Keith Nagel wrote:
Hey Ed,
You write:
It is impossible to make a null run once deuterium has been introduced
into the system. Unless heroic efforts are made, some deuterium remains
as a background, as detected by the RGA.
I rather suspect it would be. OTOH, many of the past LENR papers
have suggested that even small amounts of H2 contamination ruins
the effect. Of course, those experiments were done in the aqueous state.
For the moment I'll neglect the prior work and just consider this
experiment on it's own merits.
The effect is stopped by H in a F-P cell only because the H concentrates
in the Pd and, as a inert material, dilutes the active D. This does not
happen here because the cathode is not palladium. Also, I think the heat
in a F-P cell is caused by He formation, which implies that the effect
is a steep function of D concentration. We are not producing helium.
In fact, when we ran pure H2O +
H2, the data fit the data using D2O + D2 if the amount of D in the gas
was measured using the RGA. We could also run pure oxygen and get the
same agreement, but at a much different D/O ratio. A null condition
results when the voltage is reduced below the critical value.
Hmmm... That suggests to me that the effect has nothing at all
to do with the D or H.
Then why is the effect sensitive to the D/O ratio? We show that the O
isotope has no effect, which shows that the oxygen nucleus is not
involved. What else would you propose plays a role?
I realize the immense labor and cost
of building another unit, but Jed seems to have indicated on
Vo. that you have done just that. Why didn't you do a null
with H2 first on that unit, then switched to D2? This seems
to me a critical issue, and I'm sure it will come up from others.
A blank is only useful if no other evidence is available to show that
the effect is not caused by a feature of the apparatus. I defy someone
to suggest a plausible way a feature of the apparatus could produce the
complex behavior we have seen. In any case, we or someone will
eventually run with pure H2. Meanwhile we are using our time to find out
what is making the radiation.
Here's another (lesser) concern. GM tubes are notorious for being squirrelly
around high voltage discharge devices. While I accept the fact
that your shielding experiments are good evidence that
RF is not interfering with the GM tube, have you confirmed
the GM tube results with film?
Using film is a real problem. The film has to be protected from light
produced by the discharge. It is hard to find a light barrier that will
pass the radiation and still allow it to retain enough energy to expose
the film. We wanted to use film with a pinhole camera to see where the
radiation was produced, but this problem has shot down this idea.
That would seem like a very
easy experiment; although you may feel it is guilding the lilly
it might be worth the small trouble to quell possible skepticism
on that account, given the magnitude and importance of the results.
I think skepticism can be quelled by having a lot of internally
consistent data that shows the nature of the radiation. We have a
limited about of money and time. We don't want to waste it answering
questions proposed by skeptics. We believe the effect is real and we
want to understand how and why it occurs. Such information will answer
skeptics better than any other.
The rate of this reaction is huge, much greater than neutron stripping
would produce. In addition, although the total voltage is near 600 V,
the ions are subjected to a much lower effective voltage because the
voltage drop in the discharge is very uneven. We are still working to
understand where this radiation comes from and its exact energy.
Yes; it was just a gut reaction based on the form of the experiment
and the discharge regime you're working in. I think your observation
about the H2 mentioned above pretty well shows that stripping is
not of interest here.
Also, we detect no neutrons.
The amazing discovery is the role of oxygen as a helper atom. Ironically,
people in the past worked to remove oxygen from their system.
Yet it would be unavoidable in the aqueous state. That is rather ironic.
Not exactly. The F-P cathode contains no oxygen initially because of the
high deuterium activity. Only after it has reacted with lithium and
formed an alloy is oxygen able to be dissolve in the cathode. I think
this is the reason for the frequent long delay in getting results from F-P.
One more observation. You mention the supply is running constant current, yes?
Why the need for the 300 ohm resistor in series? Does the supply have
a lot of capacity that wants to discharge and break into an arc?
The discharge is unstable without the resistor. The current apparently
wants to fluctuate and the power supply tries to prevent this.
If you are interested, I have some material from an HV supply manufacturer
whose supply is designed specifically for sputtering purposes and
can be pushed well into the anomalous glow regime. If it tries to
break, internal circuitry cuts the discharge after a few 10's of
nanoseconds. The supply also has about 1/10th of the capacity of
most other similar HV supplies. I'll be happy to dig it out
and send you the links.
Yes, I would be most interested in such a power supply.
On a personal note; I'm delighted that you're still hammering away
at this. Your work certainly has stood out over time as being both
credible and honest. Here's hoping that this is it.
I hope so too. I don't believe anything unless some tight patterns are
seen. The fact that we are starting to see these makes me think this is
real. Fortunately, the effect is easy to produce so that data can be
accumulated very rapidly, unlike F-P.
Ed
K.
