Abd ul-Rahman Lomax wrote:
My goal is that each test cell be cheap, very cheap, well under, say, the cost of a Galileo Project replication . . .
I do not understand this goal. The cost of materials has never been a barrier to replicating cold fusion, except perhaps when I could not afford to buy 1 kg of Johnson-Matthey Pd.
The material cost is trivial -- immaterial if you will -- compared to the cost of the instruments and effort. I have never seen a credible cold fusion experiment that costs less than ~$100,000 and probably a lot more if you take into account the cost of people's time. Whether the materials cost $20 or $200, or even $2,000 does not make the slightest difference and has not stopped anyone from trying the experiment, as far as I know. I have never heard from someone who said "I would love to try this but I can't afford the palladium." I have heard from people who said they can't find the palladium; or they don't feel competent to test it per Storms' instructions; or -- most often -- they don't have the time or the instruments they need.
The only thing you should look for in materials is something that works. Whether it costs $20 or $2000 should not be a consideration. In my opinion, the Arata material is more promising, so I think you should find someone to fabricate it, or ask Santoku Corp. for some. They have been providing it for free to researchers in Japan, and they were kind enough to send some to U.S. researchers as well. I believe the supply is limited and the price has not been set as I said, so price is not an issue. Availability is the problem. The biggest issue in my mind is that no one has done truly convincing calorimetry to prove the stuff works in the first place. Doing credible calorimetry will cost you $5,000 to $10,000 if you buy a calorimeter off the shelf, or you can spend several months learning how to make Seebeck calorimeters of the kind Storms made. If your time is worth anything that will cost more than $10,000.
- Jed
