RankingsPrimerArbiterPhysicistMathematicianContrarianQESites logClaimsSourcesResearch notes

Smith-Don: central claims

Project: Don (Donald L.) Smith, resonant air-core coil and capacitor "free energy" devices. Sources: one compiled binder of Smith's own papers (Resonance-Energy-Methods-Don-Smith.pdf, 96 pp., 1992-2003) and one secondary reconstruction by Joel Lagace (don-smith.pdf, 50 pp., undated). Tags: [read] from the documents; [memory] model recall with confidence.

Source gap and source status

  • The folder holds no measurement, test report, witness statement, instrument reading or patent grant. The only evidence that hardware was built is seven uncaptioned colour photographs (Resonance PDF pp.3-9), the cover letter's statement that devices were "demonstrated throughout the World", and a web printout of a rendering of a "Rotating Seperator Coil" (p.10) [read]. The "Dipole Transformer Generator" specification (pp.11-19) says its prototypes were "fully tested for utility by the Inventor" and the drawing 4 heading says "Constructed and fully tested", but it prints no test result, dimension, frequency or power figure; the Mexican application of the same device (MX NL02000035 A, 15 pp., filed 15 Nov 2002) drops the "fully tested" heading [read: deep read pp.10-19 and the application].
  • don-smith.pdf (Lagace) is a secondary source: the author's own reconstruction of Smith's method, not Smith's words, with no measurement. The 1 F / 1 kW claim and the "mirror effect" demonstration reach us only through Lagace, with no source, date or occasion [read: p.2].
  • The PDF text layer is empty for the photo pages (pp.3-9) and several pages are rotated scans (pp.36, 42, 60, 64-66); those were read from page images. Binder pp.10-35 and 73-79 were deep-read in the QE round (2026-10-08); pp.80-94 (a general electrical-safety primer and a textbook units appendix, not Smith's writing) and pp.39-41, 46-50 of Lagace rest on digests only; central numbers from those pages were rechecked where noted. Three research files saved by the Investigator (the 1996 ExtraOrdinary Science article, the Kelly part of the archive.org 119-page compilation, the Utkin PDF) were deep-read in full in the orchestrator fix (2026-10-08; deep/further-investigator-files.md). None of them contains a measurement or test of a Smith device. No conclusion about Smith's devices can rest on the documents alone: they give claims and illustrative calculations, not data.

