In the changing capacity electric generator, the electrostatic capacitance existing between oppositely charged condenser elements in a ceramic resonant combustion chamber is periodically increased when combustion takes place producing ionized gases and periodically decreased when evacuating gas currents remove the ionized gases. The changing capacitance so produced causes a current flow when this changing capacitance is placed in series electric circuitry with a high voltage transformer and a charged fixed condenser enabling electric work to be done from the secondary of the transformer.

A method and apparatus is disclosed for use in converting heat to electrical energy and comprises a plurality of capacitors which have a temperature dependent capacitance. Heat is used to decrease the dielectric constant in the capacitors causing charge to expand from the capacitors into an associated circuit and do electrical work. The invention also includes reeds which are caused to vibrate by the flow of vapor carrying heat between stages. These reeds serve as thermal switches which pulse heat at the proper frequency and phase through a large number of stacked capacitors. The efficiency of the apparatus is optimized by operating the individual capacitors through cycles approximating Carnot cycles.

When the temperature of pyroelectric film is increased from low to high near its phase transition temperature its ability to hold electrical charge on its surfaces diminishes, and the charge can be drawn as current through an external load resistor. Once the film temperature reaches a steady temperature, no more power can be drawn. However, if the film temperature is lowered again, it will restore charge on the film surfaces and the pyroelectric conversion process can be repeated. Because pyroelectric conversion depends on the degree of temperature change and the repetition rate of the process, the faster the cycling the more power it can generate by converting heat to electric power. An improved apparatus and method is disclosed for converting heat to electrical energy with a multi-layer stack of thin pyroelectric films. The pyroelectric film surface is cycled between higher and lower temperatures by the displacement of higher and lower temperature fluid over the film surface. The system alternates hot and cold fluid without reversing direction of the fluids over the films to achieve rapid thermal cycling with this uni-directional fluid flow. A novel voltage controller slave to a magnetic proximity switch mounted on a rotating flow controller, provides synchonization of the thermal and electric cycling of the pyroelectric films.

Method and apparatus for electrostatically generating power by converting random mechanical motion into electrical energy. The apparatus includes two variable capacitors that have their capacitances varied in an alternating manner by the physical displacement of a common conductor that forms one plate in each of the capacitors. The variable capacitors are formed in a container which holds a fluid for increasing the output power of the apparatus. The fluid in combination with movable conductor also generates sufficient charge to bias the variable capacitors.

The present invention embodies a piezo-pyroelectric energy converter and is directed to a method and apparatus for conversion of thermal energy to electrical energy and refrigeration. The present invention utilizes one or more piezo-pyroelectric materials with thermally conductive metal electrodes, which resonate at a high frequency and are in thermal communication with hot and cold heat sinks to create a thermal gradient and heat flow along the metal electrodes and the piezo-pyroelectric material.