NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/sci/physics/fusion/2742

Text File | 1992-11-19 | 9.8 KB | 220 lines

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Path: sparky!uunet!usc!rpi!uwm.edu!caen!saimiri.primate.wisc.edu!ames!pacbell.com!tandem!zorch!fusion
From: Jed Rothwell <[e-mail]>
Subject: Light Water Protocol
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Reply-To: Jed Rothwell <[e-mail]>
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Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 06:41:07 GMT
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I e-mailed this to Chuck Harrison, I don't know why I did not think to
just post it right here. Anyway, here it is, with some new notes on top.

This is "ASCII" version of the protocol. I have another one with nice
WordPerfect formatting and footnotes. The only substantial changes I have
to make are:

1. You should use "spongy" nickel, such as is commonly used as a catalyst.
Contact Gene, Bush or Srinivasan for a sample. Notoya probably cannot
provide a sample, because she manufactures her cathodes in a small forge,
and she is back-ordered. Ordinary, off-the-shelf nickel often does not
work. You might call:

National Standard Company
1-800-354-7844

Ask for "Fibrex Nickel Fiber Mat," which is described as follows: "80% fiber,
20% powder. 95% porosity. 20 micron. 0.05735 grams per cm squared."

2. Mills says that only low current density will work. That is evidently false.
Notoya and others are running at a much higher current density, I believe.

Call Noninsky, Mallove, Notoya, Bush, or Srinivasan for help if you do not
succeed. Or contact me, I know several other people who have done it on an
"informal" basis and have not published. One of them in your area might be
willing to lend a hand.

- Jed


Protocols for Conducting Light Water Excess Energy Experiments

January 28, 1992

Assembled by Eugene F. Mallove from published and unpublished
material.

Uploaded by Jed Rothwell
Cold Fusion Research Advocates
2060 Peachtree Industrial Court #312-F
Chamblee, GA 30341
USA
Phone: [phone] * Fax: [phone].

Notes from Jed Rothwell:

1. This document is intended to augment the Fusion Technology paper by Mills
& Kneizys. Fusion Technology is carried in many major libraries, for
example, the Boston Public Library, and the M.I.T. science library.

2. Subscripts are shown with square brackets: H[2]O.

3. Underlined portions are shown between underline characters "_".


Purpose:

Many people have heard of the light water excess energy experiment reported
by Mills and Kneizys in Fusion Technology. (1) By January, 1992, this excess
energy effect had been reproduced by at least a half-dozen other groups.
Even though the experiment is simple and apparently highly reproducible,
many would-be experimenters might be deterred from trying it because of the
well-known history of difficulties with the heavy water palladium-platinum
approach of Fleischmann and Pons. Even though Mills et al do not think that
their excess energy is due to "cold fusion" -- they have an elaborate theory
of shrinking hydrogen atoms to explain the excess power -- their experiment
_was_ inspired by the Fleischmann-Pons announcement. The purpose of this
brief collection of experimental protocols is to encourage others to try the
Mills experiment and perhaps go beyond it in their investigations.


How to Begin

The first order of business is to read the experimental part of the Mills-
Kneizys paper in Fusion Technology to familiarize yourself with the basic
approach. Don't try any fancy pulsed input power in the beginning. Stick
with continuous (DC) input power. Don't be concerned either about the exotic
theory of Mills and Kneizys. Their theory may be wrong or right, but it's
the validity of the experiment that's important at the moment. Other
theories -- including "conventional" cold fusion mechanisms working with the
trace amount of deuterium -- might be invoked to explain the excess energy
in this light water experiment.


Conditions that should be employed:

1. The volume of solution could be from 100 ml to 1,000 ml in a vacuum-
jacketed glass dewar cell. Note: Some people have tried a non-dewar cell --
a heavily insulated glass beaker with plastic materials to give the same
insulating dewar effect. The cell should be closed at the top with a tapered
rubber stopper.

2. The electrolyte should be: 0.6 M aqueous K[2]CO[3] of high purity.

3. The electrolyte should be stirred continuously with a magnetic stirring
bar to ensure temperature uniformity.

4. The nickel cathode does not apparently have to have the exact
configuration of the "spiral wound" sheet described by Mills-Kneizys in
their paper. It could be just a flat sheet of nickel, but the ratio of the
_total surface area_ (i.e. both sides) of the nickel cathode to the surface
area of the platinum anode should be no less than 20/1.

