A lot of the absolutely stupid and ridiculously incompetent things IH (Darden and Vaughn) did in this whole incredible affair are beyond belief. Why did they not get independent confirmation of earlier simple high performance (18kW on a tabletop) Levi-type tests? By a famous test lab or major university **department** (not a few unknown scientists)? Why did they proceed with a completely absurd and unnecessary one year test which cost them $10M, and then allow Rossi and a few strange characters who worked for Rossi run the whole show? Why did they allow testing of multiple reactors at the same time when it would have been simpler and cleaner to test just one at a time? Why did they not have some reputable and knowledgeable third parties (heat flow, fluid flow and electrical measurement specialists) go thoroughly and cautiously over the experiment while it was running, looking for errors and sleight of hand tricks? Why did they not let such a team carry out calibrations upstream (at the input) and downstream (at the output) of Rossi's instruments, using entirely their own instruments? Why did they not check how the heat allegedly being used was in fact disposed of and measured, using their own experts? Did they not read all the allegations on the internet about what Rossi had done in the past (nothing but fraud and disasters and failures)? Even if they did not entirely believe it, why were they not more alert to the chance it might in part be true? Yes, it's beyond belief -- the whole thing is. IH's people have no business whatever investing other people's money in technological ventures and IMHO, if shareholders of IH or Woodford lose money, they should group together and sue to get it back.
Mary,
Because they know LENR is real and they just wanted Rossi's IP and park him for a while.
Cheers,
JB