If you have
information/Research
data about
Lester J
Hendershot
and his
Fuel-Less
Motor, to
add to this
collection.
please email
me and I
will add
your
information
to this
page. We are
looking for
clear easy
to
distinguish
pictures and
documents.
Thanks to
Alex for
sharing all
this
excellent
information.
Alex started
a collection
many years
ago
collecting
News Paper
Clippings
and articles
about Lester
J.
Hendershot.
Thanks Alex!
You're a
Legend!
Not much
information
is available
about the
Hendershot
Motor. We do
have some
data
however.
Referenced
in the
article:
"THE
SO-CALLED
HENDERSHOT
MOTOR by
Gaston
Burridge" is
an article
by the
Utility
Engines
This is very
good data
and some
data can be
verified in
other areas.
NOTE:
"In the May,
1953, issue
of "Fate"
magazine
appeared an
advertisement
from the
"Utility
Engines'
professing
to have
plans for
sale of a
so-called
Hendershot
motor for
$2.50.
Suddenly,
all mail was
rejected by
the address
of the
"Utility
Engines"! I
asked
Hendershot
about this
matter. He
told me he
learned of
it soon
after the
advertisement
was
published.
Soon after
that he
learned
about the
plans they
were selling
and using
his name.
They were
doing this,
Hendershot
claimed,
without his
permission
or consent.
He told me
that he
promptly
informed the
postal
authorities
of this
circumstance.
"They must
have done
something
about it,
for I heard
nothing more
about them,"
he said.
Hendershot
was quite
emphatic to
me regarding
the plans
put out by
the "Utility
Engines" not
being of his
device.
He was so
emphatic, in
fact, I felt
he, like the
maiden,
"didst
protest too
much". Thus,
'the
Ol hound
dog's nose'
went to the
ground! In
due course
it came up
with the
information
furnished by
an
acquaintance
of
Hendershot's
to the
effect that
Hendershot
had remarked
at
the time,
while the
"Utility
Engines"
information
was not his
device, "it
was pretty
damn
close!""
Also:
"The first
model
consisted of
a ring
magnet less
than three
inches in
diameter.
Around the
magnet were
coils rigged
as only
Hendershot
knows how to
rig them,
and another
set of coils
pass through
the center
of the
ring."
The second
model is
built around
a ring
magnet, the
outside
diameter of
which is
seven inches
and the
inside
diameter six
inches.
Ref: "New
York Times
(February
27, 1928): "Fuelless
Motor Is A
Generator""
Note the
following
are excerpts
of below
documents.
Fig 2:
Lester J.
Hendershot
displaying
his
Fuel-Less
Generator.
Fig 3: A
later model
displayed -
possibly as
late as
1958.
Around the
1920's
Lester
Hendershot,
a keen
aviator, was
looking at
trying to
improve the
Aviation
Compass to
make a more
reliable
Compass. He
stumbled on
a Energy
Generator to
be later
named to the
Hendershot
Fuel-Less
Generator.
Some called
the device
the "Hendershot
Magnetic
Motor" or
the "Hendershot
Fuel-Less
Motor".
Hendershot
was
described as
a Giant and
highly
intuitive.
Some
important
reading
below:
In my
opinion this
article is
by far the
best
description
of
Hendershots
Device in
operation:
The New York
Times
February
1928.
EXPLAINS
MAGNET IN
FUELLESS
MOTOR.
Hendershot
Says
Shifting its
Field to
East and
West Causes
Rotary
Motion.
Winding of
Magnet
Secret.
Inventor
Asserts
Engine
Weighs about
4 Ounces Per
Horsepower
Expected
Here Today.
Special to
the New York
Times.
PITTSBURGH
Pen. Feb.
28.
Initially
indignant
because the
manner in
which his
fuelless
motor
gains its
power had
been
misrepresented
in
dispatches
from Detroit
and
Washington,
Lester J
Hendershot
today stated
there was
nothing
mysterious
about his
motor that
the force
that
energizes
it is the
"same force
that pulls
the needle
of the
compass
around, and
there is
nothing
mysterious
about that".
The fuelless
motor was
not his
objective,
he
explained,
at the time
he began his
experiments
some three
years ago,
when he
first became
interested
in aviation.
He soon
learned that
"the
ultimate
development
of aviation
depended
largely upon
the
discovery
or invention
of an
absolutely
true and
reliable
compass," he
explained,
'The
ordinary
magnetic
compass does
not point to
the true
north - it
points to
the magnetic
north, and
varies
from the
true north
to a
different
extent at
almost every
point on the
earth's
surface."
'There is
another
compass, the
magnetic
induction
compass,
that
indicates
the true
north. But
it must be
set before
each flight,
and is not
always
reliable."
"I found
that with a
pre-magnetized
core, I
could set up
a magnetized
field that
would
indicate
the true
north, but I
didn't know
just how to
utilize that
in the
compass i
set out to
find."
"In
continuing
my
experiments,
I learned
that by
cutting the
same line of
magnetic
force -
north
and south, I
had an
indicator of
the true
north, and
that by
cutting the
magnetic
field, east
and
west, I
could
develop a
rotary
motion."
"I now have
a motor
built on
that
principle
that will
rotate at a
constant
speed, a
speed
predetermined
when the
motor is
built. It
can be built
for any
desired
speed, and a
reliable
constant
speed motor
is one of
the greatest
needs of
aviation."
The main
secret of
Mr.
Hendershot's
invention,
his friend,
Barr Peat
declares,
is, "the
method of
winding a
magnet in
the motor so
that it will
rotate in
the opposite
direction
than the
earth
revolves."
He says
there is no
heat,
because
magnetic
forces are
cold and the
motor is
stopped
only by
breaking the
magnetic
field in the
windings.
The magnet
in the
motor, he
thinks
probably
would have
to be
recharged
after about
2,000 hours
of
operation.
Mr.
Hendershot
declares
that one of
his motors,
complete and
ready to be
installed in
an airplane,
would weight
little more
than four
ounces for
every
horsepower
it
developed,
while the
best of the
gas engines
now built
weighs about
two pounds
per
horsepower.
Mr
Hendershot
says that
altitude
would not
affect the
efficient
operation of
his motor,
for the
magnetic
influence of
the earth
has been
found to
remain the
same as high
as man has
ever
reached.
He said the
same
principle
which made
his original
model
operate only
when it was
placed in
one
direction -
north and
south, will
be developed
so that it
will provide
a compass
that will
always
indicate
true north.
Lester J.
Hendershot
inventor of
the "fuelless
motor" or
self-driven
generator or
electrical,
energy
collector,
nobody seems
to known
quite Which,
is expected
in New York
today to
dissipate
some of the
mystery
surrounding
his machine.
It has
aroused a
good deal of
skepticism
among
men who have
dealt with
electrical
energy all
their lives,
and among
physicists
who do not
believe
that the law
of the
conservation
of energy
has been
repealed.
However,
Major Thomas
Lanphier,
commander of
the First
Pursuit
Group at
Selfridge
Field,
Henry
Breckinridge
attorney for
Colonel
Charles A.
Lindbergh,
and D. Barr
Peat, a
friend of
Mr.
Hendershot,
are just as
confident
that the
inventor has
stumbled on
something
which may be
capable of
development
into a
revolutionary
power
source.
Whether the
machine has
yet arrived
in the City,
Major
Lanphier
would not
say, and he
said
yesterday
that he did
not care to
say anything
more about
the motor
until Mr.
Hendershot
arrives.
He did deny
again,
however,
that Colonel
Lindbergh
had any
interest in
the machine
aside from
his
examination
of it while
at Selfridge
Field.