Thank you, Jones. That's an interesting account. It's always frustrating when replications are attempted only half-heartedly and without attention to detail or followup. Have you considered writing up a protocol for the pitchblend experiment?
Eric On Fri, Mar 30, 2018 at 8:59 PM, JonesBeene <[email protected]> wrote: > > > *From: *Eric Walker <[email protected]> > > > > I'm curious whether any of those replications have been outside of the > LENR field. > > > > Eric > > > > Several years ago, not long after the P&F announcement - this was a hot > topic on various forums. I participated in one replication attempt, since > at the time I had a working Tesla coil (Ouidin coil) setup which was an > ideal vehicle to demonstrate the effect as it is more of a bipolar > resonator giving a large swing in alternating HV potential across a sample. > > > > We were able to show two orders of magnitude increase in the rate at which > pitchblende decayed … but that rate gain attenuated after several days. > This generated some interest at Cal (Berkeley). > > > > The PhDs who ostensibly tried a replication experiment of the Barker > patent (for unknown reasons) proceeded with a setup which was completely > inadequate and (as expected) showed a null result. This null result > squelched any further interest in our funders. > > > > Sadly the geniuses at Cal missed two important details – which are that > the effect works best (or only) on minerals (especially oxides of U and Th) > and almost never works on a pure metal isotope like Californium IIRC and > second that the electric field must be arranged to have an extreme > variation - such that the sample sees alternating voltage polarity over its > surface and not a purely static field. As I recall, the details are > explained in the patent. Researchers often hate to work with minerals since > there is so much variability in composition... but still… > > > > An effect which is stated not to work with metals is doomed from the start > - if you use a metal. Anyway – everyone seemed to move to LENR after this > and it was mostly forgotten. > > > > The main reason that even a large increase in the decay rate of a mineral > like pitchblende cannot be easily commercialized is that even at a factor > of 100 improvement, the half-life may drop from several billion years to > several tens of million years, but still far from breakeven, considering > the power put into the HV input. Even so, it is probably something that > should have been continued. > > > > I see the assignee is Altran Corporation which may still have an interest > but it may not be the well-known Altran. > > > > Jones > > > > >
