One day, somebody, somewhere will invent the machine that changes everything.
What if one day, somebody, somewhere was last month, in Italy and the guy is named Rossi?
If you haven’t heard of Andrea Rossi, you will be forgiven. He hasn’t received much press, and the press he has received has been largely unflattering. Most scientists think that he is a quack at best, a fraud at worst. But what if, just what if, he is something else entirely? Right.
The story goes back more than 20 years ago (longer actually) when two scientists named Fleischmann and Pons wowed the world and the press with their experimental findings of cold fusion. Cold fusion is the holy grail of energy production, a clean, easy, and almost limitless supply of cheap energy. As it turned out, Fleischmann and Pons’ experiment was flawed and could not be re-produced. Their careers and their names were destroyed along with Cold Fusion (or LENR—Low Energy Nuclear Reaction) research. Which was all well and good, as most scientists think it is impossible. Of course, in my mind, that is one of the leading arguments in its favor. More on that later.
So for the last 25 years, very few scientists even looked at the possibility of LENR (aka Cold Fusion), but a handful did. And something strange happened. Some of them reported that, using nickel and hydrogen at room temperatures, they could produce more energy than they put into the system. Lots more. Too much to be explained by a chemical reaction. But none of them could or can explain why. So many other scientists, being of open mind but closed ears, respond, “If you can’t explain it, it isn’t happening.”
But that is not what engineer Andrea Rossi (and his partner physicist Sergio Focardi) said. He said (and this is my interpretation of his actions), “Let someone else figure out why. If it works, I am gonna build it and sell them. Lots of them.” And that is what he has done. He built it and he has demonstrated it.
Scientists yell, “Impossible!” Rossi responds, “I don’t care.”
What Rossi claims to have built is a machine that reproduces those unexplained experiments on a large scale. A machine that can produce lots of energy cleanly and very cheaply. If he is right, it is the machine that changes everything. I will explain that in more detail in a moment, but more on Rossi.
Now many people claim that this is some sort of elaborate fraud by Rossi, but his actions do not clearly suggest it. He could be completely wrong, maybe even probably, but what does he have to gain. He is not trying to get investors, he is trying to sell machines. And if the machines don’t work, what does he have to gain? There is a lot more detail on this and a lot of it can be interpreted different ways, but I don’t see the upside of a fraud perpetrated in this manner.
One of the problems is the catch-22. Rossi won’t let anyone see what is going on inside his machine during his multiple demonstrations for learned physicists, even going so far as to comically wrap it in tinfoil. His answer for why is simple. He doesn’t have a patent yet. Why? They won’t give him one until someone can explain how it works with accepted physics. But what if accepted physics is incomplete or even wrong? Catch-22.
So Rossi goes on building them with a response that greatly appeals to my American sensibilities. You explain it, I am selling it.
So what if, and I know it is a big if, but what if Rossi is right? What if our understanding of physics is incomplete and this thing is for real? What then?
Unlimited cheap energy would save the world, right? Well, yes. Right after it almost destroys it. If this thing is verified and becomes that machine that changed the world or even if it is a fraud, someday, somewhere, somebody will build the machine that changed the world, and the one thing you can count on is war.
As you know, there is a whole part of the world whose entire existence is funded by oil money. Their whole existence, they have nothing, NOTHING else. If that oil becomes severely devalued overnight their leaders will need to attack other people lest their people attack them. Like I said, the machine that changes everything.
So is Rossi right? History is replete with the scientific community scoffing and ridiculing that which they don’t understand, after all, scientists are people too. So are we saved and doomed at the same time?
Rossi promises that more LENR reactors are being produced, and he is working on research contracts with universities so they can figure out the hows while protecting his interests. So one way or the other, we should know soon.
If it turns out he is right, while everyone else is celebrating, I will be building a bunker in my back yard.
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This sounds fishy. Rossi has already filed a patent application for the device, so there would be little to no harm for him to unveil the inner working of the device at this point. Also, he is well past his 30 month time frame for filing national applications in each of the PCT member countries. At this point, his best method for getting a patent would probably be to disclose more about the device. As Rossi is listed as an inventor on several patents, he appears to be trying to game the system.
