Terry Blanton wrote:
I wonder if there was anything special about the carbon?
In previous experiments it was off-the-shelf (or out-of-the-can) coal tar creosote. I think he got it from the same mine as the material used in the 1930s.
By the way, the person who did this experiment back in the 1930s was a Prof. Soejima of Kyushu University. He told someone else about his work, and after he died the second person told Mizuno. Thus, the mine where the creosote comes from is in Kyushu. Whether this makes a difference or not I wouldn't know.
I could describe more about this experiment but I do not know what has been changed since last year, so I should probably wait for the latest paper. It is a remarkably simple procedure, and the newspaper covered it to a large extent. You put creosote and a Pt mesh in the cell. Add H2 gas at high pressure. Raise the temperature above the critical threshold of 660°C and boom, off it goes.
It goes off now, that is. Mizuno was doing it for several years when it did nothing. I do not know what subtle changes he made to make it work. Perhaps he himself does not know.
When this came up last year, a few people were kind enough to review the manuscript, including Ed Storms. Storms pointed out some serious problems with the calorimetry. Mizuno was aware of most of these problems (as was I) but Storms made the case that they were more serious than we realized. On the phone the other day, Mizuno said he has addressed these shortcomings in his latest work, and he once again expressed thanks to Storms.
These were mostly straightforward problems. For example, the cell was too large to allow accurate calorimetry. It wouldn't fit into an ordinary calorimeter. This wasn't Mizuno's fault; he was using equipment that happened to be available. In any case, he has now spent a great deal of money on a new, smaller cell. As I mentioned, it is safer too, so I am glad to hear of it.
He also submitted the paper to a journal. It was rejected. He was upset at first, naturally, but recently he told me: "I thought about it for a long time and I realized that the reviewers were raising good points. They were right: the work needed to be improved. So I improved it." You have to admire his attitude!
Steven Krivit wrote:
Is there an English link for this on the site or did you translate it?
I didn't check for an English link. I just translated it. I added some details in square brackets.
- Jed
