ABSTRACT
Our emphasis till this point has been on rotational EM machines, since the vast majority of existing EM conversion devices utilize this geometry. From one perspective, this is somewhat curious, since many, if not most, applications require translational motion as the end product. One of humankind’s most elegant and useful inventions is the wheel, which fundamentally is a device that converts rotational to translational motion, or vice versa. The most obvious example is the automobile whose desired motion is translational, but is powered by an internal combustion engine, which is a rotational machine. Our premier application, the elevator, ultimately requires translational motion. It occurs to us that if a given application requires translational motion, force, and power, why not design a device that converts EM energy directly into this form? This would eliminate the need for gears, drums, and wheels, and the like.