That is not to say that I don’t applaud his efforts to find a viable solution for LENR.
There is a DVD out there entitled Einstein’s Big Idea, a most entertaining and instructive work. The DVD ends with a pysicist holding a pen and telling us that there is enough energy in the pen, if it were to be released, to fuel the world. So, now it is happening between hydrogen and nickel. Low Energy Nuclear Reaction might be in use today if the experiments had been handled properly. Evil causes war. Patrick Archbold, the bunker won’t save you, the rosary will.
Rossi does not only cooperate with scientists, but does also cooperates with known magnet-motor scammers.
This makes think.
He has never proven complete evidence to friendly-critical scientists, like NASA scientists who where at visit.
Even known, but critical scientific supporters of cold fusion where never allowed to examine the apparatus and watch the experiment.
He only invites noncritical Journalists and scientists and never has opened the vaporization apparatus which is trivial and nonproprietary.
He could easily fake the effect, if he applies a vacuum to the steam outlet
and activates a power switch in unwatched moments.
best regards, Peter
“Archbold, the bunker won’t save you, the rosary will.”
LOL… enough said.
A physics professor who is a member of the group that hands out the Nobel prize for economics, physics and chemistry, prof. Sven Kullander, will be giving a lecture about this on 23 November at a Swedish University. He has seen the device operate on at least two occasions in the last year. He seems to be supportive but cautious. It will be interesting to see what he has to say in his lecture.
I have been following Rossi’s progress since January. Probably the most convincing demonstration was done by Professor Levi of Bologna University, when an earlier version of the E-Cat ran for 18 hours, producing at least 15 kW of excess heat for the period and even peaking at 120 kW for a short time. This experiment was done with heating water, rather than producing steam, that reduced the measurement error when calculating the amount of heat produced.
The last demonstration in October, that of his 1 megawatt plant, produced nearly half a MW for five hours, with no energy input, under the control of the purchaser’s engineers. It would have been absolute proof but his customer wished for complete anonymity, so we will just have to wait some more. Rossi states that he has several follow-on orders and presumably some won’t mind showing it off.
It seems unlikely that Rossi is a fraud. He has produced the various E-Cats seen in half a dozen demonstrations and the 1 MW plant, using his own money. He had to sell his house in order to complete the latter. He doesn’t get paid until the customer has tested the device and is happy with it.
Many criticize him for not patenting the device without understanding the difficulty of doing this. For example, the US Patent Office will not even consider a patent for any “cold fusion” device, thanks to the efforts of DoE (Dept. of Energy) who have a huge, multi-billion dollar stake in hot fusion. Certainly, many main stream scientists don’t think it works because they don’t have a theory for it. They didn’t believe the Wright Brothers either.
http://blog.newenergytimes.com/2011/11/10/nasa-engineer-explains-why-rossi-demos-failed/
many skeptical posts by Steven B. Krivit, a journalist who has believed in cold fusion devices for years
kirivit is just a liar with one agenda,discredit scientists that have suspenseful result in field cold fusion. his devil behavior isn’t just abut rossi.
read this article about successful cold fusion result from newscientist in 2009 and pay attention how kirivit try discredit this reserch in response to newscientist reporter.
kirivit response to newscientist reporter.
“Others, though, are not convinced. Steven Krivit, editor of the New Energy Times, has been following the cold fusion debate for many years and also spoke at the ACS conference. “Their hypothesis as to a fusion mechanism I think is on thin ice … you get into physics fantasies rather quickly and this is an unfortunate distraction from their excellent empirical work,” he told New Scientist.
Krivit thinks cold fusion remains science fiction. Like many in the field, he prefers to categorise the work as evidence of “low energy nuclear reactions”, and says it can be explained without relying on nuclear fusion.”
www. newscientist .com/article/dn16820-neutron-tracks-revive-hopes-for-cold-fusion.html
I think this is a war for investment capital between two hostile groups.
