(ice, caves, chemicals, oils)
Sometimes, well chosen form in architecture or materials can serve as an efficient overlapping form of coolant and ambient heat, i.e., you can address one category (coolants) more efficiently by addressing another (building materials) more efficiently.
Note the particularly keen use of tires and dirt as a form of natural refrigeration/air conditioning for this house in the summer as well as heat release in the winter.
Dennis Weaver's Earthship
27 min 5 sec
"Dennis Weaver, the US retired actor, here builds himself a mansion made almost entirely from....old tyres and dirt. This is eco-modernisation, proving once and for all that eco-friendly design and construction/building does not have to smell or look funny. In fact, it is cheaper, quicker, easier and safer to construct such an 'earthship' than any conventional construction technique! This is eco-rationality in action. Prepare to be amazed."
Commodity Ecology
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[globe added June 17, 2011; flags added December 9, 2012; real counter below]
9 comments:
Earth Cooling Tubes
In the 1970's and early 1980's, earth cooling tubes received a great deal of attention from architects, builders, and homeowners as an alternative or aid to conventional air conditioning. While the concept of routing air through underground tubes or chambers to achieve a cooling effect seems like a good idea, in practice it is not very effective, both technically and economically. Perhaps a few hundred systems were constructed, but information on the practical application of the concept is limited. There are few functioning installations, and limited quantitative performance data exists. The following information is a summary of the key points from the citations in the bibliography below.
How They are Supposed to Work
Cooling tubes are long, underground metal or plastic pipes through which air is drawn. The idea is that as the air travels through the pipes, it gives up some of its heat to the surrounding soil, entering the house as cooler air. This will occur only if the earth is at least several degrees cooler than the incoming air.
A cooling tube system uses either an open- or closed-loop configuration. In an open-loop system, outdoor air is drawn into the tubes and delivered directly to the inside of the home. This system provides ventilation while hopefully cooling the home's interior. In a closed-loop system interior air circulates through the earth cooling tubes. An alternative is to direct the cooled air from either type of system into a mechanical air conditioning system to reduce the air conditioner's cooling load.
A closed loop system is more efficient than an open loop design. It does not exchange air with the outside; instead the system recirculates the home's air through the earth cooling tubes. This makes the closed loop system more efficient, since it does not require as high a degree of dehumidification as an open loop system.
Design Considerations
Tube Material: ”The main considerations in selecting tube material are cost, strength, corrosion resistance, and durability. Tubes made of aluminum, plastic, and other materials have been used. The choice of material has little influence on thermal performance. PVC or polypropylene tubes perform almost as well as metal tubes: they are easier to install, and are more corrosion resistant.
Tube Diameter: ”Optimum tube diameter varies widely with tube length, tube costs, flow velocity, and flow volumes. Diameters between 6 and 18 inches (15.2 and 45.7 centimeters) appear to be most appropriate.
Tube Location: ”Earth temperatures and, consequently, cooling tube performance vary significantly from sunny to shady locations. Where possible, the inlets in open loop systems and the cooling tubes themselves should be placed in shady areas.
Tube Depth: ”Tubes should be buried at least 6 feet (1.8 meters) below grade. Only rarely is burying them more than 12 feet (3.7 meters) justifiable. When digging trenches at these depths, cave-ins are an extreme hazard, and appropriate precautions should be taken.
Earth Temperature: ”The temperature of the earth at depths of 20 to 100 feet (6.1 to 30.5 meters) remains about two to three degrees higher than the mean annual air temperature. At depths less than 10 to 12 feet (3.1 to 3.7 meters), earth temperatures may be strongly influenced by air temperatures and may vary during the year, depending on the locale. Near the surface, earth temperatures closely correspond to air temperatures.
Tube Length: ”There is no simple formula for determining the proper tube length in relation to the amount of cooling desired. Local soil conditions, soil moisture, tube depth, and other site-specific factors should be considered to determine the proper length.
Soil Properties: ”The amount of heat conducted and how widely it is diffused varies from one soil type to another. The moisture content of the soil is a major influence on conductivity and diffusivity, and accounts for large variations on how heat moves through the earth.
Potential Problems
Earth cooling tubes are likely to perform poorly in hot, humid areas, because the ground does not remain sufficiently cool at a reasonable depth during the summer months. Moreover, dehumidification, another equally important aspect of cooling, is difficult to achieve with earth cooling. Mechanical dehumidifiers will most likely be necessary.