Central claims

  1. Energy delivered by resonant induction scales with the square of frequency: E = 1/2 C V^2 x (cycles per second)^2, so a megahertz system is said to transfer far more than a 60 Hz one (worked example A 259.2 "joules"; example B "50 Mega K-Joules"). The same document also prints the first-power form (p.44), and p.56's "60 million cycles ... one million times the energy of 60 Hz" is also a first-power ratio (6x10^7 / 60 = 10^6; the squared law would give 10^12). The two worked examples use different versions. Example B carries four different numbers across the binder and the 1996 magazine printing: 5x10^8 J (the magazine's "more than 500 MegaJoules", from an intermediate "500" that should read 50,000), 5x10^10 (binder "50 Mega K-Joules"), 5x10^14 (the magazine's own intermediate carried through) and 5x10^16 (the printed formula with the binder's numbers) [read: Resonance pp.38, 43-49, 56, 73-75; deep read; page images of binder p.49 and magazine p.37].
  2. At resonance impedance (resistance) becomes zero, so resonant RF air-core systems behave as room-temperature superconductors and Ohm's law does not apply to them; volts and amperes are equal "until work is introduced" [read: Resonance pp.39, 44, 47-49, 55-56, 73-74].
  3. The extra energy comes from the Earth's and air's ambient electrical and magnetic background, drawn in by resonance and grounding: electrons are "pulled into the system" from earth and air grounds, the Earth holds "17.6 x 10^18 exajoules", ambient potential is 200,000 V (500,000 V at the poles), and conservation laws "are excluded" for open, non-linear systems; devices become "self sustaining once started" [read: Resonance pp.25-35, 39, 54, 62, 74; deep read pp.21-35]. Detail from the deep read, all Smith's own statements: (a) the ambient levels are said not to be measurable because instruments use the ambient background as their reference ("the bird sitting on the million volt power line", pp.29, 35), and the "multi Billions of Volts" figure (p.35) has no derivation or instrument; (b) "Energy Conservation Laws ... are excluded ... a la Einstein" (p.31) and "Albert Einstein as a direct quote from his biography" (p.34), with no quotation, title or page given; (c) the stated "self sustaining" operation sits beside construction (pp.32-33) that needs a DC input module; (d) the printed Earth-energy figure (17.6 x 10^18 EJ) is 10^9 above its own inputs (3.9 EJ/yr x 4.5 Gyr = 1.76 x 10^10 EJ) and about 10^3 above all solar energy received, and the lightning figure ("ten trillion joules") is 2x10^4 times the 500 MJ average flash [computed; web per the arbiter]. Smith's performance claims, each his own and each with a commercial stake (TransWorld Energy, the book, the web site), none with a customer, site or measurement: his 1996 suitcase unit (12 V x 0.3 A in, 120 V x 80 A out, the one quantitative performance claim; source and limits in the arbiter); "demonstrated throughout the World" and "more than 15 years" of R&D (p.21); "The System is presently being introduced into the World Market" (p.22); "Small mobile E.E.S. II units are presently available as replacements for the batteries used in electric automobiles" (p.62); a "Domestic Use Range Module, up to two million volt-amperes-reactive output" and larger modules "to 10 million plus" (pp.64-65); "A megawatt sized unit will sit comfortably on a breakfast table" (pp.45, 49); and, in an unsigned passage about Smith (it calls him "Don" in the third person) in Patrick Kelly's compilation, "newer versions have atomic batteries and power output ranges of Gigawatts ... Commercial units of Boulder Dam size are currently being installed at several major locations throughout the world", with the information shared "incomplete" for "Don's personal security and contract obligations" [read: research/files/Resonance-Energy-Methods-119p_djvu.txt lines 9239-9241; Kelly is an interested compiler]. Related design on the same pages: a magnetostrictive "Magnetic Resonance Power System" (pp.32-33) in which a Terfenol-D rod (1 1/2 in by 10 in, "over $5,000") acts as "a combination receiving antenna and a vastly superior output transformer", with the claim "Magnetic permeability is the counterpart of negative resistance" and a table headed "Negative Magnetic Permeability" whose entries are ordinary positive numbers (Permalloy >80,000 and others), no circuit values.
  4. An air-core two-coil system gains energy through the turn ratio and by "squaring" flux: L-1's input voltage divides over its turns (e.g. 8,000 V over 4 turns = 2,000 V per turn), each L-1 turn is replicated in every L-2 turn, so more L-2 turns give "a net gain"; flux lines square with each unit of voltage and add along the coil; one gamma equals 10 volts [read: Resonance pp.45, 55, 61-63, 72, 76-79; deep reads]. Smith's other texts give other conversions: 100 V per gamma and, in the same passage, 1.9x10^9 gamma = 1.9x10^8 V (0.1 V per gamma); "one milligauss is equal to 100 volts" (1 V per gamma); and "1 gauss = 100,000 volts" (1 V per gamma) [read: Kelly compilation pp.3-7, 3-8; binder; computed]. The only construction recipe (Builders Guide, pp.76-77) specifies voltage gain only, with no power measurement, and is internally inconsistent in three places (see Corrections below).
  5. Dipole / capacitor-plate collection: capacitor plates at right angles to a resonating dipole's current convert its radiated magnetic flux ("Heaviside current component") into useful electrical energy, with a "one-wire" or "mirror" plate effect where a charged plate charges a distant plate and grounding it yields current [read: Resonance pp.11-19, deep read; Lagace p.2]. The "Heaviside current component" is used three times in the English specification and defined nowhere; no dimension, voltage, frequency or measured output is given for any of the four drawings (rod and coil on iron or plasma tube, aluminium and copper plates with a plastic dielectric, battery and inverter). The Mexican application MX NL02000035 A (15 Nov 2002, applicant Donald Lee Smith, Spring, Texas; an application, later discontinued) restates it with changes: it adds a self-powering statement ("once the invention is started, it can feed itself, by means of a coil connected to the electrical output"), "90 degrees" and coils around the plasma tube, reverses the plate-metal order (copper above aluminium), and drops the name Heaviside and the "fully tested" heading [read: deep read pp.10-19, MX comparison].
  6. Capacitor displacement-current scheme (Lagace's reconstruction of Smith's 1 F / 1 kW claim): a transformer primary placed in a capacitor-to-capacitor discharge path does not feel its secondary load ("no closed current loop"), so a rectified secondary can capture the energy normally lost as heat in a third capacitor. Printed outputs: 10 mJ from 5 mJ (200%) at small scale and 4.75 kW from 500 J per second (950%) at 1 F and 100 V [read: Lagace pp.2, 11-45; deep read]. Lagace's own chapters 3-4 close in the ideal limit (100% recovery of what would be lost, which is not a gain); the over-unity begins in chapters 6-7, where the printed balances do not close: the document's own per-pulse numbers differ by factors of 2, the state after step one already totals 6.25 mJ for a 5 mJ input, no outside energy source is entered with a number, and the initial energy of the small example is misprinted by a factor of 10 (0.5 mJ, not 5 mJ) [read: deep read; computed].

