I don't think skeptics will be convinced until someone stumbles upon a simpler experiment that unarguably demonstrates an obvious difference (burn your fingers scale) between input and output power. I am convinced that trying to increase the output power is the wrong way to go because this anomaly may depend heavily on a small thermal window / sweet spot where the gas is already near disassociation -trying to increase the effect could push the majority of the population into atomic form and either reduce the effect or make it runaway. I would bring the test up to temp then slowly vary my other controls (circulation, gas mix, ect) while reducing the heating control to keep temp constant for any gains from changes in circulation, mix or other variables. The goal to demonstrate a hot - non combusting- plasma maintained with little or no heating -I would want to circulate same hydrogen so skeptics cannot claim some micro combustion and a careful account of the pumping - I suspect the effect needs to be bootstrapped with a heater but then can be maintained by increasing circulation through a "kindling" of bulk nano powders like blowing on embers to start a fire. If the material is too active like Rayney Nickel it will burn itself out in a quick thermal spike like the Rowan confirmation while less active materials like the Arata Pd powders might be accelerated from their normal slow "life after death" into a more timely demonstration of excess heat. Fran From: Jed Rothwell [mailto:jedrothw...@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 2010 8:56 PM To: Nick Palmer Cc: vortex-l@eskimo.com Subject: Re: EXTERNAL: [Vo]:My critique of an experiment posed by Dennis Cravens
Nick Palmer <ni...@wynterwood.co.uk<mailto:ni...@wynterwood.co.uk>> wrote: The LED will not be convincing. How about just training an IR camera on it and putting the image on the web? A slow stream of air passing the cell would warm up and clearly show on the image. Why not simply install thermocouples and a thermometer in the cell, and in the nearby ambient air? That is simple, direct and foolproof. With 4 W it will produce a definitive result. If it were a fraction of 1 W this would not work. In an ordinary room this would be somewhat problematic and inaccurate because of fluctuations in air temperature and currents of air, but this room is reportedly temperature-stable. I would also insulate the cell well except for one copper pipe (or nail) coming out of the top. Most of the heat would radiate from that pipe, and it would be warm to the touch. At 4 W it would be quite warm. This occurred to me while I was driving home, when somehow the design of an internal combustion engine circa 1880 came to mind. Spark plugs were not invented, or not reliable, so they used an iron bar protruding into the cylinder. It was heated red hot on the outside by a small flow of burning gasoline. The mixture of air and gasoline was injected when the piston started to descend, and it ignited immediately from the hot plug. - Jed
