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Psst...want some over-unity electrolysis?

21 August 2008

This Run Your Car On Water subject won't go away.

The proponents continue to battle the detractors in a battle of anecdotal evidence versus science.

So yesterday I was thinking to myself...

If so many people truly believe that this works and are prepared to argue ad-infinitum that people like Stanley Meyer were onto something, is there a business opportunity here?

Now as most Aardvark readers already know, I'm simply not interested in selling snake oil or having anything at all to do with bad science from a commercial perspective, however I do see a way to earn a buck without compromising my principles.

Before I really consider embarking on such a venture, I'd like to get readers' opinions on the matter.

Here's the opportunity I've spotted.

There are a lot of folks who truly believe that Stanley Meyer was able to perform over-unity electrolysis of water using his pulsed resonant plasma system.

In effect, Meyer contended that by creating a specially crafted electrolysis cell, then feeding it with pulses of electrical energy at a specific frequency, eventually a charge would accumulate in the cell to the point where the water would break down and a very brief peak of high current would flow - creating a ribbon of plasma.

That plasma, Meyer asserted, would cause the nearby water molecules to be torn apart and disassociated into the gases hydrogen and oxygen.

The key to the process was the resonance of the cell and the plasma that was generated when the deionized water broke down under the extreme voltage gradient that occurred as the cell was "charged".

Now this is bunkum - but you can't tell those who worship at the altar of Meyer that. They honestly believe that this guy had the secret to the kind of over-unity electrolysis that could let you run your car on nothing but water and, by condensing the water vapour in the exhaust before piping it back to the electrolysis cell, effectively have perpetual motion with power to burn.

So here's my idea.

In order to build a Meyer system you need two key components.

The first is the electrolysis cell, which must be built to exacting measurements so as to ensure resonance.

The second is a source of pulsed voltage at a frequency which exactly matches the resonant frequency of the cell.

Now I know that a lot of the people experimenting with this stuff and hoping to reproduce Meyer's claimed over-unity gas-production are pretty dull types.

They have neither the understanding, skills or equipment needed to build the key components for one of these systems.

So would it be unethical to manufacture those parts, according to Meyer's own specifications (which are pretty vague) and offer them for sale to those who want to experiment.

A simple microcontroller-based pulse-generator with a few power FETs to handle up to 120A of current would be pretty cheap and easy to build. It could even be fitted with an LCD display to show frequency, voltage and current so that experimenters didn't have to fuss with multi-meters or trying to convert peak to RMS values etc.

Given the strong community of tinkers who all want to be the first to rediscover Meyer's snake oil, there'd probably be an excellent market for these devices, even if you slapped a US$250 price sticker on them.

So would it be unethical to make and sell these devices for a very healthy profit?

What if you sold them with the clear disclaimer that absolutely no claims were made for them in respect to over-unity energy production and that they were simply sold as a tool to aid experimentation?

In fact, would the production of such a device be a real boon for "good science" insomuch as it would allow all those who really believe that Meyer was a physics god to test is theories and discover he was nothing but a fraud?

What do you say readers?

Should I design something and build some or license the design to someone who will build and sell them?

Or should I simply give this area of snake oil a very wide berth?

Is it unfair to sell mortar to someone who you know is simply going to be banging their head against a brick wall?

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