The dark and humid atmosphere of the cooling tubes may be a breeding ground for odor-producing molds and fungi. Furthermore, condensation or ground water seepage may accumulate in the tubes and encourage the growth of bacteria. Good construction and drainage could eliminate some of these problems.
Insects and rodents may enter the tubes of an open-loop system. You should install a sturdy grille and insect screen at the tube inlet to deter potential intruders.
Economics
Earth cooling tube systems can be very expensive. Considering current electric power rates and the cost of materials and labor, it is unlikely that an earth cooling tube installation can be justified on economic grounds alone.
Bibliography
The following publications and articles provide additional information about earth cooling tubes.
"Cooling with Earth Tubes," E. Francis, Solar Age, (9:1) pp. 30-33, January 1984.
"Design of Air Tempering Facilities,"C. Elifrits and A. Gillies, Earth Shelter Living, (No. 30) pp. 26-27, November/December 1983.
"Earth Pipes," C. Elifrits and A. Gillies, Earth Shelter Living, (No. 29) pp. 6-7, September/October 1983.
Low Energy Cooling, D. Abrams, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York, NY, 1986. 320 pp., Out of print. See Chapter 13: Earth Cooling, pp. 256-278.
"A Novel Approach to Cooling and Heating of Buildings-Envelope Conditioning," U. Kachru, Proceedings of the 12th Annual International Energy Efficient Building Conference and Exposition, 1994, pp. B61-75. Available from the Energy and Environmental Building Association (EEBA).
Passive Annual Heat Storage, Improving the Design of Earth Shelters, J. Hait, Rocky Mountain Research Center, 1983. ISBN 0-915207-00-1.
Passive Cooling, J. Cook (ed.), Solar Heat Technologies: Fundamentals and Applications Series, Vol. 8, MIT Press, 1989. Out of print. ISBN: 0-262-03147-7.
"The Truth About Cool Tubes," M. Smolen, Rodale's New Shelter, (5:6) pp. 57-59, July/August 1984.
"Tubes Cool Off Texas," Earth Shelter Living, (No. 31) pp. 12-13, January/February 1984.
Another Source of Information:
The co-author of several of the Earth Shelter Living articles will respond to inquiries regarding earth cooling tubes:
C. Dale Elifrits, Ph.D., Director
Pre-Engineering and Outreach
Center for Integrative Natural Science and Mathematics
Northern Kentucky University
This fact sheet was reviewed for accuracy in June 2003.
NOTICE
This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States government. Neither the United States government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States government or any agency thereof.
Printable Version
http://www.eere.energy.gov/consumerinfo/factsheets/aa1.html?print
Environmentally Friendly Hydrocarbon Refrigerants
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Photo by Rick McBride. For more information goto www.digitaldude.us
Easily replaces harmful refrigerants HC Refrigerants are designed to replace many environmentally harmful refrigerants currently in use.
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Termite-inspired air conditioning:
Architect Mick Pearce collaborated with engineers at Arup Associates to build a mid-rise building in Harare, Zimbabwe that has no air-conditioning, yet stays cool thanks to a termite-inspired ventilation system.
The Eastgate building is modeled on the self-cooling mounds of Macrotermes michaelseni, termites that maintain the temperature inside their nest to within one degree of 31 °C, day and night, - while the external temperature varies between 3 °C and 42 °C. Eastgate uses only 10 percent of the energy of a conventional building its size, saved 3.5 million in air conditioning costs in the first five years, and has rents that are 20% lower than a newer building next door.
The TERMES project, organized by Rupert Soar of Loughborough University, is digitally scanning termite mounds to map the three dimensional architecture in a level of detail never achieved before.
This computer model will help scientists understand exactly how the tunnels and air conduits manage to exchange gases, maintain temperature, and regulate humidities.
The designs may provide a blueprint for self-regulating human buildings.
Anhydrobiosis-inspired vaccine storage:
Current vaccines spoil easily without refrigeration, and 50 percent fail to reach patients because of a break in the “cold chain.”
The quest for thermally-stable storage led Bruce Rosner of Cambridge Biostability Ltd (UK) to study anhydrobiosis, the process by which organisms like tardigrades and resurrection ferns are able to remain in a long-term desiccated state.
These organisms replace the water in their cells with a protective sugar called trehelose.
