[Applied Science] has a new demo of an old 1970s patent for a portable generator that is both interesting and terrifying. The generator uses sodium and water, which, if you …. Power It With Sodium (But Please Don’t).
The generator uses sodium and water, which, if you remember your old chemistry classes, will combust spontaneously. Turns out, though, it won’t if you draw power from it fast enough. Of course, lithium-ion batteries might catch fire, too, but this looks a lot more likely.
The patent made some wild claims about how much you could draw from the device, but the video shows that practical results are somewhat less. Mechanically, a spinning metal disk has a sodium electrode extremely close to it. Water flows through the tiny gap, and electricity will flow between the two electrodes.
This seems to be the only practical device built on this principle that is available to the public.
