2010.03.24
Hi Abd, here's my two or three bits for your cells:
1. Cooperate closely with Melvin H Miles to replicate small, cheap
replications of his protocol -- I respected his quality in the ACS panel
video.
2. Fractal nanostructures mean that, as in the Mandelbulb 3D version of the
2D Mandelbrot set, the "surface" and the "volume" are the same, especially
near the "surface" -- so nanobubbles or fractal films of D2 and O2 could
evolve in proximity in great numbers, not reacting until a critical density,
local temperature, or catalytic impurity centers evolve, in which case
explosive waves of recombination could create hot spots leading to complex
metal foams -- which could be additional heat sources, be a result of LENR,
disrupt LENR, or initiate LENR, in micro and nano regions.
3. Put your cells live online realtime with video and measurements, along
with your lab blog and an uncensored, civil, public discussion forum.
4. Charge $ 200/kit -- put up a public ledger of all income and costs, so
the evolving collaborative network starts to function with a sense of shared
ownership.
5. I imagined that plastic cell walls might be releasing surprisingly
complex molecules in large enough numbers to coat the fractal reaction
surfaces and any evolving D2 and O2 microbubbles, preventing them from
recombining until a higher critical density is reached -- or interfering
with the diffusion of
D2 and O2 into Au and Pd surfaces and the release of any produced H24, which
could radically poison and limit LENR -- so set up control cells of glass
with H2 and D2. Glass can be drilled with cheap ultrasonic tools.
6. Microacoustic sensors may offer important additional channels of
information, capable of generating data about temporal and spatial locations
of LENR events.
7. Some control cells should have tiny stirrers to see how thorough mixing
affects things -- even a spinning glass ball on a fiber could suffice.
8. I, too, want LENR to rapidly, radically benefit our world.
with hope, Rich Murray
----- Original Message -----
From: "Abd ul-Rahman Lomax" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>; <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 5:27 PM
Subject: Re: [Vo]:Miles' "new recipe" for codeposition
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?
