Here is a response post from outside the discussion list that you might
find of interest;
================
Jerry,
In a recent posting to the Vortex-L newsgroup you wrote--
> I don't hear or see any work or reports by anyone other
> than Win for this intriguing mechanical energy extraction
> using the Casimir force and if Win can do it in his
> workshop, surely a crude version could be produced just
> to produce enough to fulfill Puthoffs 'One Watt Challenge'.
Anyone applying for a patent on a device to extract energy
from the vacuum by using the Casimir force to push two plates
together should keep in mind that a way of doing that was
described by Dr. Robert Forward in 1984, although he never
claimed that it was a practical means of producing energy.
See Forward, R. L., "Extracting electrical energy from
the vacuum by cohesion of charged foliated conductors,"
in Physical Review B, vol. 30, No. 4, Aug. 15, 1984,
pp. 1700-1702.
The idea of using an elastic restoring force to separate the
plates is interesting. I suppose that would be an example of
Thomas Bearden's principle of asymmetrical self-reguaging.
If so, then the amount of energy extracted per cycle would
vary inversely with the time required to separate the plates.
As you say, piezoelectric crystals should work well in such
a device, assuming that such a device can be made to work.
I suspect that more power could be extracted from suitably
designed magnetic devices, but other methods of extracting
zero-point energy cannot be ruled out. For example the Mead
device is a very elegant approach but might require some new
developments in nanotechnology for a practical implementation.
See U.S. patent 590031 at;
http://www.patents.ibm.com/details?patent_number=5590031
issued Dec. 31, 1996, "System for converting zero point electromagnetic
radiation energy to electrical energy."
-- Jerry Wayne Decker / jdecker@keelynet.com http://keelynet.com / "From an Art to a Science" Voice : (214) 324-8741 / FAX : (214) 324-3501 KeelyNet - PO BOX 870716 - Mesquite - Republic of Texas - 75187