By coating vaccines with trehelose and suspending them in vials of inert liquid, Biostability was able to create multi-valent vaccines which remain stable for years, despite freezing or high temperatures. Since the liquid formulations are anhydrous, they are inherently bacteriostatic, eliminating the need for antiseptics.
Cambridge Biostability has already stabilized vaccines for conjugate meningitis A, hepatitis B, and tetanus toxoid. They are now developing programs for measles, pentavalent childhood vaccines, heptavalent botulinum and anthrax vaccines.
Designed closed water systems for industrial cooling and production should perhaps be mandatory--to avoid externalities into the environment.
With water difficulties surely to keep mounting, remember that 7/10 of the planet is water. This seems ideal to solve all water difficulties and do many other issues simultaneously.
The Mad Genius from the Bottom of the Sea
Unlimited energy. Fast-growing fruit. Free air-conditioning. John Piña Craven says we can have it all by tapping the icy waters of the deep.
By Carl Hoffman
Feature:
The Mad Genius from the Bottom of the Sea
Plus:
Creating a Deep-Sea Oasis on Dry Land
Halfway through an important lunch meeting in Kona, Hawaii, with the lieutenant governor of the Northern Mariana Islands, John Piña Craven is suddenly restless. The topic under discussion is Craven's plan to use cold water pumped up from the deep ocean to provide low-cost and environmentally sustainable power, water, and food to a new residential and commercial development in the Marianas, a chain of islands some 3,000 miles to the west. But none of his colleagues expect Craven to schmooze anyway, so he ditches the group and heads to the restaurant's parking lot.
Craven, who will soon turn 80, moves at a brisk shuffle, his black sneakers taking two steps for every one of mine. Back and forth we pace, like inmates in a jail yard. Craven's mind is already way beyond the Marianas project. "I've decided to run a marathon to demonstrate my newest innovation," he says. "You see, I apply cold temperatures to different parts of my body in three bastings. The third is the most complicated - I ice the terminuses of my lymphatic system. My body heals itself. Look at these hands," he says, opening and closing his fists. "I have no joint pain of any kind!"
Craven may sound like a brilliant psychotic, but he's got plenty of credentials: a PhD in ocean engineering, a law degree, and a stint as chief scientist for the US Navy's Special Projects Office. There he was instrumental in developing the Polaris missile program, the submarine-based backbone of America's nuclear deterrence and one of the most complex defense systems ever. In fact, most deep-ocean activities - saturation diving, exploring with submersibles, searching for tiny objects on the ocean floor - owe their origins to top secret, cold war-era Navy projects in which Craven had a hand.
A polymath who is as comfortable talking about the Law of the Sea as he is the plumbing nightmares inherent when 200 men a day urinate in a submarine, Craven is hard to keep up with. His mind darts from why the Navy should make subs out of glass to the sad end of his long telephone friendship with the late Marlon Brando to the remarkable prodigiousness of his small experimental Hawaiian vineyard. "One week the plants have no leaves," he says, "the next they just go zing, zing, zing and are full of fruit!"
The grapes are a key part of his plan, through his Common Heritage Corporation, to build communities around the world sustained by deep-ocean water, starting on the Mariana island of Saipan. And he's not doing it just out of the goodness of his heart. "I fully intend for CHC to be a multibillion-dollar corporation," Craven says.
His grand plan could come across as a bar-stool fantasy, but it's already won $75 million from Alpha Pacific, a Memphis, Tennessee, venture capital firm, and $1.5 million in federal funds. Craven hopes that within a year, bulldozers will begin clearing land on Saipan and engineers will start sinking a pipe to pump icy water from the ocean depths to produce electricity and freshwater. And back in Kona, Craven expects to use cold-water agriculture to transform five acres of otherwise barren lava fields into the world's most productive vineyard. "The economics are absurd," he boasts. "Once we prove the technology on Saipan, imagine what it could do for places like Haiti!"
Craven's system exploits the dramatic temperature difference between ocean water below 3,000 feet - perpetually just above freezing - and the much warmer water and air above it. That temperature gap can be harnessed to create a nearly unlimited supply of energy. Although the scientific concepts behind cold-water energy have been around for decades, Craven made them real when he founded the state-funded Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii in 1974 on Keahole Point, near Kona. Under Craven, the lab developed the process of using cold deep-ocean water and hot surface water to produce electricity. By the 1980s the Natural Energy Lab's demonstration plant was generating net power, the world's first through so-called ocean thermal energy conversion.
