# Remember Steorn and their free energy machine? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 23, 2007, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-steorn-and-their-free-energy-machine/393356 "2007-02-23T11:10:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2007, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-steorn-and-their-free-energy-machine/393356/41 "2007-02-27T01:00:24Z")
[QUOTE=Princhester] As a matter of _policy_ patent offices will not consider attempts to patent over unity devices because they are a waste of time because they never work, not because there is some law against it. [/quote] Sure there is. The Law of Conservation of Energy. 🙂 Just like the Law of Gravity. If they could repeal that one, say just over Florida for a day, how much easier it would be to get them rockets up! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![enigm4tic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@enigm4tic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enigm4tic)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2007, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-steorn-and-their-free-energy-machine/393356/42 "2007-02-27T01:27:51Z")
even better would be that the thing works exactly as advertised but 20 years from now whatever energy source IS actually being used by the machine is completely sucked dry and everything shuts down at once. Now THAT would be pretty funny. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2007, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-steorn-and-their-free-energy-machine/393356/43 "2007-02-27T01:59:01Z")
[QUOTE=Musicat] Sure there is. The Law of Conservation of Energy. 🙂 [/QUOTE] I said law, not Law (he said, in a desperate but ultimately pathetic attempt at repartee). ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2007, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-steorn-and-their-free-energy-machine/393356/44 "2007-02-27T02:23:49Z")
[QUOTE=Imasquare] Maybe. Can you deliver it? [/QUOTE] I can sell you insurance on it… For safety, ou should have coverage in place before it’s delivered. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2007, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-steorn-and-their-free-energy-machine/393356/45 "2007-02-27T03:02:49Z")
[QUOTE=picunurse] I can sell you insurance on it… For safety, ou should have coverage in place before it’s delivered. [/QUOTE] If you need re-insurance on that risk, I’m your man. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2007, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-steorn-and-their-free-energy-machine/393356/46 "2007-02-27T03:47:13Z")
[QUOTE=Princhester] You’d have people offering you more money than the GDP of Ireland for the patent within a week. [/QUOTE] That’s the salient point. The right to the machine Steorn is describing is worth more than the GDP of the UNITED STATES, much less Ireland. If you could bring in Bill Gates and show him a working model he’d give you his entire ownership in Microsoft in about as long as it took him to find a pen and sign his name on the contract. If they can prove to me that it works I’ll pay them a trillion dollars for it and figure out a way to protect it. I don’t have a trillion dollars but I’ll soon get it with a machine that produces free energy. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2007, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-steorn-and-their-free-energy-machine/393356/47 "2007-02-28T14:26:21Z")
Sorry to step in and revive this thread again, but I’ve been looking at Steorn’s site again. Either they are very very good double-bluffers, or it is not a scam and they are just very naive. I mean, come on - this machine gives out free energy, and the best hype they can come up with is that you’ll never have to charge your cellphone again? If this was actually a scam I think they would be going for the bigger picture. ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2007, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-steorn-and-their-free-energy-machine/393356/48 "2007-02-28T14:38:27Z")
[QUOTE=Colophon] I mean, come on - this machine gives out free energy, and the best hype they can come up with is that you’ll never have to charge your cellphone again? If this was actually a scam I think they would be going for the bigger picture. [/QUOTE] Sounds like they know they aren’t going to be getting one or two big checks from largw companies, but are instead shooting for a lot of little checks from individuals. Bigger picture (and money) groups are smarter than your average guy-on-the-street-that-always-has-a-dead-cellphone-battery. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2007, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-steorn-and-their-free-energy-machine/393356/49 "2007-02-28T23:15:17Z")
[QUOTE=Colophon] Sorry to step in and revive this thread again, but I’ve been looking at Steorn’s site again. Either they are very very good double-bluffers, or it is not a scam and they are just very naive. [/QUOTE] There’s just no way they can possibly be honestly mistaken. Their claim is so profound and extraordinary; it’s just not possible to sustain a claim like that, for the period that they have, and be honestly mistaken. It would be like me waking up from one of my flying dreams and saying “hey, you guys! I really can fly!”, every day for the next year or more - and all the while, somehow failing to notice that actually, I can’t fly at all.. “But he seemed so… _honest_” is what people _always_ say about scammers. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2007, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-steorn-and-their-free-energy-machine/393356/50 "2007-02-28T23:48:27Z")
[QUOTE=Colophon] Sorry to step in and revive this thread again, but I’ve been looking at Steorn’s site again. Either they are very very good double-bluffers, or it is not a scam and they are just very naive. I mean, come on - this machine gives out free energy, and the best hype they can come up with is that you’ll never have to charge your cellphone again? If this was actually a scam I think they would be going for the bigger picture. [/QUOTE] They don’t want people to see the bigger picture. Many people seem to underestimate just how extraordinary and utterly revolutionary free energy would be. It would be right up there with discovering the wheel or fire. Probably even bigger. It is precisely that underestimation that allows naive people to believe that Steorn could actually have found a source of free energy. Once you start to really grok what the effect of such a discovery would be, that’s when you start to realise just how incompatible Steorn’s cute little teaser game is with what would actually happen if they could do what they say. If I say I have an investment that will earn you 12% pa interest, it sounds good but just maybe not too good to be true. If I say I have an investment that will earn you 60% interest, your BS alarm will ring for sure. Well, mine would. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-steorn-and-their-free-energy-machine/393356.md?page=2)