We are still fitting the new flanges to the borosilicate tubes, which Mathieu found out the Pyrex borosilicate is still not the same glass Celani used. He is shopping for the Schott-Duran brand glass that Celani used in order to do the most accurate replication possible. The thought is that the glass will retain more heat and won't require as much power to get the test cells to the preferred operating temperature.
The risk is that if we have to put too much power into the wire to heat the cell to the required temperature we might overload the wire and it will burn out easier.
Tonight at midnight we will be done with the prescribed calibration plan for the control wire in the quartz tube. We are getting a nice, tight baseline calibration curve with about 1 to 2 watts of uncertainty, which will correlate to 2 - 4 degrees C roughly. If we see a temperature rise of more than 5 C we will be pretty certain we are seeing an effect. If we get 10 to 20 watts of power off the wire, we can expect roughly a 20 to 40C higher temperature. The graph below shows the confidence limits around the average temperature of the Mica as a function of the temperature.
Tonight, we took the the input power and the averaged values of the temperature rise and used zunzun.com to find a good equation to fit it. The results look like this.
Next, we'll use this formula to add a calculated field for power out as a function of T_rise on the live data display.
That means, we should be ready to load the Celani wire tomorrow, unless we think of something else that is worth doing first. The anticipation is thick here. So is the nervousness. We don't want to make any mistakes with the wire.
We are working feverishly to make the live data feed work well enough to share. As soon as it does, I will share it so everyone interested can watch the active wire (hopefully) generate excess heat.
Matt and Nicolas are working on the Euro Cell. The software is getting frustrating, but we pointed them at a java graphing program that should help them watch the data easier. We are putting together a shipment of parts like flanges for the new glass, some Isotan 44 wire, and a few other little parts.
Hey guys, be sure to get pictures and/or video of working together.
In other news, some key parts for a next generation test cell arrived today. More details on that as soon as I need a filler article.
Comments
It can be compared with a heat flow leak which at calibration is higher that for the “sharp” case.
The convection properties depend of the Rayleigh number. To be 100% sure to exclude the effect you need to calibrate with two gasses, one with higher and one with lower Rayleigh number than hydrogen.
Another option is to use a non-transparent tube.
And when you measure the temperature of the mica, do you allow it to reach steady state at a given power level or are you following some sort of consistent power vs time program? If so, what's the heater power vs time curve?
I am sorry if this has been explained elsewhere. If so, please just link the explanation.
Thanks.
crazypixels.com/.../...
Just put a webcam in a corner, it'd be easy.
This will give us insight and understanding for the next phase. The big social funding and multiple replication of a second generation reactor that will hopefully help to kickstart a revolution.
If the team strike first time - you lot will be right there with us - it would be lucky for sure - but whatever happens we'll keep testing so as to understand what works and what doesn't and this will take the process forward. Thanks for engaging and spread the word - The New Fire is coming!
I too am skeptical but nonetheless I remain hopeful. After the whole Rossi saga who can blame us for being more cautious than normal?
you oughta start some kinda pool as to when "the effect" will be seen. if you make it happen by the end of the week (sat midnight) I'll throw in another $50 toward this great project :)
I recommend that you play with the drive allocation between the active and inactive wire while keeping the net drive the same for output comparison.
I am impressed with the progress you are making. Keep up the important work.
Consequently, given the maxim “extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof” to win over the main scientific community expediently, I would suggest the only proof capable of this is to achieve a self sustained mode.
Once you have beyond (your own doubt) seen the experimental results (poss. or neg.), then you can start removing insulation and making the experiment as open as possible for others to see.
also your security code is too hard to get right...
I believe that the nature of the glass is irrelevant to the amount of power generated by the wire or its operating temperature.
First, It is the wire temperature that affects the reaction. If the glass allows more heat loss, it just means that we need a little more wattage to keep the wire temperature where we want it. That means that the cell will have a slightly lower energy gain as a percent of heater power. At this stage, we don't care. All we want is to measure excess heat. Making it more efficient comes later.
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