The Hendershot's Fuel-less Generator

Lester Hendershot (1899-1960) was the inventor of the so-called Fuelless Motor (1928). In the 1920's Lester Hendershot was working on a new type of aviation compass. He stumbled across a method of generating energy. His "Hendershot magnetic motor" drew attention of the press and attracted big name investors as Charles Lindberg. He got into political trouble promoting his device and consequently tried to take his business to Mexico. He is reported to have accepted an offer he couldn't refuse being paid never to work on his device again.





This was released by the New York Times in 1928


The New York Times 1928
Feburary 25
page 1 column 2

Colonel Charles Lindbergh ,his capitalist and major Thomas Lanphier , commander of the first pursuit group at selfridge field, michigan, met today with Lester Hendershot, inventor of the fuel-less motor and his business associate d. bar peat.

so begins a week that is lost in history.

Lester Hendershot invented an electric motor that in the words of major Lanphier :" ..is said to employ electromagnetism with the rotary motion of the earth" the motor produced 1800 rpm for 2000- 3000 hours before the central magnet had to be recharged
major Lanphier had two weeks earlier had tested the motor at selfridge fields.although he at first thought it was "bunk" he became convinced after testing the generator(not-motor) himself and contacted lindbergh.
the motor was presently in transit to any for further testing.

New York Times 1928
Feburary 26
pager 1 column 4

Feburary 27
page 19 column 3

Feburary 28
page 19 column 1

at this time in history Charles Linndbergh was probably the most famous american in the world as he had completed the first transatlantic flight to Europe on may 20 1927.

one must keep in mind that air travel was just becoming a world wide force. The imagination of the nation was taken over by the ex world war 1 pilots that took to barn storming in the 20's. Lindbergh was bigger than any rock star today as the nations self image was enhanced through his exploits.

Early on Lindbergh was mentioned in connection with business interest but very quickly put in the background because no one wanted him associated with any particular corporation for fear of bad press. As major lanphier declared " colonel lindbergh had no connection with the groups interested in it(fuel-less motor).there is only Hendershot, Peat, Henry breckenridge and myself(Lanphier).lindbergh means too much to aviation.lindbergh is aviation in america."

From the beginning the capitalist were trying to buy this technology, this led lester hendershot ,on feb26, to deny that any corporations had been formed a this point. As so much speculation surrounded his generator,ranging form the idea it was "stealing" power from radio broadcast stations(soundly refuted as the generator produced constant electricity 24 hours a day,even when there were no stations on the air) to outright fraud. The most perceptive realized it was a generator ,not a motor, but could not explain where it's power supply came from. So Lester explained in his own words:"there is nothing mysterious about the motor,it is the same force that pulls the needle of a compass."

At this time in aviation history a compass was sorely needed before air flight could become common place. compasses do not give true north as the point to the magnetic ploe not to true north. going on" all that exist currently is the magnetic induction compass that indicates north but has to be reset before each flight and is unreliable"

"I found that with a premagnetized core ,i could set up a magnetic field that would indicate the true north".

" in continuing my experiments i learned that by cutting the same lines of magnetic force north and south i had a indicator of true north and that by cutting the the field east and west i could develope a rotary motion."

His associate bar peat further explained,"the secret is in the method of winding a magnet in the motor so that it will rotate in the opposite direction that the sun revolves". Major lanphier had studied the motor for two weeks and had helped build the second larger model.his descriptions are very interesting.

The first model kept a 6 watt light bulb burning for 26 days and powered a sewing machine engine but burned the sewing machine engine out. Quoting hendershot lanpheir adds," it draws the energy off the magnetic energy of the earths poles."


But no more details until the patent work is complete.