One of my friends has recently been insisting that back in the 1930’s, a guy named T. Henry Moray invented a device (a “black box”) that created electricity out of nothing, that the only reason his invention didn’t revolutionize the world was because the establishment wasn’t open-minded enough to allow the possibility that it might work and thus did everything possible to suppress his invention (including having somebody mysteriously attempt to shoot him), etc.
Unfortunately, the only references I’ve been able to find about this guy and his “invention” so far have all been just passing mentions on other free-energy/conspiracy sites.
Does anybody have any information about this guy and his “invention” specifically? That is, not just general information about why free energy machines are scams – my friend seems to believe me when I tell him that, but he insists that T. Henry Moray’s black box is the exception.
Google his name, you’ll find plenty of references for it. Unfortunately, all the ones I read are written by complete crackpots who believe this sort of thing works. No, there is no free energy. No more so than, say, solar enery is free. A better term might be “practical energy”, which solar is, to a point. That is, you can get more energy out of a solar gernerating system than you put into building and running it. This is NOT the same as saying the total energy out is greater than the total energy in. the eficciency of solar power is low, only about 20% or so.
Moray’s invention was a form of the so-called zero-point energy collectors, that purport to extract energy from the subatomic energy “foam” that pervades all space, consisting essentially of pairs of virtual particles and antiparticles continuously being created and destroyed by mutual anihilation. Most modern physicists do not believe that much, if any, energy can actually be extracted from this, as the net energy level is zero.
Yeah, that was what I meant – every Google/Google Groups/etc. reference I could find was written by “HIS INVENTION WAS BRUTALLY SUPPRESSED!!!” crackpots. So I guess I should have specified – I’m looking to see if anybody has any detailed and non-crackpot information about him and his device.
I left out an important point: quantum mechanics does predict that such a quantum foam exists, but that its net energy is zero. Recently within the last five years or so), another scientist purported to demonstrate an effect of this zero-point energy by using two closely-space metal plates in a vacuum (so close, that theory said only the lower-energy modes could occur between them), claiming that the tiny force pushing them together was cause by zero-point energy pressure differential. this has not at all been widely-accepted either. Even if it is true, it shows that the extractable energy density is extremely small.
I don’t think this is true. I’ve heard it said that a PV array does not produce one net watt. In other words, if you were to add up all the energy expended to manufacture the PV array, it would be greater than the amount of electrical energy the PV array could produce under average conditions (10 year life span, x number of sunlight hours, etc.) I don’t have any proof to back this up, but it is something that Don Lancaster has mentioned on numerous occasions. And he’s, um, rarely wrong about anything…
Well, let’s see. Let’s use this unit as a basis for comparison, since all its specs are given. The specs say the nominal power output is 4 watts in bright outdoor sunlight, which is 4 joules per second. If we operate this unit continuously, assuming 12 hours of sun per day, for 10 years, that ampounts to a total energy production of 6.3 x 10[sup]8[/sup] joules, if I’ve done my math right. I can’t imagine this unit needs more energy than that to be manufactured.
The average “equivalent sun hours” (ESH) per day across the U.S. is about 4 hours. This measure takes into account optimal tilt angle of the PV array, seasonal fluctuations, etc. Here’s a map:
If we assume that the panel is connected to a matched load (equivalent to around 50 ohms or so), which is a big “if,” then we can assume the panel will be sourcing 4 joules per second for 4 hours (14400 seconds) every day. This is 57,600 joules every day. Assuming the array will last 10 years, we can expect it to source about 210 million joules over this time. This is still a liberal estimate, as there are other factors I’m not taking into account. But I’ll go ahead and use it.
210 million joules “ain’t much.” This is equivalent to a single 7,000 watt machine running for 1 day. Could that amount of energy make the solar panel? Extremely unlikely, espcially when you consider the silicon must be mined, purified, etc. The actual amount is probably at least 10X that.
There have been so called “studies” on this topic. Here’s one:
This “analysis” has a lot of obvious problems, not the least of which is the assumption of optimal load & ESH conditions. Another thing these studies leave out is that fact that polycrystalline silicon cells are a byproduct of the semiconductor industry. In other words, the silicon used in PV arrays are rejects from industry. If anyone wanted to “go big” with PV arrays, they would soon learn they must make their own polycrystalline silicon cells which would skyrocket the cost.
New solar panels are manufactured by Amorphous Silicon Technology, which greatly reduces manufacturing cost, both in terms of money and energy. There is also black silicon to revolutionise photovoltaics.