: 1947-3931

Electricity Is Not What You Think

Michael Bank

Jerusalem College of Technology, Jerusalem, Israel

How to cite this paper: Bank, M. (2019) Abstract

Electricity Is Not What You Think. Engi-
neering, 11, 801-805. This article is an attempt to answer student’s (and not only students’) ques-
https://doi.org/10.4236/eng.2019.1112054 tions about the possibility of inventions nowadays in the field of electricity.
The student is confident that nowadays everything is clear. Large firms do
Received: October 31, 2019 everything which is needed. And the time for inventions is over. But in fact,
Accepted: November 23, 2019
Published: November 26, 2019
many things are not so clear, and a new Tesla may appear.

Copyright © 2019 by author(s) and Keywords

Scientific Research Publishing Inc.
Grounding, One Wire, SWER, Three Phase, Wide Band Antenna
This work is licensed under the Creative
Commons Attribution International
License (CC BY 4.0).
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Open Access 1. Introduction
It is written in the books that electrical energy is transmitted through the wires,
but what exactly does flow inside the wire?
Today there exist generally accepted descriptions of processes occurring in an
electric circuit. These descriptions are based on a model in which electrons (or
other charges) move inside a conductor. In some literature it is written that the
electrons do not move, but push each other, as in the well-known “domino ef-
fect”.
But such an explanation is not plausible. Electrons are mechanical particles
that have mass. They cannot move or push each other at the speed of light. But
an electrical signal is transmitted at the speed of light.
If so, then how electrical energy is transmitted in a wire system?
Here is a modern explanation of how electrical energy is transmitted in wires.
The source creates a potential difference. The potential difference creates an elec-
tromagnetic field. This field propagates along the wire on its outer surface at the
speed of light (this creates a well-known skin effect). So, wire is not a tube with a
current inside. The current does not exist at all [1].

2. Does One Need Grounding?

There is a common opinion that all electrical systems and all devices must have

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M. Bank

connection with ground. But at the same time, there are contradictions in the
explanations of grounding systems functioning. In these systems, the current
enters the earth. But today it is known that it is impossible to find out any traces
of this current at distance of a few meters. If so, where does the current go?
There are many attempts to explain these processes. And all these explanations
are different. Some people assume that the earth is a huge capacitor. But, firstly a
capacitor should have the second plate. And, secondly, there should be a dielec-
tric inside a capacitor. But the earth is not a dielectric. Other explanations as-
sume that grounding as current absorption. But absorption cannot be infinite.
Any sponge, when it is filled with water, stops absorbing. There are other expla-
nations as well, but all of them cause new questions. Let’s consider the following
hypothesis [2].
The current which is injected into a ground is divided into a great number of
weak currents. When ground depth increases, the quantity of currents grows and
therefore the amplitude of each current decreases to zero. Can current flow
through broken wires? Yes, it can, for example, in a linear antenna. In the case of
electrical antenna like a dipole or monopole, the current stops at the ends of ra-
diators but its energy converts into the energy of the electromagnetic field. It
means that the energy path is not interrupted.
Now we can imagine a grounding or zeroing as a set of very short monopoles.
It is known that monopole which height (h) is much less than a quarter of wave-
length has radiation resistance close to zero. Recall that the wavelength at a fre-
quency of 50 Hz is 6000 kilometers. This resistance tends to zero as h (compared
to the quarter of wavelength) decreases. Radiation resistance decrease leads to
radiating power decrease. So, we can say that monopole with 5 - 10 m high at
frequencies 50 or 60 Hz has zero resistance and zero radiation field density. Note
that a monopole with height much less than the quarter of wavelength has a ca-
pacitive component. However, parallel connection of monopoles results in capa-
citive resistance decrease.
In other words, perhaps grounding is a system consisting of a considerable
quantity of monopoles, with length much smaller than quarter of a wavelength.

3. An Unbalanced Single Wire Earth Return (SWER) System

In SWER system, the energy is transmitted by one wire. The second source ter-
minal and the second load terminal are connected to the ground. This unba-
lanced line can transmit all the energy from source Tx to load Rx. But there is
one problem. Potentials of grounding in the Tx and Rx are the same (zero).
However, potentials in active terminals of transmitter and in receiver are differ-
ent due to a signal delay. So, Tx and Rx signals have a different potential differ-
ence. It shall be noted, that in the balanced circuit with active load, the potential
difference on receiver input does not depend on signal delay, as potentials at the
ends of both wires change equally by a delay. This situation can be likened to the
problems similar to reactive load influence. In the case of a reactive load, there is

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 M. Bank

a reactive energy, namely, the source must produce active and reactive energy.
And in the case of long lines, this system loses a large amount of energy. It is
possible to compensate reactive power, but this compensation is expensive in the
case of variable loads. In contrast to the SWER system, the proposed one-wire
system [3] is a balanced system. In it, the potential difference on the load does
not depend on the line length and is always equal to 180 degrees.

