At 07:31 PM 2/22/2011, Horace Heffner wrote:
The Larsen & Windom Patent on gamma shielding: "Apparatus and method
for absorption of incident gamma radiation and its conversion to
outgoing radiation at less penetrating, lower energies and
frequencies ":
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-
bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=7893414.PN.&OS=PN/7893414&RS=PN/7893414
http://tinyurl.com/47al74f
was heralded by NET:
http://blog.newenergytimes.com/2011/02/22/cold-fusioneers-complain-lenr-researchers-patent/
http://tinyurl.com/46zgbfu
This is one strange patent. It's written with polemic. It's
enormously complex and unclear.
It is notable that, despite the huge amount of content on cold fusion
and LENR, it is not a patent on a nuclear energy production method,
merely a gamma shielding method.
No, the claims are more extensive than that.
Also, unless I missed it, there does not seem to be any test data
provided in the patent proving the method works. It would seem
sending a gamma beam through such thin shielding material and
*measuring* attenuation would be the minimal level of proof required
to show that the theory is not completely bogus.
I find the whole thing a mass of information, argument, and theory.
I've never seen a patent like it.
It is blatantly claiming nuclear reactions. But not in a clear way
that I could see.
Larsen previously refused to release experimental information on the
gamma absorption, when requested by Garwin, claiming "proprietary."
Well, that excuse just disappeared.
Again the authors make the absurd claim that "cold fusion" reactions
do not encompass weak reactions: "Together, the four scientific
papers by the present inventors comprising Attachments 1-4 can
explain all of the major features exhibited in many seemingly
anomalous experiments (lumped under the unfortunate term cold fusion)
that have previously been regarded by many as theoretically
inexplicable. In contrast to other earlier theories involving
penetration of Coulomb barriers, the present Invention's methods and
apparatus for creating low energy nuclear reactions are
scientifically reasonable within the context of the well-accepted
standard model of electroweak interaction physics. The key process
responsible for producing most of the experimentally observed
anomalies explained by these publications is not any form of cold
fusion, nor is it any form of fission. On the contrary, the key
physical processes driving the unique behavior of these systems are
primarily weak interactions."
Notice: he is indeed claiming a "method and apparatus for creating
low-energy nuclear reactions."
Cold fusion, by another name. His theory simply proposes neutron
intermediaries, formed from deuterium. "Fusion" most generally means
the creation of higher-Z elements from lower-Z ones. Now, if the
reaction is D + e- -> dineutron; Li6 + dineutron -> Li-8 -> 2 He-4 +
e-, what has happened is fusion/fission. I think that failing to
think of neutrons as "neutronium" causes some mischief here. If I'm
correct, the actual pathway from Li-8 is Li-8 -> Be-8 + e- --
recovering the electron -- ; Be-8 -> 2 He-4.
The effect is fusion of a deuteron, with the aid of an incorporated
electron that neutralizes the charge, with Lithium-6, to form Be-8
which then fissions.
His claim that there is no form of fission involved is likewise shaky, then.
The idea that neutrons can be formed in this way is just as
unexpected, just as revolutionary, as the idea that d-d fusion would
be possible. That cold fusion patents are knee-jerk rejected and this
one is accepted is lunacy.
They should both be accepted, if the claims are clear and the device
demonstrable. So ... was there any demonstration? I find it quite
difficult to understand what device he's claiming. How do you make
this thing? But I can't see the diagrams, and there is so much text
there that I certainly haven't read the whole thing.