"The potential of OTEC is great," says Joseph Huang, a senior scientist for the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and an expert on the process. "The oceans are the biggest solar collector on Earth, and there's enough energy in them to supply a thousand times the world's needs. If you want to depend on nature, the oceans are the only energy source big enough to tap."
Stephen Oney, vice president of Ocean Engineering and Energy Systems in Honolulu, which will design CHC's Saipan pipes, agrees: "The technology is there, and the science is there. It just needs to be improved." Oney, who recently inked a deal with the Pentagon to build an OTEC power plant for a US naval base on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, envisions a day when floating OTEC platforms produce enough hydrogen to meet all of the world's energy needs.
Craven likes the way they think, but he believes there are simpler, cheaper, and more immediate applications of cold-water technology. He favors building systems in ideal locations, such as islands adjacent to deep water with no continental shelf. Sink a big pipe, crank a pump, and - voilà! - you've entered a world powered by ocean water. Once primed, the pipe acts like a giant siphon, requiring relatively little energy to keep an inexhaustible supply of cold at hand. Already, 39-degree-Fahrenheit water courses through the Natural Energy Lab's newest pipe - a 55-inch-diameter, 9,000-foot-long polyethylene behemoth - at the rate of 27,000 gallons a minute, 24 hours a day.
Running the frigid pipes through heat exchangers produces unlimited air-conditioning that costs almost nothing. Draining their sweat yields an endless supply of freshwater for drinking and irrigation. The cold water also creates a temperature difference between root and fruit that Craven believes speeds growth. And by turning the flow on and off, Craven has found he can further accelerate the plants' growth cycle by forcing them in and out of dormancy - he can get three crops of grapes a year and pineapples in eight months instead of the usual 18. Feeding some of the water through a contraption Craven calls a hurricane tower generates clean electricity. "What the world doesn't understand," says Craven, still zigzagging through the parking lot, "is that what we don't have enough of is cold, not heat."
Feature:
The Mad Genius from the Bottom of the Sea
Plus:
Creating a Deep-Sea Oasis on Dry Land
A day later, the sun feels like a giant piece of red-hot charcoal overhead as Craven unlocks the gates to his small demonstration garden at the Natural Energy Lab. In tow are a handful of CHC's technical partners and managers escorting the lieutenant governor around the garden. The black lava ground is hard and hot, but behind the chain-link fence, Craven has created a little oasis: a 10- by 20-foot rectangle of lush lawn, a closely cropped putting green, a 10-foot-square "soccer field," flower gardens, an orchid patch, and rows of grapes. A wooden structure that Craven calls the skytower holds what resembles a radiator of sweating PVC pipes dripping steadily into a tub, providing freshwater for drinking, washing, and irrigation.
As proud as he is, Craven knows his marketing and administrative abilities leave much to be desired. In 2000, he placed his company stock in a blind trust, became "chief scientist," and let others take CHC forward as a for-profit business. Ke Kai Kealoha, CHC's project manager, is charged with the selling of his vision. Craven prefers to get things started, then have others manage the operation so he can wander on to something new. "I get put to death every seven years as great kings do, until I start a new kingship," he says, leading me away from the group to the grapes.
CHC's success depends on two projects that expand on Craven's ideas: a vineyard in Kona to grow table grapes for local restaurants, and a more complex, much larger-scale version of his oasis, on Saipan. A stable US territory, the island is a booming destination for Japanese tourists. Tokyo is just two and a half hours away by air. And the Marianas offer generous tax deals to Japanese who retire there. But Saipan has a limited supply of freshwater and must import, at great expense, all of its food and oil. On the northern end of the island, CHC plans to sink a 24-inch-diameter pipe and build a hundred-acre development featuring 100 townhouses, a golf course, soccer fields, and even an athletic complex where Japanese sports teams can train. Like a cross between an industrial park landlord and a public utility, CHC will supply electrical power (generated by a mix of ocean water, sun, and biomass), freshwater, and air-conditioning, as well as its cold-water agriculture tech to tenants and farmers of specialty crops. It will also sell freshwater to hotels that now rely on expensive reverse osmosis desalination.
