It should be added that a stainless steel wire may not be inert.
Depending on the alloy, the wire can contain substantial nickel content - and also molybdenum - which is the best Mills' catalyst (in terms of most exact Rydberg fit). As to what kind of wire (of moderately high resistance similar to Constantan) could be used as a control - and also be largely inert (at least with no substantial evidence in the literature) that would be an interesting question. Most of the transition metals have some association with putative gain, even iron. It would NOT be stainless of any kind due to the nickel content - and the expensive choices would be vanadium, niobium, tantalum. And even those are not absent from the literature. However, among cheap metal wire - carbon steel wire with no nickel would probably be less likely to show intrinsic gain than anything else. It would be FAR less likely than stainless. In fact, there is a good argument that 316L alloy with high moly content is showing decent thermal gain itself. From: Edmund Storms David, I have not been following your evaluation closely, but I have done a lot of calorimetry in my life. The ONLY way a calorimeter can be tested is to use it without any source of excess energy being present. That means you need to run the calorimeter in the planned way with the Celani wire replaced by an inert wire of the same resistance. When you do this, you will quickly discover how the calorimeter behaves and what is required to achieve a null. Other people are suggesting the same method. As long as the Celani wire is present, the results will be confused by the potential excess. Ed