  7. Smith's account of suppression: a Morgan/Edison/Tesla meeting rejected "Free Energy", and the U.S. Patent Office and academia "bastardized" the idea; sending over-unity applications to the Patent Office "metering group" is "direct and absolute evidence" the Office knows over-unity exists. These are Smith's assertions, with a stake as the holder of a pending application (serial 08/100,074; the binder gives 4 February 1992 on pp.56 and 67, but serial prefix 08 was assigned from 1 January 1993 and number 100,074 falls in 1993, so the date or number is unresolved without the file wrapper), and no source for any of the meeting, the routing or the Office's position is given; p.22 says only that "No prior art exist based on the Patent Office response". The only filing located is the Mexican application MX NL02000035 A (15 Nov 2002), an application with status "Application Discontinuation"; Kelly's "granted May 2004" and Perreault's "approved" are not supported by the record found [read: Resonance pp.21-22, 37, 50-51, 56, 67; web per the arbiter and Investigator].

  8. Smith's underlying physical model: electrons exist as "doublets" whose left-hand spin is the "source of volts" and right-hand spin the "source of amperes", separated at a "Bloch wall" in a bar magnet and at the two ends of a Tesla coil (pp.37-38, 41-42); each spun electron yields equal magnetic and electric waves, the electric part being a closed Ohm's-law system and the magnetic part an open, unlimited one (p.25); "Magnetic imbalance causes the gravitational effect" (pp.40, 75), gravity is "frictional drag from inflow current" and a "function of spin" with spinning fields "a functional motor source as in flying saucer's" (pp.24, 29-30); a "weak and strong force" each made of electric, magnetic and gravitational parts (p.70); and deflected magnetic flux "spins / rotates the Earth", with ocean waves on windless days as "visible Proof of the overhead incoming magnetic flux" (p.30) [read: Resonance pp.24-25, 29-30, 37-42, 70, 75; deep reads]. These are stated without calculation or measurement; the Earth-rotation power "may be calculated" from the Earth's mass but the calculation is never given.

Corrections to earlier documents

  • digest/Resonance-Energy-Methods-Don-Smith-e82b7e.01.md, "p.2-p.9: No text extracted (blank text layer; may be image-only pages)" and the closing note "Pages 2-9, 20 have no text layer (blank in text extraction)". Pages 2 and 20 are plain blue divider sheets, but pages 3-9 are colour photographs of Smith's apparatus (coils, high-voltage modules, capacitors, a toroid coil, a plasma globe, test instruments and meters), and the text layer is empty because they are images. They are not blank; evidence: page images rendered at 150 dpi, 2026-10-08. The photographs are recorded in facts.json.
  • Same digest, pp.36, 42 ("heavily garbled"), 60, 64-66 ("page image needed"): resolved by the deep reads (rotated scans: 1997 schematic, Tesla Coil Geometry drawing dated 2 November 1995, Plan A and Plan B schematics, A.R.R.L. chart).
  • Same digest, p.49 ("arithmetic partly garbled"): the deep read shows the last line of example B is left blank in the source, and the stated answer ("greater than 50 Mega K-Joules") is a factor 10^6 below what the printed formula gives.
  • Same digest, p.62: "greater than 141,000" is the printed OCR; the deep read judges it a probable misreading of "1/1,000".
  • Same digest, p.10: the image URL dated 8/17/2003 means the compilation includes material later than the 23 September 2002 cover date on p.1.