Krivit stands for the Piantelli group, nobody knows who sponsors his website and he doesnt disclose it. Nevertheless he says, he is independent.
Many cold fusionn researchers have companies and take investment capital, announce products, but never release them, have patens and write scientific papers in masses but have no results or reproducible scientific discoveries or key-experiments for proof.
Otto Hahn would never had have succes with such a policy, he was proposed for Nobel Price twice, before he discovered fission. He made many new acknowledged discoveries before the possibility of nuclear fission and energy generation was known and acknowledged.
What has this heterogenous crowd of LENR researchers to present after 20 years? Nothing concrete.
Mr. Rossi works together with Professor Stremmenos and Professor Focardi who both worked together with Piantelli some years ago. Piantelli owns all patents and possibly he has fired them or not paid them and now they want to get revanche and some money by supporting Rossi.
This is not a scientific war, its a war for investment money.
At least it looks like this.
@Adrian Ashfield
The 18 hour experiment of professor Levi was not a demonstration it was done without observers. Precise data was never published, they say it is confidential. The delta_t measured was average 4°C and this is easily explained by errors in temperature measurement or the water was heated by ambient temperature and bad isolation. Nobody knows this, nobody else can witness it. No images, no videos. If he had choosen a remarkable temperature increase, say 18° heated to 40° then the experiment would be conclusive. Had he decreased the water flow, it would have been possible.
Such a high energy output is easy to proof. If they dont do it in public under observation of peer scientists and witnesses then they cannot or dont want to do it for whatever reasons.
Mr. Rossi has collected a big croud of followers that believe it is true without true evidence.
It looks like a strange New Age religion, especially if you look to the website “PESWiki” of Rossis new webmaster, Sterling Allan, who has advertised fraudulent free energy products like selfrunning magnetmotors on his site and has a strange personal philosophy.
He seems to be a fanatic believer in such new tin-gods like magnetmotors and e-cats, look to his website and see yourself.
@Peter Heckert
It was a demonstration, but for a limited audience. Sufficient information of that test was published to check the heat balance. Perhaps you have not looked hard enough. 4°C difference is more than enough with modern instrumentation. I have no reason to think Professor Levi would jeopardize his career, that has many years to go, by reporting favorably on a fraud.
Having seen a number of your other posts I know you are skeptical, but it seems to me you are now looking for things to support your confirmation bias. There is no motive for fraud if Rossi is not asking for investment and dozens of competent engineers and scientists have now seen one of his demonstration and not one has doubted it is real.
Mr. Levi doesnt risk much.
He can always say, he was fooled by Rossis tricks like the other scientists.
Read his curriculum vita at university of Bologna and see what he has published. No groundbreaking research. He is responsible for industrial contacts and specialist for inductive heating, so far I remember. He has coinvented a patent for a coffe machine and so far I could find the company which licensed the patent is out of business. He has more to win than to loose. An own e-cat research group that works forever, because it will never show results ;-)
This “limited audience” that you mention, was without doubt a group of trusted believers that have the same interests. At least it is not documented.
They always say, they have evident proof, but keep the proof seccret.
Isnt this silly. If they have good reason to keep it secret they should not publish and demonstrate anything!
Rossi has demonstrated to peers, and all seem favorably impressed, not one is a naysayer, and most are positive. Also, he has sold at least one 1mw plant for two million, and has orders for more. National Controls, the maker of the controls for the European Tokamak has agreed to provide controls to this “fraud” also. Where’s the fraud? Is the purchaser part of the fraud? Are the scientists at Bologna part of the fraud? Would competent professionals toss their reputations away supporting obvious fraud? I don’t think it’s off the mark to assume Paid Big Energy Operatives work the commentary to discredit Rossi’s efforts. Krivits looks more and more like someone who has sold his soul to the highest bidder.
BTW, do you know, what this claimed energy burst of 120kW means inside a 50 cubic centimeter water volume?
This means an immediate steam explosion! Ask an steam engineer.
