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Peter de Blanc
New Member
USA
19 Posts |
 Posted - 10/02/2001 : 17:45:38
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Recently I decided to start reading some newsgroups, and one of the more interesting-sounding ones I came across was sci.physics.fusion. I have a bit of an interest in plasma physics and I thought I could learn something.
But it seems that about half of the posts there are about "cold" fusion. The claim they make is that cold fusion is a reality, and that the reason it wasn't reproducable at first was that a cathode, one of the parts used in the experiment, was straight and smooth, when it should have been "mossy" so that it would have a higher surface area.
It all sounds too simple to me though. If it's this easy, why hasn't anyone made a product yet? They say it's because of money, but if they know exactly how to build a cold fusion reactor, why aren't they selling them?
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ljbrs
SFN Regular
USA
842 Posts |
Posted - 10/02/2001 : 19:43:40 [Permalink]
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Peter de Blanc:
This is the Internet, and a lot of the Internet is filled with baloney (at least about science). I just expect it and try to overlook it. If these people understood anything at all about fusion, they would not be discussing *cold fusion* which is really *cold foolishness*. I understand that there are folks out there who are attempting to sell the *cold fusion* idea to ignorant people. As H.L. Mencken once wrote: *Nobody ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the American public.* Perhaps *cold fusion* is a money-making thing. Get enough fools around and a lot of loot can change hands.
People who know little about fusion would not understand that Pons and Fleishman would have died of radiation poisoning if their table-top *cold fusion* had been REAL fusion.
Sometimes one gets a *cold sweat* from listening to such rubbish as *cold fusion*.
ljbrs  
*Nothing is more damaging to a new truth than an old error.* Goethe |
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Dog_Ed
Skeptic Friend
USA
126 Posts |
Posted - 10/02/2001 : 21:39:58 [Permalink]
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Yeah, there's an amazing amount of junk science on the Web. I figure if anyone has a genuine invention that produces energy for cheap they can walk into darned near any engineering firm on Earth, demonstrate their product, and the firm will grab it fast...because it means the company will very soon be THE global energy company and everyone involved will make millions of dollars or euros or whatever. The reason these guys with their cold fusion cells and water-fueled cars and over-unity magnetic devices are still working out of their garages is simply that their inventions really don't work. See http://www.crank.net/ for some great examples.
"Even Einstein put his foot in it sometimes" |
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ljbrs
SFN Regular
USA
842 Posts |
Posted - 10/03/2001 : 17:12:45 [Permalink]
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Dog_Ed:
Good site. It sounds like fun.
I do not think that we get many cranks coming over here to proselytize us on SFN because our crankiness about cranks frightens off the little dears.
I have saved that site to my list of favorites for future use.
ljbrs 
*Nothing is more damaging to a new truth than an old error.* Goethe |
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