Posts by magicsound

@Dan21 There is no significant phase shift in this system. The heater coil self-inductance is just 0.8 microhenry and the frequency is 60 Hz, pure sine wave. I measured the -3 dB corner frequency to be >50 kHz, using a swept sine wave source.

We're currently running a test to evaluate the sensitivity of the UCS30 NaI detector to EMF. We have a spark plug set in front of the detector, with continuous spark drive from a Ford Model T ignition box. You can see the test live at http://magicsound.us/MFMP/video/. It will run until around midnight 2 May (UTC).

We measured the RF field with the Narda detector at 0.2 mW/Cm2, about an order of magnitude higher than background. So far, there's no indication of sensitivity to this stimulus in the gamma spectrometer.

We're following a hint from me356 here, using 100 year old technology!

@Eric The pressure events were scripted following Ecco and Webbie's requests, and manually executed. We alternately bled/pumped out the cell and added H2 from a bottle. In all cases, the power was supplied by a Variac, so RF EMI was not an issue.

@Ecco The only mild steel (rustable) part in the cell is a rod inside the t-fitting at the null end. It never sees more than ~100 C, and was used specifically as a getter for water vapor. All the other steel parts are 316L stainless steel.

@Arnaud Yes, I'm aware of the limits of a Pirani-type gauge. It does offer the important advantage of being able to tolerate positive pressure without damage.For a roughing vacuum system like mine, It's a logical place to start.

I do plan to add a better instrument, perhaps a capacitance gauge like the CEREVAC. These typically require careful protection against over pressure, though some can tolerate up to several bar.

@jeff Yes, possible. We're looking for something in the cell that can getter free Hydrogen. In theory, the Nickel is fully loaded with as much H as it can adsorb. But Hydrogen can combine with molten Lithium, forming LiH which is solid at these temperatures. At ~900 C it begins to decompose, again releasing the Hydrogen.

Further, if the cell is then pumped out, when it cools, a surplus of elemental Lithium remains. The process is in theory repeatable if H2 is again added. And that is in fact what we did during these tests.

We'll explore this further in the next incarnation of GS.

The measurement is from a VG200 Pirani vacuum gauge, not a pressure gauge. These transducers use a thermistor heated by constant current. The thermister temperature is an inverse function of the gas thermal conductivity. Pirani gauges are typically calibrated for Nitrogen (air). A downward correction factor of 0.5 is needed for Hydrogen. See
https://www.mpi-hd.mpg.de/gerd…uals/bg805178be_d_web.pdf

Thus the reading of 5 microns would correspond to a H2 pressure of 2.5 microns for this type of gauge.

At the tail end of the GS5-3 run, we did some additional tests suggested by Ecco. We pumped out the cell at ~500 C (core), reaching ~40 microns. This is the typical limit of the vacuum system and cell plumbing in many previous cycles. Then we added H2 from a bottle to 1 bar. After a 30 minute dwell, we pumped the cell out again and found it reached 5 microns of vacuum.

This test was repeated several times, at 600 C and 700 C in the core, with the same result. A final test cycle at 850 C (core) reached a vacuum level of just 2 microns, far better than the vacuum system can achieve even with a closed manifold (typically 25 microns).

I find these results among the most startling and unexpected in my 2 years of Glowstick experiments, and I can't think of a physical explanation for what we measured. I'd appreciate comments on how this can be explained by ordinary physical and chemical phenomena. Tom Clarke's insight would be especially welcome, since he has a demonstrated skill at suggesting plausible explanations for unusual measurements.

The vacuum pump is a Welch Duoseal 4000 with a Pirani vacuum gauge mounted on the manifold. It's connected to the cell with about 40 cm of Tygon tubing with Swagelok valves. The vacuum gauge is battery powered and hasn't shown any unusual behavior in the past. The cell heater was powered from a Variac during these tests, so no EMI above 60 Hz was present.

@StephenC No problem with x-ray emission. The Glowstick is lined with Unobtanium, which blocks all forms of radiation except gravity waves and Neutrinos.

April 1, 2016 *For Immediate Release*

The impression I have from SKINR is that the run just finished was merely an initial step towards replication, to test and refine the engineering parts of the experimental setup. I am supporting them in this by providing details of construction and many other steps including the Nickel pre-treatment.