Caught under the glare of Craven's brainpower, it all seems doable. "John Craven is a visionary," says Sylvia Earle, former director of NOAA and a CHC board member. "He's effectively demonstrated his pilot approach on a small scale, and who knows where it will lead? Who could have guessed how Henry Ford's auto design would change the world? Craven is not always right, but he's always worth listening to."
Craven has no doubts. On the grapes and freshwater alone, he says, "we'll make a fortune. We'll make freshwater for nothing, 13,000 to 15,000 pounds of grapes per acre per year, three times what the best vineyard in California can do." If the numbers pan out, Craven says, CHC will pay off its investors in seven years.
As the official tour winds on, Craven drags a plastic chair to the middle of the lawn, plunks himself down, and resumes talking about his anti-aging experiments. Investigating the osmotic and thermodynamic properties of plants led him to wonder about the human body, and now he's hooked. "I've patented my cold-water therapy, and I want to open a cold-water health spa right there," he says, pointing to the rocky coast. "The doctors don't agree with me, but that's because innovation is the enemy of the status quo - it puts people out of business."
Craven flexes his limber ankles and smiles. It won't be long before we know whether he's unleashed a new wave of octogenarian marathon runners or stepped off the deep end at last.
Feature:
The Mad Genius from the Bottom of the Sea
Plus:
Creating a Deep-Sea Oasis on Dry Land
Creating a Deep-Sea Oasis on Dry Land
The key to Craven's cool world is converting the ocean's thermal energy. The first step: Sink a pipe at least 3,000 feet deep and start pumping up seawater. The end result: an environmentally sustainable, virtually inexhaustible supply of electricity, freshwater for drinking and irrigation, even air-conditioning. Here's how it works:
Refrigeration:
Cold seawater circulates through a closed loop of pipes that replace the coolant and compressor found in conventional air-conditioning units.
Irrigation:
Pipes carrying cold water run beneath fields of crops, sweating freshwater to irrigate plants and chilling their roots, promoting faster crop cycles.
Desalination:
Cold seawater passes through Craven's "skytowers," which contain closely packed radiator-like networks of pipes. The frigid pipes sweat in the tropical heat, producing freshwater condensate.
Power Generation:
Pipes draw warm water from the ocean surface and cold water from the seabed. The warm water enters a vacuum chamber and is evaporated into steam that drives an electricity-producing turbine. The cold water condenses the steam back into water for drinking and irrigation.
Contributing editor Carl Hoffman (carlhoffmn@earthlink.net) wrote about wave scientist Kerry Black in issue 12.05.
Wired Magazine
[Low cost 'non-refrigeration refrigeration effect' seen in bananas. Perhaps for other commodities shipped as well?]
"In the current world marketing system, bananas are grown in the tropics where hurricanes are not common. The banana fruit therefore have to be transported over long distances and storage is necessary. To gain maximum life bunches are harvested before the fruit is fully mature. The fruit are carefully handled, transported quickly to the seaboard, cooled and shipped under sophisticated refrigeration. The basis of this procedure is to prevent the bananas producing ethylene which is the natural ripening agent of the fruit. This sophisticated technology allows storage and transport for 3-4 weeks at 13 degrees Celsius. On arrival at the destination the bananas are held at about 17 degrees Celsius and treated with a low concentration of ethylene. After a few days the fruit has begun to ripen and it is distributed for retail sale. It is important to note that unripe bananas can not be held in the home refrigerator as they suffer from the cold. After ripening some bananas can be held for a few days in the home refrigerator.
Australian researchers have clearly shown that the use of refrigeration is no longer essential to extend the life of bananas after harvest.[11][12][13]
The above references report that the presence of carbon dioxide (which is produced by the fruit) extends the life and the addition of an ethylene absorbent further extends the life even at high temperatures. This simple technology involves packing the fruit in a polyethylene bag [great, just what the world requires more plastic waste...] and including an ethylene absorbent- Potassium Permanganate (Condy’s Crystals) on an inert carrier. The bag is then sealed with a band or string.
This low cost treatment more than doubles the life at a range of temperatures and can give a life of up to 3-4 weeks without the need of refrigeration.
The method is suitable for bunches, hands and even fingers.
The technology has been successfully tested over long distances and has been confirmed by researchers in a number of countries. The longest commercial trial was from North Queensland to New Zealand by unrefrigerated rail and ship over 18 days. Importers thought that the treated bananas were harvested on the day of arrival!
