Orbo - Does it Self-Sustain?
In the comments’ section of the last blog entry, a poster highlighted a misconception that I suspect may be shared with others. The language used by Steorn is unfortunate and, with so much else that surrounds the subject, it is easy to get the wrong end of the shillelagh. I thought that the point was so important that I would post here and clear it up as best I could.
In the Steorn public forum, the company CEO, Sean McCarthy, has said on a number of occasions that they are working toward a continuous motion device and, if I remember correctly, that they were 80%-90% of the way there. Taken with other comments regarding the stop/start nature of the current devices, it can easily be construed that after all this time, they have not been able to get the thing to self-sustain. While this interpretation is understandable if you have not been working on your next divorce by obsessing on the forums, it is in fact wrong.
The stop/start nature refers to a mechanism that self sustains, but whose movement may be analogous to a watch escarpment or a pendulum or even the piston of an internal combustion engine. The figure of 0.5W/cc refers to a self-sustaining device providing an excess energy that can be drawn as a load of up to that figure. When they said that they were 80%-90% on the road to a continuous motion device, they were referring to a superior design that has a smooth continuous action and that should be simpler to build, be more robust and, according to the man, should give a significant increase in power density.
Rather than being a cause for concern, if you assume as I do that they are telling the truth, this is tremendous news. As in any breakthrough technology, it is likely that early designs will be improved over time and what we are seeing is the tip of an energy revolution that can quite literally take us to the stars. (OK, so can our current technologies, but I couldn’t resist the gushing hyperbole in my current optimistic mood).
Hope this has been useful.
posted by Paul Story at
18:13
6 Comments:
Yes it was helpful. I hope you continue this blog as long as it makes sense to do so. You are a fantastic writer.
As a one-time thermal-fluids engineer, I view Steorn's claims as impossible. My education and work experiences tells me this is so. All around me the first and second laws of thermodynamics hold true and describe, over and over, the physical world. Yet, I have never seen a more believable pattern of information about a free-energy claim. The only believable pattern, actually. They have done such a good job that I believe them. Of course, I risk nothing other than dissapointment.
I often wonder how interesting our lives will become if they are telling the truth. It will be like learning that some of the magic I imagined as a child is real.
Thanks, HT.
I'm with you on this. I have partially resolved the dilemma by believing them, while not agreeing with their scientific conclusions. For the world to change, however, this band of engineers only have to be telling the truth in order for a machine to exist that does what they say it does. This does not mean that the laws of thermodynamics are broken or that CofE is dead.
"It will be like learning that some of the magic I imagined as a child is real."
Great, I might steal that!
Well I'm still a fence sitter. With the information we (the public, non spudders) have been given so far I think it is the only reasonable position. Nevertheless I do hope we will get some valuable info next week!
Have to say this is a wonderful blog indeed! Keep it up please!!
Hi Paul,
Thanks, I appreciate the encouragement to keep going and intend to do so.
Fence-sitting with a touch of hope is probably the sane way to go. Unless you play the markets or want to prepare in some way for the coming revolution (or write about it), there is nothing to be gained by jumping without the proof we have been promised. It is fun to speculate though and there's no harm in that.
Paul,
Yes, I agree about the 1st and 2nd laws still holding. If the 'Steorn' effect is real, at some point a physicist will be able to redraw the system boundary and again the universe will balance. That, too, will be fascinating.
This doesn't belong here, but--from comments on your previous post, an economist speculated that we would no longer need an electrical grid if Orbo is for real. That might happen, but I think its more likely we'll stay connected, buying and selling power into the grid from our homes and cars. Remember that the residential power demand is only about a third of the total load on the grid, and that it may be cheaper if everyone stays connected compared to installing enough generation to meet your own peak demand.
Hi HT,
It will be interesting to see how that plays out. The period where we continue to use our old systems to best effect even as we gear up to usurp them will be fascinating to watch(witness the telecoms industry). Perhaps, as you say, people will plough energy back into the grid. There will also be others eager to disconnect as soon as they possibly can.
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