The Fleischmann/ Pons announcement of cold fusion was on March 23, 1989. Ostensibly this date was forced on them by concerns about the competing work from Steven Jones at BYU, but here is a detail that I have never seen mentioned before.
Curiously, on March 31, 1989 - 8 days after the Utah announcement, the following patent was actually filed by Gupta and Jacobs, and it was soon GRANTED ! I do not think that there is any way G&J could have based their idea on the P&F announcement, since it normally takes months to draft a decent patent filing and several days to get it to USPTO by mail. "Process and apparatus for generating high density hydrogen in a matrix" US 4986887 Read the abstract closely since it nails everything, but without the claim of excess heat which would have kept them from getting the patent approved (as we now understand why everyone else's application was denied). ABSTRACT A process is described wherein hydrogen and its isotopes are dissolved in palladium metal in high density by utilizing electrochemical methods in an electrolytic cell. The cell has an inert anode and a palladium containing cathode, both being immersed in an electrolyte which contains a lithium salt dissolved in an aprotic solvent, and a small amount of water. The dissolved hydrogen to palladium ratio in the palladium bearing cathode, which may be achieved by this process, is in excess of 0.95. END of abstract. Another amazing thing about this invention, historically, is that the cold fusion patent filing from Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann did not happen until one year later in 1990. And P&F failed to mention the Gupta filing - despite the similarity - and it clearly preceded their own filing. Back then, it was "first to invent" instead of "first to file" so there could have been lawsuits if it ever got that far. Since Gupta was actually a granted patent, and one of the few relevant to LENR - it most likely would have kept anyone else from legally profiting from cold fusion without first getting a license to use their general claim for palladium and lithium electrolysis . even if there had been copious replications.