I ask myself how he can measure this with such an arrangement. Again, this explains why they refuse to document it.
Asked about how he obtained selfsustained mode, Levi first answered he pulled the plug. Later he gave another answer, because it was asked how they then could measure an residual rest current.
@charles.
The name of the company is National Instruments and not National controls.
This rumour was raised by Sterling Allan on his website.
They make contracts with any customer who pays. I can make a contract to, if I want. It is left unclear if this was a million dollar contract or a contract about a custom programmed chip for some thousand dollars. NI (National Instruments) has confirmed that Rossis company is a customer and nothing else. High level persons of NI have said NI has /not/ buyed a 1 MW plant.
All other details are unknown and confidential.
@HanzJager:
“Archbold, the bunker won’t save you, the rosary will.”
LOL… enough said.
Evidently, you were not at Lepanto. Recently, as little as two months ago, a comet which was to pass between the earth and the sun was dispersed by a solar storm, or you might be posting from a different spot.
Obama cut the overburdened patent office in half early in his career and ordered the patent office to send all unapproved patents over the internet. The scientists are hollering that this cannot be, so, why should the inventor trust the government patent office? He, the inventor, is literally on his own and may even be a patriot for not sending his patent over the internet to China.
Pat, this is a fascinating article and I have followed Rossi for years. I hope he continues down the path he’s currently on and proves everyone wrong. I myself have multiple patents for various products from weapons to suction cups and at every step of the way, so called experts (self professed I might add), always tell me how my products will never work. Yet I sell nearly all of them around the world. After nearly a decade of patenting my ideas and bringing them to market, I can tell you that this is the best way to go about making a name for yourself, let alone selling your product. Why would Rossi need the approval of the scientific community? Most of them are hacks that are paid by the government for their work. They have no real creativity and they lack the skills to bring any product to market. Einstein encountered the same problems. Einstein’s peers went so far as to claim he stuttered and had dyslexia. Both proven to be false, but nonetheless, his peers sought to crush him.
When you look at everything God has created for us, it’s only a matter of time before cold fusion becomes a reality, after all, most of it is just a combination of materials (nickel and hydrogen) to create the reaction. If not these two elements, than maybe two or three others. When that day comes, all the scientists will shout fraud once again. My advice to Rossi, having lived every step of his journey for the last 10 years ... just sell them and ignore the critics.
Dear Peter Heckert, That I have the name of the company wrong or can have a contract with National Instruments in no way negates positive peer review at Bologna and elsewhere. I also wonder why a prestigious organization like National Instruments is willing to publicly “dirty their name” by associating with what you seem to think is an obvious fraudster. Where are the University of Bologna scientists, or any peer reviewer, bringing any of your questions to the fore? Seems to me your many posts “jump the gun” in a rather feverish way to the side of speculation to the negative. Is a “wait and see” attitude too much for you? Are your paymasters asking you to naysay more “productively”? I think you are in the employ of the same forces that caused JP Morgan to shelve Tesla’s ideas in favor of centralized control of energy. It’s an old story. Hitler ran his army on methanol produced from garbage. We can do better. Please don’t take this as a personal attack, but I can reason no other formula to explain some folks excessively negative posts.
