On Jun 18, 2009, at 12:29 AM, William Beaty wrote:
On Wed, 17 Jun 2009, Horace Heffner wrote:
I don't see the problem. All "such subjects" already have breathing
room. If you want to post on a subject then post on the subject. If
anyone has interest in contributing they will post on it.
There's a 100% replicable CF experiment. People on other lists are
trying
it out.
What lists?
Nobody on vortex is interested. (Really? Or was it just lost in
the noise?)
Yes, I saw it. If I were to work in the electrolysis regime, I would
prefer to be doing a SPAWAR type experiment (see my notes below) if I
had the time and money, which I don't. Maybe next winter I might be
doing some CF stuff. I also have other unrelated and unfinished
experiments I would prefer to get to at the moment but can't.
If not, then not. Where is the suppression? What's the big deal?
Did you yourself read that message, click on the link?
Yes. It was an Oriani approach, one of several, which Kowalski
attempted to turn into a major collaboration by naming it the Curie
Project. Not the first I've seen of that. It would be indeed good
to see some replications where there are absolutely no doubts about o-
ring contamination, etching solution contamination, CR-39 aging
problems and cosmic ray contamination, lack of thermostatic control
of the etching process, continual re-use of the etching solution,
etc. But, we all have to choose where we put our resources. Note -
CR-39 is $400 a sheet.
It looks to me
like there's way too much traffic on vortex to read every single
message
continuously for months on end, much less clicking on linked articles.
Personally, I'd prefer to skip a hundred threads a day than live with
extensive moderation and death of the group. If a thread is
appropriately titled the information should not go unnoticed. Of
course, as I noted, it would be a lot better if people were courteous
and considered the importance and relevance of the content before
posting. That doesn't mean we all have to get anal about
complaining to the moderator. Also, I personally love Jed's (and
other's) postings regarding the history of science, politics as it
relates to CF etc, and anything to do with the national or world
energy problems. I think understanding these energy related problems
is highly important and motivational.
One thing I appreciate is that if anything anomalous develops the
news will likely end up here and be visible in the noise.
It may end up here, but nobody would notice it among all the current
conversations. If there are ten televisions in the room, all playing
favorite shows, there's a good chance that not one person hears an
announcement over the PA, important or not.
There aren't very many Subject threads. The long winded off topic
threads typically are easily identified because there are zillions of
messages in the thread. As long as new threads are appropriately
named there should be no problem. Maybe voluntary prefixing of
thread titles would help people cull out only what they want.
Prefixes like:
OT - off topic
CF - cold fusion
CFP - cold fusion and its politics
MM - magnetic motors
UFO - UFOs
SP - science politics
SM - scientific method
GW - global warming
EX - experiment
etc.
Maybe it would be better not to use abbreviations, but just
characterize the material in a couple words followed by a colon.
This all seems a bit extreme and unnecessary because the rules are
good and the group is fine if people would just follow them.
Notes on one of my variations on the SPAWAR approach, which amounts
to co-deposition on the sides of holes in a thin metal cathode.
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AN EDGE-ON-GRID CO-DEPOSITION METOD
Here is suggested a means of improving the design of the SPAWAR
design to (a) avoid scratching of the particle detector surface, (b)
permit very close proximity of the active material and the particle
detector, (c) establish a very thin cell geometry which maximizes
external applied field intensities, and (d) permit use of BC-720
plastic from Bicron Inc. or other scintillating material as a
scintillation detector in order to more definitively determine
particle energy level spectra. This means consists of using an edge-
on-grid for co-deposition of the active layer. This method has the
added advantage of establishing a cathode surface vs field direction
relationship similar to the original SPAWAR cell design.
A method to prepare an edge-on grid is to (a) adhere a thick non-
diffusing primary metallic layer (say, silver, gold, or platinum) to
the CR-39 (or BC-720 plastic from Bicron Inc.), coat it with an
etching mask in a grid shape, i.e a grid consisting of a bunch of
squares with central circles not masked, (b) etch out the array of
round holes to complete the grid, (c) leave the mask on but then go
ahead and plate on any additional layers (if) desired, thus causing
the inside *edges* of the grid holes to be plated, (d) co-deposit the
final Pd-D layer on the hole edges and run the experiment. In the
case of CR-39 base (as opposed to BC-720) then: (e) remove the mask
if necessary, (f) acid etch off the metallic surface, (d) caustic
etch the CR-39 as usual. It may be possible to find a sealing
adhesive that permits simply pealing the grid off the CR-39, or
removing it with a solvent that does not affect the CR-39. If a thin
plastic barrier is adhered to the back of the grid metal prior to co-
deposition, and the grid and barrier held in place against the CR-39
by pressure, no acid etching removal of the grid material is
necessary because the grid can simply be lifted off the CR-39.
Another method might be, instead of steps (a) and (b) is to coat the
primary metallic layer with an etching mask and then simply punch the
grid holes into it, and then adhere it to the particle sensing
plastic, possibly to an intervening layer of material for particle
energy discrimination or the protection of the particle detector from
the electrolyte.
This approach hopefully has the following advantages:
1. The stress of the expansion of the hydrogen loaded layer is
applied primarily to a longest and thus strongest axis of the
underlying grid metal,
2. The layer where the major action is, the co-deposited layer, is
right up against the CR-39, avoiding long and variable paths of high
energy particles through the electrolyte,
3. Hydrogen which diffuses into or through the base layer has a
large volume in which to continue its migration, as it diffuses
sideways, as well as an alternate escape path under the mask layer,
thus preventing a full build-up of pressure at the metal-CR-39
lamination,
4, Micrographs of co-deposited D-Pd shows a grainy nature which is
not as structurally strong as, for example, a pure Pd loaded lattice,
thus the edge de-lamination force should not be nearly as strong as
it was for the Patterson beads, and since some of the Patterson beads
survived, hopefully a sufficient number of cells will survive,
5. By making the grid elements small, say under 0.1 cm, there will
be a clear marking of a scale on the micrographs and this will
hopefully assist in counting and locating tracks,
6. In the case of multiple plated layers, it will hopefully be clear
in the tack images from which layer the track originated because the
CR-39 (or other material) is essentially imaging a cross section.
Discriminating layers can be applied to the CR-39 prior to the grid
layer, provided an acid etch masking layer is adhered to the top
surface of the discriminating layer prior to the application of the
grid layer. This acid etch mask then ends up covering the bottom of
the holes in the grid, thus preventing removal of the discriminating
layer when the grid is formed by acid etching. This then leaves the
layers in order as:
1. electrolyte
2. acid mask with holes for making holes in the grid
3. grid conductor with etched holes, with only the hole edges exposed
to electrolyte
4. mask protecting the discriminating layer
5. particle discriminating layers
6. CR-39 (or BC-720 plastic)
The edges of the holes then contain the D-Pd co-deposited layer.
Assuming the discriminating layer protecting mask is much more
compressable than metal, it also provides, in operation, some cushion
for the lateral expansion of the D-Pd layer, avoiding damage to the
underlying discriminating layers or the CR-39 itself.
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I am especially interested in using high voltage fields in variations
(e..g. using the grid configuration with an insulated HV electrode
adhered to the back of the CR-39) related to Fig. 1 (p. 14) of:
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/DeflationFusionExp.pdf
but much of that was all discussed here before.
Best regards,
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