Although the technology has been extensively published in recognised scientific journals and has considerable cost savings (including energy savings) it has not been widely adopted. This report is to encourage banana growers in even poor countries to try out the technology themselves. It is suggested that a freshly harvested bunch be taken and a few hands be selected and each cut in two. Half of each hand should be sealed in a polyethylene bag the other half hands should be left untreated.
Even without the ethylene absorbent the beneficial effect should be obvious in a few days.
Growers can then decide whether to try the full technology.
[Wiki emptor]
---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana#Storage_and_transport
Sandia's Z machine creates ice in nanoseconds [though sorry, it's hot and ice simultaneously]
Daniel Dolan has used Sandias Z machine to compress water into ice at extreme temperatures and pressures. (Photo by Bill Doty)
Sandia’s huge Z machine, which generates termperatures hottter than the sun, has turned water to ice in nanoseconds.
However, don’t expect anything commercial just yet: the ice is hotter than the boiling point of water.
"The three phases of water as we know them — cold ice, room temperature liquid, and hot vapor — are actually only a small part of water’s repertory of states," says Sandia researcher Daniel Dolan. "Compressing water customarily heats it. But under extreme compression, it is easier for dense water to enter its solid phase [ice] than maintain the more energetic liquid phase [water]."
In the Z experiment, the volume of water shrank abruptly and discontinuously, consistent with the formation of almost every known form of ice except the ordinary kind, which expands. (One might wonder why this ice shrank instead of expanding, given the common experience of frozen water expanding to wreck garden hoses left out over winter. The answer is that only "ordinary" ice expands when water freezes. There are at least 11 other known forms of ice occurring at a variety of temperatures and pressures.)
"This work," says Dolan, "is a basic science study that helps us understand materials at extreme conditions."
But it has potential practical value. The work, which appears online March 11 in Nature Physics, was undertaken partly because phase diagrams that predict water’s state at different temperatures and pressures are not always correct — a fact worrisome to experimentalists working at extreme conditions, as well as those having to work at distances where direct measurement is impractical. For example, work reported some months ago at Z demonstrated that astronomers’ ideas about the state of water on the planet Neptune were probably incorrect.
Closer at hand, water in a glass could be cooled below freezing and remain water, in what is called a supercooled state.
Accurate knowledge of water’s behavior is potentially important for Z because the 20-million-ampere electrical pulses the accelerator sends through water compress that liquid. Ordinarily, the water acts as an insulator and as a switch. But because the machine is being refurbished with more modern and thus more powerful equipment, questions about water’s behavior at extreme conditions are of increasing interest to help avoid equipment failure for the machine or its more powerful successors, should those be built.
One unforeseen result of Dolan’s test was that the water froze so rapidly. The freezing process as it is customarily observed requires many seconds at the very least.
The answer, says Dolan, seems to be that very fast compression causes very fast freezing. At Z and also at Sandia’s nearby STAR (Shock Thermodynamic Applied Research) gas gun facility, thin water samples were compressed to pressures of 50,000-120,000 atmospheres in less than 100 nanoseconds. Under such pressures, water appears to transform to ice VII, a phase of water first discovered by Nobel laureate Percy Bridgman in the 1930s. The compressed water appeared to solidify into ice within a few nanoseconds.
Ice VII has nothing to do with ice-nine, an entirely fictional creation of author Kurt Vonnegut in his 1963 novel Cat’s Cradle. There, a few molecules of the invented substance acts as a precipitating seed to cause an extended chemical reaction that freezes almost all of Earth’s water. Ice VII, on the other hand, only stays frozen as long as it is under enormous pressure. The pressure relenting, the ice changes back to ordinary water.
Nucleating agents, of course, are often used to hasten sluggish chemical processes, such as when clouds are "seeded" with silver iodide to induce rain. Dolan already had demonstrated, as a graduate physics student at Washington State University, that water can freeze on nanosecond time scales in the presence of a nucleating agent.
However, the behavior of pure water under high pressure remained a mystery.
Sandia instruments observed the unnucleated water becoming rapidly opaque — a sign of ice formation in which water and ice coexist — as pressure increased. At the 70,000 atmosphere mark and thereafter, the water became clear, a sign that the container now held entirely ice.
"Apparently it’s virtually impossible to keep water from freezing at pressures beyond 70,000 atmospheres," Dolan says.
