KEvin, this is almost 9 year old article. It's well covered on Wikipedia. They're using Pyroelectric crystals and call it Pyroelectric fusion.
THe finnish patent recommends using pyroeltric crystals as a catalyst / particle accelerator to increase the energy gain with LENR. It's an interesting idea. On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 3:40 PM, Kevin O'Malley <kevmol...@gmail.com> wrote: > This is Crystal Fusion. I don't see how it qualifies as Pyroelectric > fusion. There could be a clue to how fusion takes place in Condensed > Matter, and that could forward our understanding of the Condensed Matter > LENR reaction taking place inside Nickel or Palladium. > > > On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 3:16 PM, Blaze Spinnaker <blazespinna...@gmail.com > > wrote: > >> Pyroelectric fusion, old news. Though elements of it are used in the >> finnish patent. >> >> >> On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 3:00 PM, Kevin O'Malley <kevmol...@gmail.com>wrote: >> >>> >>> http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0606/p25s01-stss.html >>> >>> >>> Coming in out of the cold: nuclear fusion, for real >>> >>> By Michelle Thaller, csmonitor.com / June 6, 2005 >>> >>> >>> >>> PASADENA, CALIF. >>> >>> For the last few years, mentioning cold fusion around scientists (myself >>> included) has been a little like mentioning Bigfoot or UFO sightings. >>> >>> >>> After the 1989 announcement of fusion in a bottle, so to speak, and the >>> subsequent retraction, the whole idea of cold fusion seemed a bit beyond >>> the pale. But that's all about to change. >>> >>> A very reputable, very careful group of scientists at the University of >>> California at Los Angeles (Brian Naranjo, Jim Gimzewski, Seth Putterman) >>> has initiated a fusion reaction using a laboratory device that's not much >>> bigger than a breadbox, and works at roughly room temperature. This time, >>> it looks like the real thing. [Editor's note: The original version misnamed >>> the scientists' institution.] >>> >>> Before going into their specific experiment, it's probably a good idea >>> to define exactly what nuclear fusion is, and why we're so interested in >>> understanding the process. This also gives me an excuse to talk about how >>> things work deep inside the nuclei of atoms, a topic near and dear to most >>> astronomers (more on that later). >>> >>> Simply put, nuclear fusion means ramming protons and neutrons together >>> so hard that they stick, and form a single, larger nucleus. When this >>> happens with small nuclei (like hydrogen, which has only one proton or >>> helium, which has two), you get a lot of energy out of the reaction. This >>> specific reaction, fusing two hydrogen nuclei together to get helium, >>> famously powers our sun (good), as well as hydrogen bombs (bad). >>> >>> Fusion is a tremendous source of energy; the reason we're not using it >>> to meet our everyday energy needs is that it's very hard to get a fusion >>> reaction going. The reason is simple: protons don't want to get close to >>> other protons. >>> >>> Do you remember learning about electricity in high school? I sure do - I >>> dreaded it whenever that topic came around. I had a series of well-meaning >>> science teachers that thought it would be fun for everyone to hold hands >>> and feel a mild electric shock pass their arms. Every time my fists >>> clenched and jerked and I had nothing consciously do with it, my stomach >>> turned. >>> >>> In addition, I have long, fine hair, and was often made a victim of the >>> Van de Graf generator - the little metal ball with a rubber belt inside it >>> that creates enough static electricity to make your hair stand on end. >>> Yeesh. >>> >>> Anyway, hopefully you remember the lesson that two objects having >>> different electrical charges (positive and negative) attract one another, >>> while those with the same charge repel. It's a basic law of electricity, >>> and it definitely holds true when two protons try to get close together. >>> Protons have positive charges, and they repel each other. Somehow, in order >>> for fusion to work, you've got to overcome this repulsive electrical force >>> and get the things to stick together. >>> >>> Here's where an amazing and mysterious force comes in that, although we >>> don't think about it in our day-to-day lives, literally holds our matter >>> together. There are four universal forces of nature, two of which you're >>> probably familiar with: gravity and electromagnetism. >>> >>> But there are two other forces that really only come in to play inside >>> atomic nuclei: the strong and weak nuclear forces (and yes, the strong >>> force is the stronger of the two, the weak is weaker. Scientists really >>> have a way with names, dont they?) I'm going to focus on the strong force, >>> as that's the one responsible for nuclear fusion. >>> >>> The strong force is an attractive force between protons and neutrons - >>> it wants to stick them together. If the strong force had its way, the >>> entire universe would be one big super-dense ball of protons