5. The anode is of platinum wire, 1 mm diameter. Mills and Kneizys used a
spiral-shaped piece 10 cm long.

6. Above all, avoid impurities and contamination of the cell materials,
whether in handling or in environmental conditions. Particularly insure that
no organic contaminants are in the cell or on the electrodes. (Don't forget
that remnant soap film could be a problem!)

7. Dr. V.C. Noninski, who has replicated this light water work (2),
recommends:

"Before starting the experiment, mechanically scour the platinum anode with
steel wool, soak overnight in concentrated HNO[3], and then rinse with
distilled water. Remove the nickel cathode from its container with rubber
gloves, and cut and bend it in such a way that no organic substances are
transferred to the nickel surface. Preferably, dip the nickel cathode into
the working solution under an electrolysis current, and _avoid leaving the
nickel cathode in the working solution in the absence of an electrolysis
current._"

8. Before attempting to run the cell to demonstrate excess energy, reverse
the cell polarity for about one-hour to anodize the nickel cathode. However,
Professor John Farrell of the Mills group has said that 0.5 hour of this
treatment is adequate. He says this "electropolishes the Ni."

9. Use distilled H[2]O.

10. There have been claims and counter claims about whether the experiment
will work in "closed-cell" mode with a catalytic recombiner. Begin your work
without one to be on the safe side. Professor Farrell and, independently,
Dr. Noninski have measured the oxygen and hydrogen evolution in the absence
of a recombiner and find these gases in the expected quantities, i.e.
unsuspected recombination is NOT causing the excess power effect.

11. The current density on the cathode should be on the order of _one
milliamp per square centimeter_. This is very low compared to the Pons-
Fleischmann heavy water experiments.

12. To calibrate the cell, introduce a pure resistance heating of known
power by using a 100 ohm precision resistor encased in teflon tubing.


Simple Analysis:

     The basic goal of the experiment is to demonstrate that significantly
more heat emerges from the cell under electrolysis than the joule heating of
the cell. This is how the basic analysis works:

      The cell has a particular heating coefficient (HC), which can be
determined by employing (in the absence of electrolysis) _pure resistance
heating_ by an ordinary precision resistor with an applied voltage. One
might find, for example, that the HC of a particular cell is say 25 C/watt.
This means that for a watt of input power, the temperature of the liquid
contents of the cell should rise 25 C above ambient. In this regard, keeping
the ambient temperature stable is important; this is a source of possible
error in the experiment.

     The heat input to the cell that would ordinarily be expected from
electrolysis (the so-called "joule heating") is given by the expression:

(V - 1.48)I

where V is the voltage applied to the cell, and I is the current passing
though. The "I x 1.48" quantity here is the power lost by electrolytic
production of oxygen and hydrogen. Because the cell is open to the
atmosphere, this "power" in the form of potentially recoverable chemical
energy simply escapes the cell.

     If, for example, the current is 80 mA and the applied voltage is 2.25
volts, the joule heat input to the cell would be 61.6 mW. [An example used
by Professor Farrell]. If the HC were 25 C/watt, the expected _temperature
rise_ of the cell due to the 61.6 mW input power would be 25 x 0.0616 = 1.54
C. If the temperature is observed to rise any more than 1.54 C, an unknown
excess power source may exist in the cell. If, for example, the temperature
were observed to rise 3.08 C, rather than only 1.54C, this would represent
100% more heat than 61.6 mW coming from the cell, that is, 133.2 mW.

     Excess powers on the order of 100 to 300%, calculated in this manner,
are said to be readily achievable. As Professor Farrell has said, "We have
never NOT gotten the effect." [With these general conditions.]

Caveat:

     This has been a tutorial for beginners by someone who has not done the
experiment himself, but who has talked to the people who have. You should be
able to go off on your own now and find bigger and better ways to do this.
You might begin by trying pulsed power input, which supposedly increases the
output. If you are a cold fusion skeptic, you should really relish this
experiment! It offers an easily reproducible effect. If you can find a
_trivial_ explanation for the excess power, think how famous you'll be! More
likely, you'll become a "Believer" -- or at least a very frustrated
skeptic -- so watch out!


1. Mills, Randell L. and Steven P. Kneizys, "Excess Heat Production by the
Electrolysis of an Aqueous Potassium Carbonate Electrolyte and the
Implications for Cold Fusion," Fusion Technology, Vol.20, August 1991,
pp.65-81.

2. Noninski, V.C., "Excess Heat During the Electrolysis of a Light Water
Solution of K[2]CO[3] With a Nickel Cathode," Fusion Technology, accepted
for publication in the March 1992 issue.