William Beaty wrote:
What if Steorn's prototypes ALL STOP WORKING? . . .
And whatever did happen with the CETI/Patterson-cell investors, staff,
management, etc.?
I head different things about the Patterson cell. Gene Mallove told
me that it did, in fact, STOP WORKING when they ran out of the beads
that were manufactured in the 1960s. Patterson told me that wasn't
true, and he could make more beads any time. On the other hand he did
not produce any more working cells as far as I know. What happened to
his staff and management is well known, and tragic. His grandson, Jim
Redding, was running CETI. He dropped dead one day after playing
tennis. I guess it was a heart attack. He was still in his 40s.
Patterson lost heart, and I do not think he pursued the invention
much after that. He was old back then. I do not know if he is still alive.
The Griggs hydrosonic pump (Hydrodynamics, Inc.) had a similar fate.
Griggs' business partners bought him out and eventually forced him to
leave the company. The company is doing quite well selling the pumps,
I think mainly for use in the carpet industry. The pump is ideal for
process heating and wastewater treatment in that industry. There are
many carpet factories in that part of Georgia, and the president of
the company knows a lot about carpet & textile manufacturing. They do
not want to talk about the fact that it sometimes produces excess
heat. That subject has brought them nothing but trouble. They are
nice people and they are happy to discuss the anomalies with me, but
their customers have no interest in anomalies and they do not want to
be associated with them. They have not investigated or tried to
increase the anomalous effect. They have investigated the ultrasound
and cavitation, because it is useful to the carpet makers. As I
recall, the cavitation helps break down chemicals in the water which
they want to get rid of.
Hydrodynamics and others did very careful testing of the heat balance
years ago, and I think there is little doubt that the machine
sometimes produces excess heat, ranging as high as 17% of input as I
recall. In absolute power, the excess is sometimes in the kilowatt
range. It is a shame that no one is investigating this phenomenon,
but that's the way our society works these days. It is a symptom of a
much broader problem. As Martin Fleischmann says, people don't want
innovation; they don't like it, and so they shan't have it.
- Jed
