At 07:42 AM 4/23/2010, Terry Blanton wrote:
On Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 8:12 PM, Jed Rothwell <[email protected]> wrote:
[...]
> Warm Regards,
> Andrea Rossi
He doesn't take criticism well, does he?
Well, he was polite, but obtuse. That doesn't prove he's wrong, but
it sure is not a good sign.
With cold fusion in general, startup energy (minus residual energy)
and chemical sources of energy must always be considered, and no
skeptic should ever be "embarrassed" for raising the questions,
alternate hypotheses, just as no experimental scientist should ever
be embarrassed for honestly reporting their results. If there are
errors, that goes with real work, mistakes are made.
Rossi's comment that the device has been working for years is very
strange. He doesn't mean, apparently, that it has actually been
"working," i.e., continuously generating heat, but that it "works,"
every time. Cool. (Or Hot!) But what's it doing when it works?
I'll say that I'm skeptical of the criticism as well as of the Rossi
effect. But I'd need to know more to say something that might
actually be cogent about it. Nevertheless, when has the prospect of
sticking my foot in my mouth stopped me?
Rossi has been claiming continuous production of energy from nickel
hydride for many years, but that was with solid nickel rods. The more
recent claims are apparently for powdered nickel, and appear to show
short-period production of heat. It would not be terribly surprising,
if the earlier claims, which were much better documented, it seems,
were solid. But it's entirely possible that the earlier claims were
correct, i.e., that there is, indeed, under the right conditions,
excess heat in the nickel hydride system, but also that this
particular recent claim is artifact; that's why the criticisms about
startup energy must be faced. With the earlier work, indeed, with
many months of continuous operation, startup energy could be
neglected. But for short-term production of heat, startup energy is
crucial to understand.
