Jones Beene wrote:
Then that is the difference between them and the Farnsworth claim of
ignition - which did NOT happen, and which even his close associates
have admitted - Farnsworth falsified evidence for.
They did not "admit" that. Some of them accused him, others did not.
From Richard Hull's description:
"As to Farnsworth's claims...... Two people on the team were actually
present when Farnsworth was taking notes on several different
occassions. Both claimed to see him enter numbers that were just not
supported by the data that they were physically reporting to
Farnsworth at that very moment in time!!! One even mentioned it to
him and said Farnsworth just smiled, closed the note book, picked it
up and left the room."
That's a serious accusation but I would not say it is proved by this
one account. People accuse Mizuno and other cold fusion scientists of
all kinds of bad behavior. Should we automatically believe the two
team members?
Hull's description continues:
"I asked several of the members of the team why on earth Phil might
make up numbers. The most kind and generous said that Phil might have
to do that in the notebooks to keep funding, make the Admiral happy, etc. . . .
Were they speculating about why he might hypothetically change
numbers, or did they know for a fact that he did?
". . . Again, these general comments along with a lot of eyes rolling
around in the head and broad smiles, gave me the impression that even
with notebooks in hand, some of the data couldn't be trusted. All the
while and to the man, every one on the team adored Phil and thought
him the finest of people to be associated with."
This is highly inconsistent. These people think Farnsworth was "the
finest of people" and yet they accuse him of cheating. Which is it?!?
I cannot imagine hero-worshipping someone I had caught fudging the
data. Perhaps this account is accurate, or perhaps the story is
distorted, memories are corrupted, there is more to it than we
realize, or some important detail has been left out or lost.
As I said, Hull says that parts of this story are "hard to explain
away." Even if Farnsworth was a lying scoundrel, these parts remain
"hard to explain away"
Some of the cold fusion scientists I have known are less than heroic,
and less than forthcoming about their work. Some of the over-unity
inventors I have come in contact with have ranged from squirelly to
out-and-out crazy. They often plagiarize one-another. I know for a
fact that some of them have boldly lied to me about their own
backgrounds and the origin of their inventions. Obviously that calls
into question their claims! But just because the author is a weird
person, and just because he lies about his own academic background
(for example), that does not mean we should not automatically dismiss
the claim. When there is independent, objective evidence supporting
the claims -- such as black dosimeters -- we should leave the door open.
- Jed