For these tests, Z created the proper conditions by magnetic compression. Twenty million amperes of electricity passed through a small aluminum chamber, creating a magnetic field that isentropically compressed aluminum plates roughly 5.5 by 2 inches in cross section. This created a shockless but rapidly increasing compression across a 25-micron-deep packet of water.
The multipurpose Z machine, whose main use is to produce data to improve the safety and reliability of the US nuclear deterrent, has compressed spherical capsules of hydrogen isotopes to release neutrons — the prerequisite for controlled nuclear fusion and essentially unlimited energy for humanity.
Source: Sandia National Laboratories
---
http://www.physorg.com/printnews.php?newsid=93200439
[energy production and cooling]
NSA Guy Apologizes to Mylow? [Magnetic] Motor Runs in Reverse [Gets Cold in Operation]
Mylow has posted yet another video showing his motor turning, this time in reverse as he swaps orientation of the stator magnets. Account of NSA agent coming back to his apartment to make amends.
by Sterling D. Allan
Pure Energy Systems News
One of Mylow's videos posted on April 30 shows the elements of his magnet motor assembly.
(WRITTEN ON APRIL 30)
Here's a review of today's correspondence with Mylow in this unfolding saga regarding the all-magnet motor he has been talking about and now demonstrating again in videos at YouTube.
He phoned me several times today, and each time he seemed less perturbed.
He was really upset this morning because of all the continued negativity and skepticism even after posting his videos last night. Though most people have been supportive and have been congratulating him and asking for more, some have continued to be rude and unimpressed that this guy seems to be breaking the ice in introducing a working magnet motor to the planet to replicate, improve, and reproduce -- all without the slightest interest on his part in receiving any compensation for what he's doing. [We do plan on including him and Howard Johnson's heirs in the recommended 3% royalty from all commercial ventures that arise from this open source project, even though he hasn't asked for it.]
He was going to scrape all the magnets off his disc and have nothing more to do with this stuff. He said, "people are not ready for this yet."
He said that Mother Earth, who has been on a course to bring some cleansing on the planet because of the pollutions, and could have benefitted from this change of course, mitigating some of the pending disasters, told him, "Hold off, Mylow; they don't deserve this." [Please don't deride Mylow for saying this. I find it completely plausible, as the earth is just as much a living being as a tree or animal that walks on its surface. Some people have a gift to communicate with animals or plants (think Doctor Dolittle). Why should anyone be surprised that someone as naturally gifted as Mylow is with magnets would also be able to communicate with Mother Earth. I think it's pretty cool. It certainly conforms to my world view.]
"This is such an utterly simple technology that could make a huge difference. I don't know why people haven't figured it out before now."
Near the end of our first conversation, he had arrived at work, and his boss/partner seemed to chime in. From what I could gather, Mylow was showing him a video of what he had done last night. The first thing out of his partner's mouth was: "You ought to patent it."
Mylow responded, "Can't, it's already been patented and the patent is expired."
His partner said, "Then how are you going to make money off it?"
Mylow responded, "I'm giving it away, open sourcing it."
I can only guess his partner's expressions, as 99% of humans seemed wired for greed.
Then he concluded his call with me.
With the two more calls through the day, Mylow seemed to be in a better mood, and more lightened.
More Videos
When I spoke with him around 6:00 pm Central, he said, "I'm so excited." He was telling me about his most recent video he posted and was still uploading at the time, which shows the motor running in reverse. He switched the direction of the stator magnets, and sure enough, it makes the motor spin in the opposite direction, as I had predicted (in the replication plans I'm preparing). I would also predict that the same would happen if he flipped the rotor magnets so they are S upward.
He said that he also made the stator magnets more rigid so they don't bounce each time they pass over a change in rotor contour (magnets v. blank disc). With that change, he said the motor runs even faster. "The field is more focused." He said that without proper assembly strength, the magnet device might tend to bust itself up. That's why he has the stator magnets as high as he does.
Here's a link to his video, where you can see some of the comments people have posted.
Around 3:00 pm today, he uploaded his fourth video in this series (last night being the second and third). This one was directed to the skeptics. He methodically pulled the assembly apart and described each part, showing that there is not room for a hidden motor inside the fairly large bearing assembly -- that it is mostly solid aluminum. I took screen shots and will be included them in the plans I'm preparing.
