There was an article about this in the Times yesterday. The tone of the article was rather light and ended with a scientist stating he had better things to do than worry about this free energy machine. The Times journalist was turned down at the last second from seeing the actual device.
I think I saw some calculations to the effect that tens of thousands of years’ usage at the current rate would eventually make each day about a second longer, or something like that, but then again, I would imagine that people would have made similarly optimistic statements about the Earth’s oil reserves once upon a time.
Why do they even need validation? They should just start using their technology for all of the power requirements of their offices, labs, etc. Heat and cool their own houses. Get some gearhead to rig up a car so it runs on free energy. Once people see how well it works, the world wil beat a path … etc.
Damn! So close!
OK, in fairness to them, they’ve said in the interview they’re not into production - they’ve just ‘discovered’ a supposedly repeatable phenomenon and want it validated. It’s consistent, at least.
Jury duty again? No thanks.
The website says this–
We have developed a technology that produces free, clean and constant energy.
This–
In 2003 Steorn undertook a project to develop more efficient micro generators. Early into this project the company developed certain generator configurations that appeared to be over 100% efficient. Further investigation and development has led to the company’s current technology, a technology that produces free energy. The technology is patent pending.
And this–
The Steorn team brings together a wealth of experience from diverse industries including: Energy, Engineering and Information Technology. This unique skill-base has been instrumental in delivering many complex projects and technologies.
It sounds to me that they are claiming more than just having observed a phenomeno, and that they have highly qualified engineers on staff, to whom it should be child’s play to hook up those generators to a power plant.
They claim to already have it validated. What’s to stop them from going into limited production?
No one validated the airplane. As soon as people saw that flight was possible, they just started building the suckers.
Is he still around?!?! I haven’t heard of him in 20 years. He was quite the darling of TalkRadio in the 80s.
Just read Cec’s take- especially the Update.
Oh my God.
Well, that was an interesting interview. Pretty evasive all around. As **jjim **says, the idea that they will move on to “other col projects” after this one is “validated” is just bizarre. They are thinking about cell phone performance, when eliminating poverty and hunger seems a likely consequence of their discovery. And global warming. Just to name a few.
You know, I think you’re on to something here. Let’s see:
STEORN [shuffle shuffle shuffle] TENSOR
Aha!
Just suppose this was a scam.
No really! :rolleyes:
Let’s compare that idea with what they have done…
Well of course you’d want lots of publicity (check) …
but not want to give any demonstration (check)
You’d want to spout vague scientific terms (check) …
but not to submit actual experimental data to a proper review (check)
Naturally this complete revision of a century of physics observations will be glossed over (check).
You’d hope to attract gullible investors (wait for it).
Does anyone want to buy a bridge?
I’m intrigued…
This article is interesting
Pigs is Pigs, and Scamers are Scamers!
Checking the Steorm web site for downloads yielded a 5 minute videio of round about talk and two pdf’s of graphics aleged to have been published in “The Economist.” No link to an article that I could find.
Repeat outloud, “There is NO Free Lunch” and if you think this is anything but a scam of one kind or another repeat outloud, “There is NO Free Lunch.”
Birds of a feather Joe Newman, Tom Bearden, and these cats among others. With apologices to real felines.
Thanks for that insightful and illuminating post, spingears. If you bother reading any of this stuff, particularly the Guardian article, I think you’d conclude that they are very unlikely to be “scamers” - at worst deluded - and not looking for investment until they have a verifiable product.
What would happen if they posted plans and construction details on their website? Why then just ANYBODY could verify their claims. Which leads to the next scammer symptom:
You need to maintain a philosophy of unnecessary secrecy, even refusing to divulge test results, even keeping the invention secret after it has been patented. (check)
Just because a patent requires you to divulge the secrets and give plans to others who are “skilled in the art,” that doesn’t mean you have to give up on promoting an aura of secrecy.
Also you need to devote enormous labor/funding to producing a tight professional web presence (check)
Done right, you should be putting far more work into your website than into your research. After all, the famous Dennis Lee showed us the importance of a professional-looking facade when trying to convince the untrained members of the public to take you seriously.
More symptoms: WEIRD SCIENCE: 'Free Energy' Articles
On the other hand… maybe they’ve discovered something unusual, and all the scam symptoms are really just symptoms of staggering incompetence. Jed Rothwell of CF fame calls this the “inventors’ are their own worst enemy syndrome.” And remember, don’t ascribe to conspiracy that which is adequately explained by stupidity. ( - R. Heinlein )
My favorite part so far is their list of “claims” for their technology, as found here.
I have to say that I’d be pretty impressed, even if all they managed to do was produce useful energy while lowering the ambient temperature of the room.
Great idea! I’m going to patent it.
Dang, already patented.
Forget manned flight or semiconductor electronics. Forget relativity and quantum mechanics.
What this would do is imply that physics changes its laws.
No, I don’t mean that energy used to be conserved and now it’s not. I mean the subtler point that popular books on physics are only just barely starting to tell the masses: the fact that the laws of physics stay the same as time goes by is intimately related to the fact that mass-energy is conserved. If mass can be changed then the whole house of cards falls down, bringing planes down from the sky, bridges crashing into canyons, and your computers dying horrible whining deaths.
Just imagine that: if these guys are right then we’re looking at a world without the SDMB.
Actually, that would be great: an a/c unit that ran itself on the heat it removed from the air.
Except it doesn’t work like that. It would have to be moving the heat energy, which takes work to counteract the second law of thermodynamics.
In short: the way you’re thinking of putting them into compliance with the first law violates the second.