Good Day to the Readers of the NC Register. Actually Pons and Fleischmann as well as other practioners of solid matter physics did reproduce “Low Energy Nuclear Reactions” they just missed the root cause predicted early on by the great Andrei Sakharov and later by Brigham Young University Professor Steven E Jones as muon catalyzed fusion. Perhaps the current practioners at the US Naval Research Lab in San Diego are worth an interview by the NC Register. The historical issue with Fleischmann’s work was that it missed attribution to the hot spark of muons derived from the daughter products of cosmic rays or solar flare proton particles because it would have favored their competitor at the time (Steven E. Jones). It is well known that folks conducting work in mountains of Colorado and Utah saw far greater anomalous “heating” (LENR) events in their highly deutarated palladium than did folks stuck at sea level near the equator. Given the fact that higher altitudes favor an increase of energetic particles and their daughter products (e.g. muons) it comes as no surprise that muon sticking and transmutation products result that produce tremendous amounts of MeV’s as well as the soup of daughter elements. As for Rossi; it begs the fair and legitimate question how real his technology is given his previous court record and the fact he won’t let folks do exhaustive and controlled testing of the apparatus. If he is using first electrolysis to split water and then an iron based catlyst agent to reform water and then generate heat, then that is not LENR. No definitie proof of gamma rays has been provided truly skeptical and independent observers knowledgeable in the art and science of electrolytic chemistry and catalysis, let alone thermodynamics and physics. Only “true believers” get close, which immediately raises red flags. The reader is encouraged to read a book entitled “Hoaxers and Their Victims” for other historical anecdotes involving the gullibile. ‘Nuff said.
If the input is pure nickel, and the “waste” is 70% nickel of a different isotope distribution plus 30% copper, and the lost mass of material involved corresponds exactly to the energy output, then that’s fusion… unless you know of another way to transmute nickel into copper?
Given that copper is more valuable than nickel, that seems like a nice little side-bonus to the whole operation… although if this technology takes off, copper will flood the market as transmission wires and substations become obsolete. Maybe I should start buying some options on the big oil companies, too. Might make a fortune as they start to tank.
G. Kevin Mark
Copper is NOT more valuable than Nickel. see metalprices.com
Nickel is more than twice the price of Copper.
Anyway, there will be big changes, which is why its not being covered by the news media - to give the big players a chance to exit the market first.
Joseph
MetalPrices.com
USD/LB Cash 3m 15m
______________________________________
Aluminum .9725 .9798 1.0160
Alum Alloy .9439 .9421 .9548
NA Alloy .9689 .9843 1.0206
Copper 3.5070 3.5115 3.5153
USD/LB Cash 3m 15m
______________________________________
Nickel 8.1987 8.1896 8.2191
Lead .9029 .9149 .9466
Tin 9.8089 9.8203 9.8520
Zinc .8734 .8768 .9104
G. Kevin Mark
You will have to make your own investment decisions. However, Nickel is MORE expensive than copper. Nickel is approximately $8.21 per pound vs $3.50 per pound for Copper. There are a LOT of energy interests that want to prevent, delay or destroy this upstart company - for example the coal industry, the ethanol producers, the uranium/nuclear industry, the oil exporting countries and the politicians on the receiving end of the campaign contributions. The mainstream media is, in my opinion, on the side of the status quo, needless to say. Hang on. It will be an interesting ride.
Joseph
The video posted on YouTube with the experiment run on 10/28/2011 shows two large radiators fed by a large generator that condenses the steam output to close the circuit, this can not be interpreted as a miscalculation, a lot of energy was being dissipated there.
However I believe that Mr. Peter Heckert hit to link the question of funding and rivalry between Mr. Rossi and Professor Piantelli, both followed the same line of research, and both have developed similar systems.
Rossi has opened a door to Black Swan innovations. These are highly improbable inventions with huge implications. See CHEAP GREEN on the Aesop Institute website for some other Nickel Hydrogen systems - including one that was patented in 1993 - and showed an 8 times energy gain for more than one year. It was by Thermacore on a USAF Small Business Innovation Research contract. No nuclear reaction was involved. See also MOVING BEYOND OIL on the same site for a few other potential Black Swans.
A nickle costs five cents and a copper penny costs 1 cent, so nickle is more expensive than copper. Does this mean I qualify for a job with Rossi? I’m also handy at keeping secrets and stealthily attaching power cords to wall outlets. I can bring my own tinfoil too, call me!
With this amount of energy, the cost of nickle doesnt matter.
The nickle could be extracted electrolytically from Euro coins or Dollar coins and still it would be very rewarding especially in these times ;-)
PAT ARCHBOLD: Thanks for the article. I have been following Rossi’s invention since January. Your article is the fairest and most complete I have read. I agree with your conclusions, this machine will change the world. If your don’t mind I will pass it on to my skeptical friends.