Corrections applied in the QE round (2026-10-08)

  • Example B: "four printed numbers" (5x10^8, 5x10^10, 5x10^14, 5x10^16) replace "two versions". Evidence: page images of binder p.49 and magazine p.37 (arbiter correction 2).
  • p.56's "60 million cycles ... one million times" uses the first power of f (mathematician; arbiter correction 3), now in claim 1.
  • Claim 3 now carries the suitcase claim and the Smith-voice commercial and scale claims, the Earth-figure and lightning comparisons, and the unsourced Einstein attribution (arbiter correction 4; QE sections 3A and 5).
  • Claim 6 is qualified: chapters 3-4 close in the ideal limit; the over-unity begins in chapters 6-7 (arbiter correction 6). Lagace's "35 years" is contradicted by the dated record of 1994-2005 (arbiter correction 9).
  • Claim 7: the serial 08/100,074 indicates 1993, not 1992; the Mexican application is added; "granted/approved" is not supported (arbiter corrections 1, 8; Investigator).
  • Claim 8 is new (QE section 3B): Smith's doublet/spin/gravity model, which was in facts.json but not in claims.md.
  • Terfenol-D rod size: the digest's "1-1/8 in by 10 in" was a misreading of garbled OCR ("1%"); the deep read of p.32 gives 1 1/2 in diameter by 10 in long. Corrected in facts.json and here.
  • Table on p.33: headed "Negative Magnetic Permeability" but all entries are positive numbers (heading only). The Einstein "direct quote" (p.34) has no quotation, title or page.
  • The pp.91-94 units appendix is a textbook table bound into Smith's binder (its footnotes read "Not used in this text, see footnote 6, Par. 176"), not Smith's own conversion table; the point that it contradicts "1 gauss = 100,000 volts" belongs under claim 3 (QE section 4).
  • The Builders Guide (pp.76-77) is not a complete, checked recipe: "Chart A" is missing, 998 should read 988, 30 turns are chosen where 26.67 are calculated, and 10 ft of wire fits about 19 turns on a 2-inch form. p.79 shows an iron laminated core in oil, not an air-core coil (deep read, QE).
  • The Mexican application PDF has 15 pages, not 10 (QE correction 1; the Investigator's note and sites.md are theirs to fix).

Corrections applied in the orchestrator fix (2026-10-08, deep reads of the three Investigator files)

  • Claim 3: the "atomic batteries ... Boulder Dam ... contract obligations" passage was described as "in Smith's voice". It is an unsigned paragraph that refers to "Don" in the third person [read: research/files/Resonance-Energy-Methods-119p_djvu.txt lines 9237-9242]. The same compilation reproduces the 1996 suitcase schematic: a 12 V 7 Ah gel cell, a Bertonee NPS-12D8 neon-tube transformer, 8,000 µF at 480 V DC, and an output transformer rated "480 V @ 60 Amps", "28.8 KVA", labelled "Patent Pending 1994". It gives no measured input or output.
  • Claim 1: the 1996 ExtraOrdinary Science article itself prints the first-power formula ("W = .5 X CE X C.P.S.", magazine p.36) beside "cycles per second squared" in its text and CPS² in its examples [read: page image, ES p.6].
  • Claim 4: the gamma-volt conversions differ across Smith's texts (0.1, 1, 10 and 100 V per gamma), added above.
  • Claim 6: the Utkin sentence that attributes a spark-charged capacitor and "displacement current" to Smith reads "is produced" (not "is around"). It is Utkin's caption for a 2006 rendering titled "Don Smith Device" (credited to Zero Point Films), not Smith's words [read: Utkin p.13].
  • Claim 7: the patent-pending dates in the record are 2/4/92 (binder), 1993 (by serial number), "Patent Pending 1994" (suitcase schematic), a "Patent Procedure" note in mid-1996 (magazine p.34), and still pending on 17 January 1997 (binder p.36).
  • Claim 8: the doublet / Bloch-wall / gravity model is printed in the April-June 1996 magazine, the earliest dated print in the files.