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Old 20-08-2006, 09:58   #1
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Scientists flock to test 'free energy' discovery

Scientists flock to test 'free energy' discovery

David Smith
Sunday August 20, 2006
The Observer

A man who claims to have developed a free energy technology which could power everything from mobile phones to cars has received more than 400 applications from scientists to test it.

Sean McCarthy says that no one was more sceptical than he when Steorn, his small hi-tech firm in Dublin, hit upon a way of generating clean, free and constant energy from the interaction of magnetic fields. 'It wasn't so much a Eureka moment as a get-back-in-there-and-check-your-instruments moment, although in far more colourful language,' said McCarthy. But when he attempted to share his findings, he says, scientists either put the phone down on him or refused to endorse him publicly in case they damaged their academic reputations. So last week he took out a full-page advert in the Economist magazine, challenging the scientific community to examine his technology.

McCarthy claims it provides five times the amount of energy a mobile phone battery generates for the same size, and does not have to be recharged. Within 36 hours of his advert appearing he had been contacted by 420 scientists in Europe, America and Australia, and a further 4,606 people had registered to receive the results.

More here: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_ne...854305,00.html


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Also make sure that your charts have this obstruction clearly marked if you're sailing in British waters:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/flash/0,5860,998530,00.html
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Old 20-08-2006, 12:30   #2
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I hope the guy has put a patent on that before he lets out the technology to other scientists.
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Old 20-08-2006, 12:48   #3
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If not. He'll seriously be ripped off!!
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Old 20-08-2006, 16:53   #4
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Remember .......... NOTHING IS FREE!
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Old 20-08-2006, 21:43   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainK
If not. He'll seriously be ripped off!!
Their web site says that the technology is patent pending. Patent protection begins with the filing of the patent application, assuming that the patent is eventually issued.

There are currently no known infinite energy sources. If their claims are true there is absolutely no risk that the patent will not be granted. Even if the patent is rejected, demonstration of a working device is grounds to overturn the patent office's rejection.

They must know that thousands before them have made similar claims, and that all have been shown to be fraudulent or mistaken. Until they can show that their device works, the only reasonable assumption is that this is just another in a long line of bogus perpetual motion machines.
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Old 21-08-2006, 04:11   #6
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I just hope its true and not another "cold fusion" debacle. I am dubious.

George
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Old 21-08-2006, 05:14   #7
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Brush off the tesla coils honey, I can finally finish my "Let sail to Cuba" cloaking device.



sorry couldn't help myself
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Old 21-08-2006, 05:32   #8
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This is an interesting subject but as Coot pointed out, we've heard this all before and nothing has come of it.

I have to admit that putting a full page ad in "The Economist" is really sticking their neck out there. It makes you wonder if this is a stunt to help take their company public.

If by some miracle it turns out to be true, British Petroleum or Shell Oil, will buy their little Irish company in less time than it took to type this post, and we'll never hear of this again.... until we run out of oil...

Rick in Florida
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Old 21-08-2006, 05:42   #9
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I just have to make a comment on Patent Protection. For those of you old enough to remember the invention of the calculator, might remember that the company who developed it was Bomar Inc, who sold it as "The Bomar Brain". I'm talking about the 5 dollar calculator sold everywhere these days.

Well, the folks at Bomar had great R&D, and good marketing, but no production facilities to speak of. So they went to the chip manufacturer who was custom manufacturing the chips for them which were the heart of the calculator, Texas Instruments and worked out a deal that TI manufactured the calculators for them.

It wasn't long before TI marketed their own line of calculators, violating the Bomar patent. It put Bomar out of business. The Bomar stock holders sued TI under violation of Patent rights and won. The award was divied up between the stock holders of the defunct company. Texas Instruments happily paid out the award and owned the calculator market for years and years.

So much for Patent Protection

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Old 21-08-2006, 13:14   #10
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Patents aren't worth it

A couple of dozen years ago a man put some monofilament fishing line on a tin can and attached it to a gas owered edger. He went out, got a patent and began manufacturing and selling his invention which he called a "weed whacker". You may even have bought one.

As soon as the large consumer yard equipment manufacturers saw this thing they began manufacturing their own versions. With patent in hand the original inventer went to federal court, filed numerous claims, desist orders, injuctions and everything else his high priced lawyers could dream up. After a few years it finally went to court. The patent judge took one look at the device and exclaimed, "I have one of these things at home. This is not an invention. It is an obvious improvement to a currently available product." And thus the inventer was denied his patent rights due to "obviousness". I'm not kidding it is a legal patent term.

The inventor had lost so much market share to the big companies that he had to sell the name "weed whacker" which was trademarked, to one of the giants to pay off his legal bills. This is not the only instance of patent rip-off. Don't even get me started on the guy that invented to funnel that fits right on top of an oil can.

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Old 21-08-2006, 22:05   #11
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You can only patent the design, not the concept. For example, the first person to make a watermaker using Osmosis can only patent his machine design. He can't patent the principle of making fresh water from salt using the method of Osmosis. But someone can take that original watermaker design and make improvements to it. They only need to change the original design by 1% and they have an "improvement".
The industry I was in had this problem all the time.
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Old 18-09-2006, 14:05   #12
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I was Product Manager for an underwater tracking and navigation system, called "Trackpoint II". The name "Trackpoint" had been used for years for an earlier system. We had the system in Florida tracking manned submersibles during a competition. IBM was also there, as a sponsor. Two years later, the IBM Thinkpads came out with their pointing device called "Trackpoint II".

We contacted lawyers who do that sort of thing. Bottom line, we could sue IBM...sure. Our system was in production years before they stole the name outright. Lawyers said if it ever got to court, verdict would probably revolve around whether or not IBMs use of the name created confusion in the industry for us, so in other words, they flat out stole the name, and then trademarked it. Blatant thievery.

The Trackpoint II tracking system is still in production. Probably up to a Trackpoint III by now...

I managed to get all IBM computers used by our company junked and replaced by their competition, but that was just anger on my part. I still hate IBM.
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Old 18-09-2006, 14:25   #13
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Not that I am a love of Big Blue, but the guys working on the Thinkpad probably never met the guys who were at your demo. It is possible they came up with it on their own. I doubt there was any commercial advantage to using a name you had already used.

Of course, just because you are paranoid doesn't mean they’re not out to get you.

As to the original thread, I think it is interesting that we have heard no more from any of the throng of scientist who were going to test the device/phenomena. Has anybody heard anything?

George
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Old 18-09-2006, 14:51   #14
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"Free Energy"....is that when you siphon gasoline out of a town or county vehicle? I used that to get back and forth to school for years...
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