ELECTRICAL LUBRICATION

The positive charge of mineral ions in soil moisture allows movement of soil water with low voltages and current. For example, a 1924 experiment with a miniature plow connected to a pulley and weights showed that a 4-volt battery could reduce the weight required to pull the plow through soil by a factor of more than ten-fold. Reversal of polarity increased the normal weight required by more than two-fold.

More recently, on a practical scale, it was demonstrated that pile drivers required one third as many blows to drive piles through soil with appropriately connected electrodes, and energy requirements for real plows on tractors were similarly reduced by up to 40%.

Water is attracted to the implement by the applied voltage. This water then lubricates the steel and facilitates its passage through soil. A similar phenomenon allows rock drills to penetrate rock at double the ordinary speed by application of 5 to 10 volts and less than 1 ampere.

Electrodes can also move water which contains fertilizer into tubes in the soil. Some experimenters are investigating the possibility that nitrate fertilizers might be concentrated near plant roots and then extracted from the field for reuse by means of electroosmosis attachments to drip irrigation systems.