and neutrons, >>> one big atomic nucleus, in fact. >>> >>> Fortunately, the strong force only becomes strong at very small scales: >>> about one millionth billionth of a meter. Yes, that's 0.000000000000001 >>> meters. Any farther away, and the strong force loses its grip. But if you >>> can get protons and neutrons that close together, the strong force becomes >>> stronger than any other force in nature, including electricity. >>> >>> That's important- all protons have the same charge, so they'd like to >>> fly away from each other. But if you can get them close together, inside >>> the volume of an atomic nucleus, the strong force will bind them together. >>> >>> >>> The whole trick with fusion is you've got to get protons close enough >>> together for the strong force to overcome their electrical repulsion and >>> merge them together into a nucleus. The sun does this pretty much by brute >>> force. The sun has over 300,000 times the mass of the Earth, which means >>> there's a lot of gravity weighing down on its core. >>> >>> >>> That pressure gets the sun's internal temperature up to several millions >>> of degrees, which means that particles inside the sun's core are flying >>> around at huge velocities. Everything is moving around so fast that protons >>> sometimes get slammed together before their charges have a chance to repel. >>> The strong force takes hold, and a new atom (helium) is born. >>> >>> In this process, some of the mass of the protons is converted into >>> energy, powering the sun and producing the light that will eventually reach >>> the Earth as sunlight. >>> >>> Scientists have gotten fusion to occur in the laboratory before, but for >>> the most part, they've tried to mimic conditions inside the sun by whipping >>> hydrogen gas up to extreme temperatures or slamming atoms together in >>> particle accelerators. Both of those options require huge energies and >>> gigantic equipment, not the sort of stuff easily available to build a >>> generator. Is there any way of getting protons close enough together for >>> fusion to occur that doesnt require the energy output of a large city to >>> make it happen? >>> >>> The answer, it turns out, is yes. >>> >>> Instead of using high temperatures and incredible densities to ram >>> protons together, the scientists at UCLA cleverly used the structure of an >>> unusual crystal. >>> >>> Crystals are fascinating things; the atoms inside are all lined up in a >>> tightly ordered lattice, which creates the beautiful structure we associate >>> with crystals. Sometimes those orderly atoms create neat side-effects, like >>> piezoelectricity, which is the effect of creating an electrical charge in a >>> crystal by compressing it. Stressing the bonds between the atoms of some >>> crystals causes electrons to build up on one side, creating a charge >>> difference over the body of the crystal. Other crystals do this when you >>> heat or cool them; these are called pyroelectric crystals. >>> >>> The new cold fusion experiment went something like this: scientists >>> inserted a small pyroelectric crystal (lithium tantalite) inside a chamber >>> filled with hydrogen. Warming the crystal by about 100 degrees (from -30 F >>> to 45F) produced a huge electrical field of about 100,000 volts across the >>> small crystal. >>> >>> The tip of a metal wire was inserted near the crystal, which >>> concentrated the charge to a single, powerful point. Remember, hydrogen >>> nuclei have a positive charge, so they feel the force of an electric field, >>> and this one packed quite a wallop! The huge electric field sent the nuclei >>> careening away, smacking into other hydrogen nuclei on their way out. >>> Instead of using intense heat or pressure to get nuclei close enough >>> together to fuse, this new experiment used a very powerful electric field >>> to slam atoms together. >>> >>> Unlike some previous claims of room-temperature fusion, this one makes >>> intuitive sense: its just another way to get atoms close enough together >>> for the strong force to take over and do the rest. Once the reaction got >>> going, the scientists observed not only the production of helium nuclei, >>> but other tell-tale signs of fusion such as free neutrons and high energy >>> radiation. >>> >>> This experiment has been repeated successfully and other scientists have >>> reviewed the results: it looks like the real thing this time. >>> >>> For the time being, don't expect fusion to become a readily available >>> energy option. The current cold fusion apparatus still takes much more >>> energy to start up than you get back out, and it may never end up breaking >>> even. In the mean time, the crystal-fusion device might be used as a >>> compact source of neutrons and X-rays, something that could turn out to be >>> useful making small scanning machines. But it really may not be long until >>> we have the first nuclear fusion-powered devices in common use. >>> >>> So cold fusion is back, perhaps to stay. After many fits and starts, its >>> finally time for everyday fusion to come in out of the cold. >>> >> >> >
