belovelife Posted March 24, 2011 Report Posted March 24, 2011 there is a patent herecould someone look at thisor read the atached file Patent_For_Converting_EM_To_Electrical_Energy.pdfFetching info... Quote
CraigD Posted March 26, 2011 Report Posted March 26, 2011 From the text of this patent, I think neither the applicants nor the examiners understand the physics on which the invention is based. Although I don't know much about the applicants (Franklin B Mead Jr. and Jack Nachamkin), the primary examiner (Peter S Wong) is a bachelor of science in Electrical Engineering, with postgrad study but no degree in computer design, neither of which require much background in the modern physics necessary to understand the ideas described in the application. He did well in the USPTO, eventually being promoted to group director of a USPTO technology center, getting a graduate certificate in Public Management along the way, before leaving USPTO to work in several private patent offices, but gives no evidence of interest in modern physics. (Ah, for the good old days when unemployed Physics PhDs like Albert Einstein worked in patent offices!) Although they mention it in the background section of the patent, Mead and Nachamkin appear not to understand the Casimir effect (recall that this patent was granted in 1996, when self-educating about such phenomena was harder than it is now). They appear to confuse the virtual photons (typically described as equivalent to a "zero point energy field") responsible for the Casimir effect with something they call "classical zero point electromagnetic radiation", and suggest that the effect is due to this. I believe this is a critical misunderstanding. In short, I see nothing to indicate that the invention would work – that is, generate any power. The idea of using the Casimir effect to produce power is an interesting one, and perhaps the most credible of the many often pseudoscientific ones common among "zero point energy" enthusiasts/proponents. The goal of ZPE proponents is simple - get lots of energy from literally nothing - a vacuum - via some device that causes the practically infinite number of virtual particles in it, which are normally undetectable, to do practically usable work. Devices made to measure the Casimir effect do precisely that - are moved a tiny distance by a small force not due to any external radiation. Casimir effect measuring apparatuses, however, are big, complicated machines built using ultra-precise fabricating machines and much more energy than the tiny amount they produce. Once this tiny amount of energy is produced one time, at least as much energy must be used to reset the device so it can produce it again. So, while the tiny amount of mechanical work measured truly is "free" - it comes from no actual source - much more ordinary work must be done to get it. Getting a CE-powered machine to "break even" - output at least as much as they need inputted - is the challenge. As best I can tell, scientifically competent people who've approached this challenge have abandoned the approach of making metal plate devices like those used to measure the Casimir effect, in favor of utilizing processes that can produce huge numbers of miniature Casimir effect incidentally. One that struck me as interesting and promising involves the Sonoluminescence – producing light from sound, in the hope that some or most of the light produced is due the Casimir effect (or the related, but less experimentally confirmed Unruh effect). If this is so, it might be possible to get more energy from a sonoluminescent effect such as using electric transducers to cause tiny, glowing bubbles in water than is used to power the transducers. This approach builds on the scientific work of Julian Schwinger. The third section of this fringe forum webpage, titled “CASIMIR EFFECT”, has as good a synopsis of this approach as I’ve read. JMJones0424 1 Quote
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