Edmund Storms wrote: > > On Mar 13, 2009, at 8:36 PM, Stephen A. Lawrence wrote: > >> ARRGH! How can everything in this field be so *vague* !? >> >> If I read the messages from Jed and Dr. Storms correctly, it's not known >> at this time whether P&F used pure palladium, or used a Pd/Ag alloy. >> That doesn't seem like a trivial difference! > > The fact is that F-P used both pure Pd and the Pd-Ag alloy. However,they > did not say and frequently did not know how the Pd they used was made. > They made a deal with Johnson and Matthey to supply the Pd for free and > J-M decided what to send for testing. Apparently, J-M knows what kind > of Pd works best, but attempts to get this information made public have > failed.
It is interesting to note that, if J-M knows what kind works best, then they also know that there are differences which result solely from the choice of palladium, and therefore they also know with dead certainty that cold fusion is for real. If the effect weren't real it wouldn't matter what kind of palladium you used. > Later workers used Pd from various sources and found that some > batches worked better than others, but did not have the resources to > test all of the properties that might be relevant. Later still, the role > of cracking and the role of surface deposits became known. Until > recently, no one had the resources to make tests that could identify the > critical parameters. Therefore, the information simply is not known. We > know now that the Pd needs have a characteristic that allows a high D/Pd > ratio. This is not easy to accomplish although Italian workers have now > mastered the trick. The Pd-Ag alloy cannot achieve such a high ratio > and, therefore, should not work. Peachy. This sounds kind of like the occasional light-water positive CF result which seem to throw monkeywrenches into the works of just about any theory of how it all works, eh? > To further complicate the problem, Pd > electroplated on various substrates is also found to work sometimes for > no apparat reason. The problem is not public documentation but simple > ignorance about what characteristics are required. People are not > hiding this information, they just do not know what is required. > > Ed >> >> >> It's as though Dr. Jekyll not only couldn't get a working batch of the >> reagent that would change him back from being Hyde, but he'd forgotten >> what the compound was that he ordered the one time he got a batch that >> did work. >> >> It does seem like Jed's right -- the level of public documentation here >> is lacking. >> >> It *ought* to be possible to just pull paper number 12321-PF from the >> Lenr-Canr archives and see for sure what was used. But, apparently it's >> not that easy. >> >> >> Jed Rothwell wrote: >>> Edmund Storms wrote: >>> >>>> Thanks for this detail Jed, but no where do I see mentioned that this >>>> material is a Pd-Ag alloy. >>> >>> That is my recollection of what he told me. >>> >>> This document says "Fleischmann reported success with pure palladium, as >>> well as silver and cerium alloys." >>> >>> As I recall he said "Type A" is the silver alloy used in filters. We >>> could ask J-M if they ever used pure Pd in filters. I doubt they did. >>> >>> My guess is that the modern reformulated filter palladium would work >>> just as well as the old stuff. My guess is that the reason it works is >>> prosaic: it loads to high levels easily and it does not crack. Those are >>> well known necessary characteristics to achieve cold fusion. Why they >>> are necessary I do not know, but they are. >>> >>> >>> I see that I managed to misspell his name in this document. Good grief! >>> >>> - Jed >>> >> >
