At 09:54 AM 2/25/2010, you wrote:
Okay, I asked McKubre why he thinks the helium in the Case cell declined.
Here is part of his response, edited to remove irrelevant comments:
. . . I am glad [Krivit and the rest of you people] are encouraged to read
the paper . . .
Our gas cells are helium-leak-tight. The 4He is actually being absorbed
in the carbon substrate at ~200°C. This confused me at first but there is
literature on this process from the "old days"
Jed, ask for a citation on the "literature."
(1950's, Los Alamos I think) -- and we checked it out by direct
measurement using 4He in D2 at temperature. The 4He really does absorb
slowly -- but only at temperature.
Jed, ask for the publication or conference presentation of this "check out."
So our measurement of 4He rise was something of an underestimate. We also
looked at the 4He in the starting material (Case Pd on C catalyst) and
found that the solid contained less 4He per unit VOLUME than air, so this
was not the source.
I still don't understand why Tom [Passell, et al.] made the mistake [in
their ICCF-15 paper] . . . They saw the pressure going down and did not
guess that the starting 4He was simply being concentrated in the
residuum. If we made a mistake (which I cannot rule out, but doubt) then
it was not this one. . . ."
Now that he told me this, about carbon absorbtion, I recall he did discuss
it in lectures or papers.
- Jed
