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[Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com>]

Here's a promising avenue for increasng the efficiency of electric 
motors (whose efficiency is limited by coil heating):

http://engineering.dartmouth.edu/microeng/courses/es65/images/henning6.gif

Electrolysis has become more interesting once I realized that you can 
produce more useful stuff at the same time.  The oxygen that's also 
liberated hasn't much use for us, unless we wanted to have a yuppie 
oxygen bar.  As I understand it, if the electolyte is stirred at the 
anode, the oxygen ions remain, producing hydrogen peroxide (with plain 
water), or potassium bleach (with potassium chloride added), or chlorate 
for firepaper and gopher gassers (if the reaction is prolonged).  The 
latter compounds are things I find useful (potassium hypochlorite is for 
keeping pools fresh without toxifying the water for plants) but cannot 
get at a reasonable price.

Bill
S. Oregon coast