Actually, these ideas are not so much theory as they are behavioral models. While it is true that our understanding of what electricity "is" is hazy at best our understanding of what electricity "does" is extensive. This understanding permits us to design all manner of devices that perform useful tasks. As a physicist I have come to accept that knowledge of what something "is" is more of a metaphysical question than a scientific one. Our knowledge of reality is entirely based on our ability to observe what things do and we can only surmise what these things actually are. It's like a box that contains an unknown mechanism. We can observe what the box does and come to understand how that mechanism behaves however, if we cannot open the box the "true" mechanism will forever remain unknown.

I like the Gulch. I'm always learning something. Thanks.

Tesla's work at Wardenclyffe was to provide wireless power... maybe that and Tesla's work in Colorado Springs were the inspiration for Galt's motor.

Science fiction often stimulates science fact. Jules Vern's "Nautilus" comes to mind as do many of the technologies in "Startrek". John Galt's "motor" is no exception. So from her book and from the movies what do we know about it and do the descriptions provide any insight to real science?
While it is not mentioned in the book In the movie AS1 reference is made to the Casimir Effect. This is a real phenomena that has been demonstrated in the laboratory. Both the book and the movie mention "atmospheric electricity" and in AS2, and in the book, the motor is described as being cold when it operates. So do these characteristics suggest any "real" scientific principals? The surprising answer is yes. However, they suggest three very different mechanisms.
The Casimir effect suggests the presence of zero point or vacuum energy and is consistent with the standard model of quantum mechanics.
Getting cold while producing usable energy suggests a functioning version of "Maxwell's Demon" which extracts energy from vibrating molecules in any substance that is above absolute zero in temperature and cools the substance in the process. And atmospheric electricity relates to static electricity which is very real as anyone that has ever seen a lightning bolt can attest.

So, from these observations can we conclude that something like Galt's motor can move from fiction into the real world? I think the answer is yes.

The properties ascribed to the motor if successfully combined into a single technology could produce the vast and free energy described by Rand. In other words, a motor loosely based on these ideas is quite possible.

Sure. It was just an early version of Tony Stark's Arc Reactor.

We're bathed in EM forces every moment, from the sun, stars, Earth, and all their interactions. So, there were radio waves during the Jurassic; they just weren't organized. The frequencies don't appear out of nothing; they're always there. We've just managed to organize some of them to make them useful.

We control our machines with milliwatt-sized signals, but it requires kilowatts of power to move them at high rates of speed.

That's capturing microVolts.
Any radio transmitter broadcast thousands of watts into the air, but by the time that signals gets to your radio, it's very very small.

RFID works on this principal.

I think it was mentioned that Galts motor worked by differential atmospheric electrostatic pressure. I couldn't find the reference.

I believe it was somehow absorbing static flow and converting it to energy(?)

But of course, in the Gulch, you wouldn't have to worry about regulations of that kind.

Wow! Converting radio waves into electricity!
Old dino never imagined.
That would not have worked during the Jurassic.

Actually Electricity isn't "stored" and there is still some debate as to whether static Electricity and Induced electricity are really the same type of power. An actual way to "store" electricity would be a phenomenal advancement.
As is known at the moment: Electricity can be produced in three ways: Induction - in other words by moving a conductor through magnetic field. Chemical - batteries, and in some cases Electricity can be used to reverse the chemical reactions allowing the original chemicals to be restored. Hall Effect - By applying heat or vibration to a Hall Effect element electricity may be produced, although it is not known exactly how this happens.

These are the known ways to produce Electricity at present. There is far more that is not known about how it is produced, exactly what it is, and what its actual source or origin is, then is known.

When I fleshed out the character description of John Galt on Conservapedia, naturally I discussed the feasibility of his projects. And I started with the electrostatic motor. Here is the direct link:

http://www.conservapedia.com/John_Galt#T...

Nikola Tesla's laboratory was destroyed by fire at about the time of the Spanish American War. Just imagine what he might have accomplished had that fire never started.

Whats stopping you now?

if I pay attention to the spell checker, it's to teach it
how to spell. . the damned things are annoying. -- j
.

Don't have any idea of how 'antenna' replaced anyone. Spell check can't be that bad, can it?

Zen, one of the big changes came with the advent
of transistors, then ICs ... low-power, compared with
previous technology. . now, if we could figure out
how to live our lives on milliwatts instead of kilowatts,
we could use a long-wire antenna and grin!!! -- j
.

I don't really think antenna's really totally figured him out yet.

I expect the latter -- and still marvel at the way his mind worked. -- j
.

No, we don't know how it allegedly worked, but the concept seems to have originated with some of Tesla's later work. Tesla's ideas were apparently based on being able to 'tune' into naturally occurring potential differences in the atmosphere. No one's been able to substantiate any of that experimentally at any kind of useful energy level. Many think that Tesla went a little off his beam in his later years, though his work on the AC motor was genius, as we all can attest to, today or for the last century or so.

Who knows if he was 'a quarter bubble off' or a misunderstood genius.

I have been supposing simply that the static electricity
potential in the atmosphere could be captured, rather
than trying to capture the potential between cosmic
particles doing a dance. . and storing the energy
is its own challenge -- batteries are being developed
which are much better than those in the past. -- j
.

This would be where the energy would come from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_ene...
Another, although possibly more expensive possibility: http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/Education/...

First: Most of what we know about electricity is just theory. Michael Faraday and others discovered that you could move a conductor around a magnetic field and a current of what we call electricity would be produced. However, Electricity is the name we give to the effect of what we observe. The theories were developed in the 1800's.

Electricity itself is defined as the "flow of Electrons". Again, this is a theory. There is evidence for the existence of electrons, but not that "flowing electrons" are actually the source of energy that we observe. In fact evidence proves that "flowing electrons" either cannot be the source, or Einstein was wrong.

My point is: No one knows what electricity is, where it comes from, or where it goes when it returns through ground. When I took Electrical Engineering the first thing I learned about all of the formulas that described how Electricity works, is that they were derived from observation, and many of them had "standards" (the scientific turn for fudge factor), or they would get you "close" (as one of my old teachers used to put it).

A very many things about electricity and magnetism to not "add up" with the theories. For instance: why is it that you can "magnetize" a piece of iron bar , which theory dictates is the alignment of the magnetic poles of the individual atoms in the bar; without liquifying it? Or that various crystals that are supposedly aligned already do not exhibit magnetism.

My point is that, sure the Motor in AS was a bit of fiction; or is it? Most of the truly great accomplishments were made by someone with an open, active, educated mind. Only a few of them had degrees, contrary to belief.