Michel Jullian wrote:
Thanks for the rich historical details, but am I correct in
understanding that nothing positive _actually came out_ of it . . .
That is incorrect. See the paper I referenced earlier:
http://lenr-canr.org/acrobat/RouletteTresultsofi.pdf
74 watts continuously for 40 to 150 days is positive, and it actually
came out of this project. These results are not widely known and they
have had no effect on society, but that is a political problem, not
scientific. By the same token, the National Cold Fusion Institute
established by the state of Utah proved beyond doubt that cold fusion
is a nuclear process and that it produces tritium. All debate should
have ended when the Institute published its results. See, for example:
http://lenr-canr.org/acrobat/WillFGtritiumgen.pdf
No one pays attention to these results, but that has no bearing on
the quality or fundamental importance of them.
. . . in spite of various hints and possibilities of a different outcome?
The paper by Roulette et al. is not a hint or possibility. It is proven fact.
Although I agree to a large extent that scientific establishment
inertia is a problem, it seems to me that the story you related
below contains an amazing lot of lame looking excuses and conspiracy
theory looking stuff.
There is no conspiracy involved, no cover-up, and no mystery. The
people who attacked this research and canceled the program did so
openly and boldly, and they told Fleischmann, me, and many other
people their reasons. The fellow who published the final report in
Japanese claiming that Melvin Miles had no excess heat published that
statement in an official government report. Albeit only in Japanese,
and he was not thrilled when I translated it into English and gave
Mel a copy. Apparently he does not have guts to lie to Mel in
English, but it was still a bold lie, as were the lies published by
MIT and the DoE. See, for example:
http://lenr-canr.org/acrobat/LENRCANRthedoelies.pdf
These people are not subtle.
Call me a pathological skeptic if you wish, but I find it hard to
believe that the people who worked in that lab have decided to take
their secrets to the grave . . .
What are you talking about? The results are published at
LENR-CANR.org. No one took any secrets to the grave. Of course there
are many details that I would love to have, and I would love to have
some of those Johnson Matthey cathodes, but they are unavailable for
three reasons:
1. Johnson Matthey and Toyota never came to an agreement on sharing
information and eventually they had a huge falling out. That is one
of the reasons the program came to an abrupt halt. All of the
material analysis was done by Johnson Matthey and not one word of it
has been leaked as far as I know. The precious metals industry is
famous for keeping secrets.
2. The people who know the details at Toyota are middle-class
researchers. They were told that if they revealed anything more than
was published, and violated their employment secrecy agreements, they
would be sued and they would never work as scientists again anywhere
in the world. They were told this emphatically by people described to
me as "corporate goons" from one of the world's largest, most
powerful and ruthless companies.
3. Martin Fleischmann had a good deal of detailed information in his
house in France, which the company originally agreed he could keep.
It was on paper, not in a computer. Apparently, the company changed
its mind and decided he could not keep it after all, because someone
broke into the house and stole all every scrap of paper. This was no
ordinary thief, since he left cash and valuables, and took only
experimental data.
Consider this: When the program was underway, a top official at the
APS attacked the Toyota program as Branch Davidian lunacy (Francis
Slakey, New Scientist, September 1993). Other distinguished
scientists and leading journalists in the U.S. and Europe asserted
again and again that Pons and Fleischmann were criminals, or insane,
or that cold fusion had never been replicated. During this time, the
Navy had ordered all of its researchers not to discuss cold fusion
attend any conferences or publish any of their results, and it
ordered its most distinguished electrochemist to work in a menial job
in the stock room. All this history is well know, and not disputed by
anyone. Given that the US establishment is run by such ignorant
jerks, why do you doubt that similar people were in control in Japan
back then? They were, and they still are. They are trying to crush
Mizuno, Mitsubishi and the other holdouts who are still trying to do
cold fusion research. They probably will succeed.
. . . considering the importance of the stuff.
The people who suppress cold fusion do not consider it important.
They think it is fraudulent, and they are certain that all cold
fusion researchers are charlatans trying to steal from the public and
blacken the reputation of science.
Any possibility that what they told you could be hogwash designed
only to try and save their reputation?
Do you really think that people devoted 10 to 18 years of their lives
to this, and published dozens of papers, but they were kidding the
whole time? Why would someone like Fleischmann or Mizuno tell me
these things? Their reputations are already in tatters. Things could
not get any worse for them. I doubt there are any scientists in
modern history whose reputations have been more savagely attacked.
What more can the Washington Post, Nature or Time magazine do to
them? (I shouldn't ask -- they will think of some fresh outrage.)
- Jed
