Wednesday 19 September 2012

Nigerian invents power-generating machine, makes Africa’s first local car

Perhaps, Nigeria would have joined the likes of Germany, Japan, India and Malaysia as an automobile manufacturer as far back as 1997 when Dr. Ezekiel Izuogu, an electrical/electronics engineer, a doctor of science and lecturer of communications and electronics engineering at the Federal Polytechnic, Owerri, made a prototype of his first ever all-African car which he named Z-600. The car which BBC’s Hilary Andersson described as the all-African dream machine, was made for the family market with a top speed of 140km (86m) per hour. Ninety per cent of its parts were sourced locally. For instance, the horn was a doorbell and it would have been the cheapest car on the planet as it would have cost just $2,000 to own one. According to Izuogu who had demonstrated a great flair for inventive and creative knowledge from early childhood, he was working on adapting the engine to allow the Z-600 to double up as a lawnmower or an electricity generator. With the usual Nigerian lackadaisical attitude when it comes to things that will help project the country’s image to the world positively, the authorities were not ready to invest money in the project and so in 2005, the South African Government invited him to build the car there. And since he who pays the piper dictates the tune, South Africa would have been the proud manufacturers of the Z-600 were it not for the incidence of March 11, 2006. Made by Izuogo Unfortunately, this dream was not to see the light of day. According to Dr. Izuogu, some armed men numbering about 12 broke into the Izuogu Motors factory on Saturday, March 11, between 1.00 and 2.00 a.m. and carted away various machines and tools including the design history notebook of Z-600, the design file Z-MASS, containing the design history for mass production of Z-600 car, and the moulds for various parts of the car. Said Izuogu; “It seems that the target of this robbery is to stop the efforts we are making to mass-produce the first ever locally made car in Africa. Other items stolen included locally produced timing wheel, locally produced camshaft, locally produced crankshaft, locally produced engine tappets, all 20 pieces each. Made by Izuogu Also stolen were ten pieces of locally produced Z-600 engine blocks, ten pieces of locally produced pistons, four pieces of engine block mounds, four pieces of top engine block moulds, ten pieces of engine fly wheel and two pieces each of rear car and front mudguard moulds.” The inventor regretted that not only did they lose over one N1 billion in monetary terms, but also time (about 10 years) and the energy it took to design and produce the moulds. “To worsen the matter, our design notebook was also stolen,” he stated. He regarded the incident as a national economic disaster because  the nation had lost a technological and intellectual property. Izuogu machine: Before the Z-600 car, Dr. Izuogu had been working on ways to provide the nation and the world with clean, cheap and environment-friendly energy source. So, after 33 years of intense research, he came up with a new branch of physics known as Emagnetodynamics, the branch of physics that studies the conversion of the energy of static magnetic fields into work. Before now, “the conventional electric motor was built on the principle/law of Michael Faraday which states that Force is exerted on a current-carrying conductor in a magnetic field.” The two laws of Emagnetodynamics state as follows: Force is exerted on a composite magnetic pole in the vicinity of an array of like poles; and this force is in the direction of the composite polarity similar to the array. Based on these two laws, he invented the Izuogu machine, also called the self-sustaining Emagnetodynamics machine, a kind of electric motor that draws atomic energy from the nuclei of permanent magnets and therefore requires no input power to operate. Dr. Izuogu According to Izuogu, there are two versions of the Emagnetodynamics machine – the non-self-sustaining and the self-sustaining machine which can run for upwards of 30 to 40 years. He added that soft iron machine or the hard iron machine could be built from each of them. He noted that the machines named M-1000 and M-6000, respectively, could drive 100 KVA and 5 Mega watt electric power generators with no noise, no pollution, and zero energy input. “The M-60 prototype machine has been built and demonstrated, while the M-1000 and M-6000 have been designed waiting to be built,” he said. Scientists have experimented with nuclear reactors in their bid to seek energy source that is clean, cheap and environment-friendly. However, this could not work as the dangers inherent in that are enormous. For instance, reports say that more than 20,000 people developed thyroid cancer and had to have their thyroids removed as a result of April 26, 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Till date, there is about 1,660 square-mile Exclusion Zone around the site of the Chernobyl disaster, 26 years after the accident. Unlike nuclear reactors, the Izuogu machine draws atomic energy without the dangers and complications of nuclear reactors. Izuogu said that besides generating electricity, the machine can also power big luxury buses and trams.

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