4. Three Phase System: Is It Good or Not Very Good?

Now the dominant electric energy transmission system is the three-phase system
proposed by the Russian scientist Dolivo-Dobrovolsky. The important advantage
of this system is that a generator and an electric motor are effectively built, be-
cause in these devices, three windings are located on one rotor. But today it is
already clear to many specialists, that this system has more disadvantages than
advantages. Here are these disadvantages:
• Many expensive wires (three or four);
• Large expensive supports for wires;
• Underground and underwater three phase system are very expensive;
• Large number of broken wires short circuits;
• Large energy losses due to phase’s imbalances and reactive power;
• Strong negative environmental impact including Corona Effect, it’s time to
free the earth (see Figure 1).
In this case, one can say that three phase system is three SWER systems.
As in SWER, this phenomenon is equivalent to the presence of reactive resis-
tance in the load and, consequently, the appearance of reactive power. It is
shown in [1] that reactive power value in three phase system noticeably increases
if cables have linear capacitances and linear inductances. That is why there are
intermediate stations sometimes every about 30 km.
One-wire system allows transmitting the energy from three phase source by
one wire. In this case in one wire one can use the one of three wires of equivalent
three phase system [1]. For transmitting three phase signals by one wire signal it
is possible using special converter [4].

5. One Wire System

In [5] universal balanced one wire system is proposed. All loads receive signals
with phase difference 180 or 120 degrees. And this is independent of the line
distance.
An output single wire is divided by number of loads. Each load receives a sig-
nal with its own parameters. For this purpose, set of converters have been pro-
posed, so that C 2-1 and C 3-1 in transmitter converts to C 1-2 and C 1-3 in re-
ceiver.
It is well known that the main part of power electrical system cost is wires. In
[1] it is shown also that for one wire system can use one of the wires which are
used in three phase system. A calculation shows that one wire system can be
three time cheaper than three phase system.

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M. Bank

Figure 1. “Let my nature go”.

6. Fast Charging by One Wire

Nowadays there is a problem associated with the need for fast charging of electr-
ically driven vehicles. The time of charging depends on voltage in a charging de-
vice. The higher is the voltage, the shorter is the charging time. In residential
areas the voltage is 380 volts, and with this voltage the time of charging is ap-
proximately 8 hours. This is generally acceptable in living areas or in employ-
ment areas.
However, there are situations when it is necessary to provide a fast charging,
for example on highways or other places where a vehicle battery discharged. It is
very expensive to erect high poles with high voltages wires along highways, and
in many cases is just impossible. It is actually impossible to transmit a three-phase
signal underground. It would be necessary to build underground tunnels, since a
great distance must be provided between the wires.
For this problem solution was proposed charging system on basis of one wire
method [6].
This system includes a converter for converting a three-phase electric current
into an electric signal which can be transmitted through a single electric wire
underground.
In this case one can use very height voltage.
The converting means include also a converter for converting the signal re-
ceived from the single electric current transmission line into a three-phase elec-
tric current, one-phase current and DC.
So, using one wire method can be build fast charging stations in any places of
long road.

7. One Wire Method Can Be Used Not Only at a Low

Frequency
As a result, one of the most urgent tasks that does not yet have a solution can be
completed: we mean a small-sized broadband antenna operating at all frequen-
cies of its field. It is very well known that modern communication technology
requires an antenna with such properties. Until now, small-sized broadband an-
tennas work only at certain frequencies.

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 M. Bank

This problem can be solved as follows: we take an unbalanced antenna. One

end of the source goes to the emitter, the other to the nullifier. Due to a special
shape of the emitter, current at each frequency “finds” a line with length of
quarter of a wavelength. The size of the antenna depends on the lowest part. The
upper frequency is not limited. At frequencies above six Gigahertz, the antenna
has the highest gain in vertical direction. Thus, it can be used for communica-
tion with a satellite. These ideas and the results of simulations are described in
detail in [7].

8. Conclusions
Dear students. As usual, every new technical proposal is met with doubts, disbe-
lief and objections. If you embark on the path of engineering invention, you will
hear:
• Nobody needs it;
• This contradicts the Ohm Law;
• Nobody wants to invest in this business;
• Are you smarter than everyone?
• Or like in Chekhov’s story: “It is cannot be, because it is can never be.”
All the above was heard by the author plenty of times.
Nevertheless, it is worth looking for new ideas and solutions. It will make life
more interesting and meaningful. The most interesting in life is to do something
new.

Conflicts of Interest
The author declares no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this pa-
per.

References
[1] Bank, M. (2017) It Is Quite Another Electricity, Transmitting by One Wire and
without Grounding (2nd Edition). Partridge Publishing, Singapore.
[2] Bank, M. (2016) Method and System for Reducing or Substantially Zeroing Elec-
trical Potential. US Patent WO2017192448A1.
[3] Bank, M. (2014) Electrical Energy Transmission System with a Single Transmission
Line. US Patent 9246405.
[4] Bank, M. (2018) Phase Converter for Vector Conversion of Three Phase Signals. US
Patent 10305289 B1.
[5] Bronsthein, A. (2018) Universal Electrical Energy Transmission System. US Patent
9906032.
[6] Bank, M. (2018) System for Charging Electrically Drive Vehicles with a Single Line
for Transmitting Electric Current from a Source to a Charging Station. US Patent
10250061. https://patents.justia.com/patent/10250061
[7] Bank, M. (2019) Wide Band Omni Directional Antenna. US Patent 10381744.
https://patents.justia.com/patent/10381744

DOI: 10.4236/eng.2019.1112054 805 Engineering