Did this message show up here? I'm using a strange new e-mail system, Mozilla Thunderbird, which does not show that it came through. Yet someone responded.
Anyway, Dennis send me some corrections: 1. As I suspected I confused two different experiments. He explained, "The device that is good to a few mW will not the same as the device for the standalone. You are confusing my scientific Seebeck used to investigate samples with a separate engineering attempt." The small device can measure ~3 mW. He says "it looks at small samples sandwiched in a block between two Peltiers and allows for dynamic thermal fluxing." The bigger one is a spherical "Seebeck polyhedron" calorimeter, which "will be designed as a completely standalone device that is self powered and 'unplugged' from the environment." The latter is what I refer to as a demonstration. 2. However, he says it is not a demonstration, but rather: "It is to supply data for a way to place the technology into public domain so that it could not be blocked in the future." I find that a little mystifying because this can easily be done without performing an experiment. You need only publish the data. There is a method of putting things in the public domain by sending the design to the patent office without intending to patent it. I do not recall the details. 3. It will not be used to light an LED, but to drive a watch. 4. "It is ludicrous to say a battery could somehow be secreted inside since all wires are external and it could always be x-rayed." I think it would be difficult and involved to have the thing x-rayed. The device would have to be transported elsewhere to an x-ray machine, and it might not work when it gets there. A skeptic might accuse you of tampering with it. 5. "A battery could not uphold a temperature differential for extended times." The problem with this is that an observer may not have a good method to determine whether the temperature difference is real or artifact of the instruments. Unless you can sense the temperature difference palpably or with a thermometer, there does not appear to be direct evidence. It is still unclear to me whether this device can include electronics temperature sensing devices or mercury thermometers. It does not seem like it from the photo. 6. Cravens does not use a HVAC for the constant temperature room. I presume this means he uses heating and ventilation (HV) but not air conditioning (AC). 7. The Seebeck polyhedron will not envelop the cell -- it is the cell. - Jed
