10 Nov 08
Originally posted by KazetNagorraThere was an earlier version a few years ago where the radiation built up a charge on a capacitor which moved in response to the electric field, it was free floating on one end, like a reed, so it dipped under the electric field and discharged into another cap which built up charges that way, interesting idea, never heard much from it, not very efficient I suppose, this one has the potential to be very efficient and powerful.
Beta-decay radiation is already electricity by definition, but the new thing seems to be the higher efficiency of the process for practical use.