Hey Nick, The tragic thing is, you may be getting positive results RIGHT NOW but you may not be able to see them. As you say, the issue of what kind of neutrons you are supposed to be detecting is a problem. You could switch to calorimetry, but given the electrode erosion problems combined with the rather difficult input energy measurement some kind of particle detector really looks like the lesser evil.
BTW, I'll be happy to try something here if you get some results; as you know I'm all set up with the fixings except for the neutron detector. Frankly, if what comes out of this is a good cheap DIY neutron detector then I'll deem the project a great success even if the results are null. The key is doing the calibration. Come on, I know there are/were some list members with this kind of expertise, we need a cheap and legal source of neutron flux. Thanks for posting Nick, it's always a terrific pleasure to read experimental reports like this. K. -----Original Message----- From: Nick Reiter [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, January 09, 2005 11:06 AM To: vortex-l@eskimo.com Subject: RE: Cathode plasma experiments report posted Hello, all, Thanks to Jones and Keith for the supportive tech suggestions. First to address Jones' question re: the non-absorbing D2O. I was able to save a small amount - maybe 1 ml tops in a nalgene bottle with a good sealing lid. I checked it about a week ago, and it still SEEMS to have the same property, just not a whole lot of it to do much with, and it has labfloor crud in it. When I get back to it, I will need to just keep a lot more watchful eye on the solution physical properties. Also a very worthwhile notion is the use of a hypodermic needle as cathode. This excites me. I'm going to put this one up there at the front of the list, once I get back on this particular project. Which will probably be a couple of weeks yet, at least. I have to multiplex between about 4 different avocational diversions, plus I need to hit up my heavy water connection for another fix, and order some more K2CO3. Outside of Vort, a couple of suggestions have come in regarding some added variables, most notably the use of a red laser beam to illuminate the cathode and the idea of pulsing the applied power. Keith's comment about neutron detection is germane. The set up I have is pretty flippin' crude, and probably the most crude of all is my knowledge of just WHAT TYPES of neutrons I am (theoretically) supposed to be looking for. Rousy empiricist/experimentalist that I am. If I could cough up an old 1964 silver US dime, I could stick it in front of the GM tube, ala the Oak Ridge souvenir machine :) Seriously though, as neutron detection goes, I am in Kindergarten. Keep any good ideas coming, please. Thanks to all for their input! NR --- Jones Beene <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- Keith Nagel wrote: > > > Can you calibrate the neutron detector? It's > > important to > > set some kind of limits for the ( so far it seems > ) > > null results. Perhaps someone can loan you a cup > > of neutrons to test with.... > > Rather than null, I would say incomplete. Let's take > the contrarian (and optimistic viewpoint) that there > have been some neutrons but they are extremely low > energy "stirpping" neutrons. > > There is no way they are going to get out of that > much > heavy water, but with the approx 15 min decay time, > they can still be found long after the cell is shut > off. This has the distinct triple advantage of > allowing a detector to be placed in the cell itself, > plus it eliminates almost all other possibilities, > plus since it is now beta decay (albeit low energy) > and it allows much more flexibility in the kind of > detector, plastic scintillator or film, even a > photography light meter could be rigged up. The > traditional CD geiger counter won't work however. > > > > BTW, is Bounty even _rated_ for heavy water > spills? > > I have it on good authority that Rosie says the > quicker-picker-upper can sop up any yellow liquid in > 30 seconds; so if it is resisting, you know what to > do... > > Jones > > __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - 250MB free storage. Do more. Manage less. http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250
