COMMENTARY ON CONFERENCE ON FUTURE ENERGY (CoFE, Apr. 29-30, 1999)
By Jeane Manning
COMMENTARY ON CONFERENCE ON FUTURE ENERGY
[CoFE, Apr. 29-30, 1999, Bethesda, MD]
By Jeane Manning
The Conference on Future Energy (CoFE), in Bethesda, MD, presented an interesting mix of viewpoints, and Tom Valone and Marc Whitford of Integrity Research Institute and their volunteers deserve credit. They broadened discussion by inviting speakers from traditional alternatives and from the U.S. Department of Energy.
[See also Another Summary of this Conference.]
The first guest speaker, Ken Shoulders, told how to use micron-sized clusters of electrons in a particular experiment, and offered to consult with any competent tinkerers who are willing to spend a mere $60 apiece for materials to work in their home laboratories on it. The charge clusters "perform a low-energy phase transformation when interacting with solid material, propelling the electrons to high velocity without conventional heating." This new energetics is an amazing field of enquiry, and by offering to share a corner that he isn't using, Shoulders opened the gate to a new technology for interested experimenters.
CoFE lectures were videotaped. Other sources of information on the work of Ken Shoulders and his partner, Steve Shoulders, are a book on EV history, a CD-ROM, and of course the NEN newsletter.
One of the speakers at CoFE was Les Adam, who hosted the first such meeting I attended - his 1986 "Meeting of the Minds" in southern California. Valone and Paul Brown spoke there. Adam is planning a Meeting of the Minds at the new AZ Industries facilities in Arkansas, August 20-22, 1999. (www.futuremag.net) Les and his brother Harley manufacture magnetic fuel-efficiency boosters, electric pulse drive cars, and helicopters powered by hydrogen peroxide.
Nuclear physicist Paul Brown, known for his betavoltaic devices, has nine other patents. He uses tritiated amorphous silicon as an energy-conversion semiconductor in the devices. Brown also has a process for photo-remediation of radioactive waste, which is undergoing government tests. Understandably since others are funding the research, neither Brown nor Shoulders talked about the newest aspects of their work. For his pioneering work, Brown received an award from Integrity Research Institute at the CoFE banquet.
Although traditional solar power was not represented at CoFE, there was a wind-power lecture. Kent Robertson said windmills are now as quiet as a bathroom fan, and are the fastest-growing alternative energy industry in the USA.
A newcomer to New Energy conferences, David Wallman, is an electrical engineer from the University of Nebraska, who uses high-voltage arc discharges in water containing carbons, and accesses the released gases. It seems to be an over-unity process. The unique hydrogen-based gas product has properties of a stable, versatile clean fuel. Wallman demonstrated his carbon-arc machine, cautioning us about the blinding light it emits.
Also on liberating internal energy from water, physicist Peter Graneau gave a paper co-authored by his son Neal of Oxford University and by George Hathaway of Toronto. Their arc discharges do work reliably in the laboratory, and cause cold fog explosions at 150 per cent efficiency. The next challenge is to produce electricity in a cost-effective way.
Tom Valone's slide presentation put Zero-Point Energy in historical perspective and included its basic physics, first patent, articles and experiments that have made NASA and the DOE reconsider ZPE.
Bruce Perrault talked about a Radiant Energy Generator and his valves which pump electrons from earth ground to be stored in high-voltage capacitors. "A second stage converts the HV charge to usable power at any frequency." Perrault said that an employee of a major auto company bought materials from his NuEnergy website, and now the company "reproduced my work" and has a patent pending.
A journalist who writes for mainstream publications listened to CoFE speakers, then shared his insights at the appropriate time - the feedback session at the end of the two days of lectures. His feedback was that journalists are unimpressed with a meeting that includes "UFO" among its scheduled topics, and/or includes speakers who seem to be more in the mode of selling products than of presenting knowledge.
Dr. Steven Greer did use the U-word in his presentation "Evidence of Free Energy Suppression." He commented wryly that when people go to a UFO conference and talk about free energy, they are told to not talk about wacky stuff because the UFO researchers want credibility for their conference. Meanwhile, "If you go to a New Energy conference and talk about UFOs, someone says 'don't talk about that; it's rubbish; it's crazy; it's lunatic fringe. We want to be credible.' In reality it's two sides of one coin. The pot is calling the kettle black too, because there's plenty of fringe nonsense in both movements." Greer is the strategy man for an inventor of an electromechanical overunity device, but his speech also led up to the suggestion to "Tell your congressman to get a disclosure of covert projects."
Paul Pantone demonstrated his GEET Fuel Processor, an invention intended to do away with carbon exhaust, and said a manufacturer was ready to go on a 16-kilowatt variable-speed model for boats. The invention's possibilities listed by Pantone included: burning tires without emitting polluting vapors, running an 18-wheeler truck on gasoline, and adding oxygen to an environment.
David Goodwin of the U.S. Dept. of Energy's Office of High Energy and Nuclear Physics talked about cleaner fuels and vehicle improvements, advanced batteries, fuel cells materials and electronic materials his area then reported on a Breakthrough Propulsion Physics conference. Goodwin stayed calm when a questioner said the government "sabotages free energy" while mega-corporations get taxpayers' money. "I do not understand the politics," Goodwin replied. Regarding zero point energy, he acknowledges that it is a future energy possibility, but "has a long way to go." He works on applications and development of technologies, while ZPE research is basic science, he said. It seems DOE is not mandated to do that. Nevertheless, the audience apparently appreciated the good will and courage shown by Goodwin's attendance at CoFE at the end of his talk he was strongly applauded.
Thomas Van Flandern, author of Dark Matter, Missing Planets and New Comets, gave a lecture, "Complete Gravity Model and Free Energy," that was a highlight of the conference for many. He cited Phys.Lett.A (1,1,99) in backing up his statement that propagation of gravity has been shown to exceed the speed of light. "The LeSage interpretation of particle-gravity is favored by new findings, suggesting that propulsion and gravitational shielding is possible."
There were other highly qualified speakers., especially in the field of research which Edmund Storms describes as Assisted Nuclear Reactions. Storms, professor George Miley, Eugene Mallove and Robert W. Bass gave workshops on aspects of the field. "Cold fusion" researchers will want to order those workshop audiotapes.
I came home with a CD on Zero Point Technologies (by Frank Znidarsic, 481 Boyer St, Johnstown PA 15906) that uses multimedia to show new ways of looking at cold fusion and related topics, and videos, including the new broadcast-quality "Cold Fusion: Fire from Water" video which premiered at CoFE by Infinite Energy. It's fast-moving as well as informative. I showed the 70-minute version to a lay group in Vancouver, Canada, and their attention never wavered.
www.padrak.com/ine/NEN_6_10_18.html
Aug. 25, 1999.