PS The tin foil covering the machines is for insulation or to keep the insulation in.
I have been following Rossi’s progress since earlier this year since his first public demonstration of a 5 KW heater. Controversy ensued. He carried out two other demonstratios, the last one on the 28th of October producing half a megawatt of heat for hours in the presence of scientists and an Associated Press journalist who until now has not published his report.
Fleischmann and Pons experiment could not be replicated, or so MIT and other scienctific entities said. But the truth is that F&P’s experiment was conducting using pure uncontaminated chemicals and metals. It could have even been a cover up and a character assasination of the two scientists, both top brass.
Rossi may be a fraud, but until now nobody has found any indicastion, let alone proof of fraud.
If the man who invented fire was treated like Rossi, we would not have fire today and we would still be eating raw meat, since his shaman would have declared him a fraud for the fact that he would not have been able to explain the physics, or, in this case, the chemistry.
Actually there were 13 replications of the fleischmann Pons effect in the first 18 months but the US government committee created to put the kibosh on the work by rival energy interests in the DOE refused to report on the successes. Andrea Rossi has some interesting quirks and a novel history but he is a fighter and in the cold fusion field quiet, polite scientists are easily ignored. We’ve done the research for 25 year with 8000 replications and variations.Now we need to break down the barriers and smash the ingrained bias written into the text books. Rossi’s tactic is our wrecking ball.
I would not worry about war Pat. As an old hand in the cold fusion (LENR) world we have had time to think through the problem. With cold fusion powered desalination plants and pumps to take the water in land we can green the middle-east. Water is 10 times more valuable than crude oil. The Arabic world knows this. With abundant cheap water the Arab world can farm those deserts and feed the world. Culturally and economically this will be seen as more desirable than the new dwindling oil.
I believe, Rossi and Pons & Fleischmann are impossible to compare.
P&F had to use a real complicated and difficult calorimetry.
They had to take the electrolysis energy into their energy calculation and hydrogen & oxygen gasing out. To speed this up, they had invented a simplyfied boiling doubt method and the correctness of this method was doubted later.
It is also a delicate problem to measure the pulsating electrical electrolysis power correctly.
They had everything visible and fully documented with data and calculations. Other experimenters had the same problems to face.
It is possible they had really found excess energy, many believe it and I dont want to decide it.
The final decision against them was made because errors in neutron measurement where found and other found no neutrons and no radiation.
Rossis case is much simpler.
Measurement of electric input energy is rather simple in his case, but it was not recorded continuously. Only some meters where connected and occasionally spottet at them.
No gases emerge, only steam or hot water.
Observers where not allowed to watch the boiling water surface or to measure the pressure in the vaporization chamber.
It is possible to work around this limitation, if a heatexchanger is used and the energy measured there. They did this, but they choose the waterflow very high and finally the correctness of temperature measurements was doubted, because the delta choosen vas very small.
This was totally different with Pons & Fleischmann. Everything was open, visible, documented up to scientific standards, partially made out of glass, but the measurements they had to made where much more difficult.
Peter
@Archibald:
There could be war, but consider if we DON’T find an alternative to oil. You can’t drive to work. Farms can’t ship food to cities. Goods can’t be transported between nations and continents. Nations will hoard oil for their own defense (planes and ships won’t work without it). As the world runs out (it will EVENTUALLY, right?) the haves will take from whoever they can. Nations will tear each other apart in a deperate attempt to survive. WWI will look tame.
I, for one, am hoping that this or someother version of cold fusion will appear. Sooner the better.
Great blog and lively (and civil!!) discussion. Kudos.
why would there be a war? stop being a fvcking idiot. In today’s age…too many eyes…too much internet.
They go to war, we’ll know who to lynch. control by a massive catastrophe?
factions in the miltiary will split…there is no way they can control then.
So…wtf are oyu talking about?
its f cold fusion—and oil is just going to have to sit back, relax, and take it up the ass—..
with a spiked dick, and a lemon on top.
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