13 thoughts on “Cold Fusion”

  1. These guys think they are on to something – but don’t know what is behind it. If true, it does set up a fun argument between the physicists and chemists. Bring popcorn. I remain skeptical, but that’s just me. Here is one of their web sites: LANR-CANR You can also do a search with the keywords “low energy nuclear reactions” or chemically assisted nuclear reactions” for more info. Cheers –

  2. I got my (major aerospace) company involved in checking out the Pons-Fleischmann flap, and quickly concluded that all those who were getting “excess heat” were incorrectly measuring not the heat output, but the power input — a conclusion almost everyone else missed. Too bad, too, because it would have been so nice. This guy seems like a nut-job.

    1. I recall mention of problems accounting for heat input. One doozy was subtracting the full energy of 100% efficient electrolysis of water from the input. Hidden chemical energy input was also suspect.

  3. Koomey explained that cold fusion defies the laws of thermodynamics. Energy requires an initial, consumable power source that erodes and breaks down — it simply isn’t self-sustaining.

    Fusion, not or cold, does require a fuel source. Skepticism is justifiable, but equating cold fusion with perpetual motion seems off the mark.

    1. That and H-bombs. Fortunately, you can’t see them at work by looking out your window. That would be a really bad day.

  4. Is this the guy who’s left a trail of former business partners, all of them scam artists from his point of view? Whose new demonstration was paid for, and observed & certified, by yet another, unnamed, business partner?

  5. Yes. And when he’s through with that front, he’ll label it as a bunch of scam artists taking advantage of him as well.

    This has an information warfare aspect to it too: looking up “e-cat scam” returns entries about the conflict between him and his alleged former partners (possibly a lot of them, depending on how he games the system with his various weblogs and “independent” news sites on the e-cat system) before it gets around to the various analyses about how e-cat is a scam itself.

  6. You wouldn’t buy a used car from the guy… but a fusion reactor? Oh, it must be The Man keeping him down!

  7. On top of the very dubious nature of the device, it apparently just makes slightly warmer water. We can do that just by drilling a hole in the ground and piping water through it or running a garden hose across the roof, without having to buy all that expensive nickel.

    Since nickel makes very useful chemical batteries in so many ways, even just by holding it on your tongue, I’m betting he’s just running a crude battery like Volta used to build.

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