Hi Bob,
I think we have had this discussion before. The tube seen in your picture from the Penon report is SiC - not stainless. There were a number of mislabeled pictures in the Penon report - which was never authorized to be released. For one thing the black color is the important clue to the type of tube. There would be absolutely no reason to paint a stainless tube black since it is internal and must maintain tolerance, which paint would ruin. The color is uniform with sharp edges and clearly not painted. There was even a description in Rossi's JoNP site about how he and Focardi came to use this silicon carbide tube, based on a visit to one of the Labs run by the Italian government. Not sure, but that page may still be there. From: Bob Higgins I believe you have a misconception about what the hotCat is. In the hotCat, both the metal hydride and Rossi's magic nickel powder are encased entirely in stainless steel. I am near 100% certain he does this by using 2 concentric stainless tubes machined with an interior space for his ingredients. Then ends of the stainless steel tubing are then cold welded together and the result looks like just a stainless pipe that is empty. When he added the "Mouse", he then put something (probably his original eCat recipe) inside the composite pipe and he stoppered the ends closed. This can be clearly seen in the Penon report. I have diagrams of this, and I have put them in my public folder on my Google drive at: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B5Pc25a4cOM2ZjRKUmZUZlRXNzA <https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B5Pc25a4cOM2ZjRKUmZUZlRXNzA&usp=sha ring> &usp=sharing Nowhere in this does the active LENR powder components get exposed to SiC. The ceramic coil form wrapped around the stainless pipe is just a resistor coil form like any wire-wound resistor you buy off the shelf. These outer things are only resistive heaters that are outside the stainless pipe. Speculation about SiC being involved would need separate evidence from what is inside the stainless assembly, because any SiC potentially in the resistive heaters does not participate in the LENR reaction as anything but a resistive heater. Bob