Their program is ongoing, and will include a comprehensive set of radiation measurement instruments when they become available from another experiment now in progress. SKINR is one of the premier research groups in this field, and I'm sure they know how to run good experiments.

@Para.
Keep in mind that the TC of a typical NaI detector is -0.3%/°C. In the GS5-2 data, this resulted in the K40 peak appearing at ~1350 keV with the detector at 42 °C.

@Para.

The low energy cutoff depends to some degree on the calibration settings of the instrument. When auto-calibrated with CS137, the cutoff is 11 keV, appearing on channel 11 of the MCA. The highest channel (1024 pending upgrade this week to 4k) is 1016 keV.

For the GS5-2 spectra, a 2-point calibration was done to extend the range at the high end. The low end filter cutoff is 22 keV in channel 14. The highest bin is nominal 1428 keV. By setting up the instrument this way, the K40 peak at 1460 keV can be used for measuring the calibration drift as the NaI detector heats up.

@Thomas
Once again I must correct serious misinformation you posted, apparently without checking facts.

First, regarding the gamma spectrum #7 recorded during the GS5-2 experiment, the peak signal observed was 59.9 CPM at 23.6 keV. Background level at the experiment was repeatedly measured over a period of two weeks prior to the experiment, and was found to be 2.32 CPM at 23.6 keV. Thus the signal seen was 25 times background, not 6 as you claimed. Furthermore, the shape of the spectrum is visibly different than the typical background spectra, and bears none of the signature peaks of Radon or its progeny, or of any other proposed contaminant.

Second, regarding the alleged ground loop, great care has been paid to this possibility in refining the experimental apparatus over the course of six prior experiments in 2015. For details, please refer to my paper at https://goo.gl/VsFidF
and to the system wiring diagram on page 3 of the experiment document at https://goo.gl/tidwWK. The increased noise seen in the temperature data is believed to be due to induced AC from the magnetic field of the heater coil, and is an unavoidable consequence of the cell design. However, this is irrelevant in the case of GS5-2, for which no excess heat is claimed. Unlike the thermocouples, the NaI gamma detector is physically distant from the heater and is therefore not subject to this problem.

Alan Goldwater

@Joshua We make no claim of excess heat resulting from radiation. We just observed the radiation and are now discussing it. Available sky survey data for cosmic rays shows no abnormal events during that period. Stray dust won't account for it, because no such source shows up in extensive survey of the local environment. If you have a more plausible explanation for it, please share the details.

If the radiation is primarily high-energy beta (electrons), it would be thermalized in the reactor tube or air around the reactor. The apparent Brehmsstralung broad-band gamma spectrum we saw suggests this is a possible scenario.

If the betas are collected on an anode in the cell, they might even produce electricity in inverse proportion to the thermalization heat. I'm sure there will be objections to this but it would account for both radiation data and a recent claim by AR.

316 alloy Stainless Steel contains 10-14% Ni and 16-18% Cr (wt). So it's not surprising it might be LENR-active.
Even mild steels contain lots of trace elements, primarily Mn at up to 1.5%, but very low amounts of Ni.

I see two possible alternatives to the current protocol:

1) Crowd-sourced moderation - the view-ability (video contrast) of any post is diminished linearly by the number of Dislikes (thumbs down votes). At some negative number, maybe -5, that post will become blank. This is automatic and easy for the moderators, and is partially implemented here. But it depends on source-level configurability of the forum, and it's vulnerable to possible abuse, for example by someone with five forum aliases.

2) Full moderation of the offender's posts, including editing of content without restriction. This is an added work burden for the moderator(s), but ensures that possibly valuable content hidden in the weeds can reach the forum. It also allows the offender right of access, while protecting the forum as a community from harmful disruption.

I've been running a forum with around 1500 members for over 10 years, and I've found the second approach to be workable and fair. It needs moderator(s) willing to clearly define and then apply the forum rules and focus.

I also have Ni foam and have studied it extensively.
See my complete notes at https://www.evernote.com/pub/alang152/simplecell

@MajoranaI have LiAlD4 and will add some for the next test series. This one establishes a good baseline for comparison.