At 03:52 PM 3/24/2010, Peter Gluck wrote:
If I understand you correctly, you are performing experimental work
and your ideas are based on this. Like exploring parameter space.
Can you be so kind to tell here or on my personal address, in
complete confidentiality what are the peak results as excess heat
and reproducibility you have obtained? Thank you in advance!
I've been very open about what I've done and not done, and my results
will be openly presented as soon as they are available. I have not
run cells yet, and I'm not studying excess heat, having decided that
this is not compatible with my goals, which I'll explain.
I came across the resurgence of research in cold fusion as an editor
of Wikipedia in January of last year. I had followed the work in
1989-1990, even buying $10,000 worth of palladium as an investment on
the speculation that it might turn out to be commercially useful.
Don't worry, I didn't buy futures, I could have lost my shirt! I just
put $10,000 into a palladium metal account at Credit Suisse.
Basically broke even, unless you count the lost interest as a loss.
I had concluded, with nearly everyone else, that it was a bust,
experimental error, a mistake. However, last January, I saw, on
Wikipedia, an instance of administrative abuse, the web site
lenr-canr.org was blacklisted without adequate reason. As I looked at
the article, I started to read the sources, and I do have adequate
education to understand most of what I read.
I read enough sources to change my mind. And when I tried to bring
the Wikipedia article into compliance with Wikipedia neutrality
policy, and to make a long story short, I was banned from discussing
that topic. But at the same time, a business idea had occurred to me,
that could not only assist in shifting public perception of cold
fusion, but that might also make a little money. Not a lot of money,
but enough, I hope, to recover my investment in time and money.
The idea was to design kits to reproduce solid cold fusion
experiments, cheaply, so cheaply and so reliably that these could be
sold even to high school students for science fair projects. There
is, I'm sure, a market. It also turns out that the same conditions
(cheap, reliable) would make these kits valuable, as well, to a
subclass of researchers in the field.
I have assembled all the materials, and what is holding me back is
only my own distraction, I'm running a textile business and have
other interests as well. I've designed the experiment, and have
discussed it widely. It is basically a Galileo project replication, I
didn't want to try something truly wild and untested. In case you
don't know, the Galileo protocol, copied by a number of workers,
including amateurs, in 2007, was designed by Pam Boss of SPAWAR, and
the goal was to look for radiation, measurement of heat was not a
part of the protocol.
I began with actual testing by looking at CR-39. For the moment, that
was a blind alley for me, I won't explain why here, but I'm going to
be using LR-115 SSNTDs instead. I expect that I will later move to
CR-39. So far, the only actual experiments I have done have been with
commercial makrolon CR-39, and I essentially found that the material
I first tried was not usable at all, and all that will be documented,
I don't want people to repeat my errors. I don't expect any problems
with LR-115, it's very commonly used for radon measurements, and I
have fresh material. (But I'll test it anyway, soon.)
I chose the Galileo protocol because it was much better documented
(by Steve Krivit) than any other protocol, down to photographs of
assembly and other details. It is codeposition, which has a
reputation of being reliable, with results sooner than with solid
cathode approaches (Fleischmann cells).
I will not be doing an exact replication, however, and I'm aware of
the risks, and if I don't see results at first, I will assume that
some variation is possibly behind that. However, what I'm varying
shouldn't affect the results, that's why I'm risking it, and there
are improvements that I gain because of these changes.
1. Cathode wire will be gold, 0.010 inch diameter. Galileo was
silver. Gold is chosen because later SPAWAR work showed much more
neutron evidence with a gold cathode. I'd say that nobody knows why.
But it's neutrons I'll be looking for.
2. The wire will be shortened from the Galileo length. The amount of
palladium chloride in the electrolyte will be proportionally
lessened, and the current will be proportionally lessened, so that
current density remains the same as Galileo. In theory, this should
leave local wire conditions exactly the same, simply reducing the
active surface area. As a result, deuterium oxide consumption should
be proportionally reduced as well. The single most expensive item in
one of these cells is the heavy water, I'm using 99.9% D2O. 25 grams
in a cell. That's a little less than what Galileo used as a starting
quantity, but I want to avoid refilling. I expect to leave the
concentration of lithium chloride the same, so that I have the same
conductivity.
3. The cathode wire will be stretched across an opening in the
polyethylene cathode support. It will be directly against the plastic
(acrylic) cell wall. I'm not windowing the cell, though I could. It
would add complexity. I might do this later, I have the materials and
I even have some cells that were made for the Galileo project with
windows cut in them. But I don't think it's needed. The anode will be platinum.
4. A radiation detector (1x2 cm piece of LR-115) will be placed
against the cell wall on the outside, about half covering the wire,
so that I can see the other half through the cell wall. If neutrons
are generated at the cathode, I expect to see knock-on proton tracks
on the detector, similar to what SPAWAR finds on the back side of wet
configuration detectors, and about the same distance away from the
cathode. I may see a few triple-tracks. I will have a control
detector opposite the anode. I expect far fewer tracks on that.
5. A control cell that is identical, except that light water will be
substituted for heavy water, will be operated, electrically in series
with the experimental cell, so that the current profile for each is identical.
6. The current profile will follow Galileo/SPAWAR, except for
reduction as described above.
7. Then, additional instrumentation: Three thermocouples will monitor
cell temperature in each cells, and ambient temperature. The
experimental cell will be mounted on a modified stage of a Celestron
microscope, laid on its back, so that the cathode can be directly
observed under high magnification and photographed or video recorded.
Current is controlled by the protocol through current regulators,
though I may record it. Cell voltage will be monitored for each cell.
Piezoelectric detectors will be mounted to each cell, and will be
monitored by a Rigol digital storage oscilloscope (2 ch, 50 MHz,
1GS/s). Other than from the piezo detectors, all electrical signals
will be collected and transmitted to a computer for storage by a
LabJack USB interface.
8. I could put together ready-to-use kits, including radiation
detectors, ready to go with minimal prep, (like open the vial of
electrolyte and pour it in, and stick the radiation detectors on the
sides), and sell them at an adequate profit for $100, quantity one.
Power supply would not be included for that price, nor any monitoring
equipment. I suppose that I could toss in some NaOH if people really
want to develop their own detectors, or I expect someone will offer a
developing service. A light water control cell will be substantially less.
All the materials are available for sale now, though nobody has
bought anything. http://lomaxdesign.com/coldfusion
Kits will not be sold until there has been at least one successful
replication, and even then will be sold with disclaimers (and full
disclosure of the experimental record so far). All those who try this
experiment or similar, whether materials were obtained through me or
not, are encouraged to communicate with the community of those doing
so on the mailing list set up for this project at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/coldfusionproject/?yguid=40611328
Discussion here on Vortex is also most welcome. Competition? I'd be
delerious! Just be nice, okay?