Here's a link to his video, where you can see some of the comments people have posted.
More Specifications
In the second call today, Mylow gave me quite a bit of information about the magnets and their parameters. I posed these to the discussion list.
* Correspondence >
Bar Manget Dimensions, etc. - I wanted to pass on some crucial information for those of you wanting to replication Version 2.0 shown last night. (Mylow_Magmo; Apr 30, 2009 9:55 am Mountain)
Additionally, as mentioned yesterday, he thinks that maybe the eddy currents that are taking place between the stator and aluminum rotor are important in facilitating pole shifting, creating the coldness in the stator magnet, which he measured at 20ºC. He wonders if maybe there isn't some super conductivity taking place.
I asked him what it was about the design that took three days to arrive at a working unit using these components. He said that the right spacing between the rotor magnets is not easy to find.
He said he doesn't think this motor configuration will make the magnets demagnetize, because it's working in attraction mode, rather than repulsion mode like his earlier designs.
He said that he tried lifting the stator off from over the rotor while the system was running, and the rotor started lifted up with the stator. I remember him describing a similar phenomenon with the earlier designs. As they got going, there was built up an increased attraction between the rotor and stator magnets. That's why the rotor crashed into the stator in that one glass table demo he did back around Apr. 5. The feet of the stator assembly were not fastened securely enough to the glass table, and the assembly moved over as the speed picked up and the attraction increased.
More on Last Monday's Interview with BlackOps
Mylow doesn't know for sure who he talked to last Monday in that guarded facility with a one-way glass wall. (See story) He wouldn't recognize Joe Biden's voice because he doesn't follow politics. He was told that the very important person he talked to "is close to Washington". He said that person did sound important, and interested, but that he didn't do very much of the talking. Most of the dialogue took place with people on his side of the glass wall. That's where the arguments and his defiance was primarily taking place.
The interview took 1-2 hours. "They already have this technology [specifically this HJ-related version]. I just happen to be the only one outside their realm who has this."
In their earlier meeting last week, "They told me they secretly took it away from Howard Johnson. HJ never told anyone."
MIB Stops By
I know there are a lot of things not just about the technology but about some of the story that has been going along with it that has been nearly impossible for most people to believe. The development reported by Mylow today is no less strange.
He said that he had a visitor today -- the first guy that showed up back on April 2, intimidating him, scaring him more than he's ever been scared in his life, taking photos and video, then taking his unit and all his drawings and notes, only to return them the next day, warning him to post no more videos, and telling him that his unit was "just a toy; keep it that way," and telling him that it was in the interest of national security that he comply. The badge he showed to the police the next morning when they showed up because Mylow's wife had called them to come arrest the intruders, was "NSA" -- National Security Agency.
But today his message was very different. "Look, we know what you've been doing. We don't like the idea the you're doing this. It's okay. I just want to thank you."
Then he had Mylow sign a waiver that he didn't really understand. Something to the effect that he wouldn't sue them.
Moral of the Story
Could the reversal of the rotor direction and the reversal of the MIB guy on the same day possibly be symbolic for a reversal in the direction we've been heading as a planet? Maybe we don't have to be largely cleansed off the face of the earth. Maybe we can learn to live in harmony with nature. Maybe Mother Earth can change her mind and tell Mylow to go ahead and help with this technology.
I'll tell you this, some of those really obnoxious skeptics who act more like paid provocateurs, should be glad they're not walking around in person with those of us who are trying to help bring this technology forward. They might have a black eye or two. Sheesh. Where do these guys get off. Why can't they just go find somewhere else to be obnoxious? I agreed yesterday to have a moderator clear out such from our mylow_magmo discussion list.
Regarding Mylow posting annotations on his latest video saying all this is fake and a fraud, he is just being sarcastic and is letting himself be sucked into the bait of some of the most obnoxious skeptics. I wish he could develop a thicker skin and just ignore them and focus on helping the myriad of supporters who are trying to help the process.
Regarding his annotation that he has shipped the device off to a private party, he did mention to me today that someone from Germany had asked to receive it to analyze it. He did sound like he was paying attention to that request, but I was surprised that he followed through because he guaranteed to me that he would send me a working unit. Hopefully that will still take place through some supplies we could send him -- involving readily available components.
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Previous Story
* Magnet Motors > Mylow > Videos >
Mylow Posts Video of Running Bar-Magnet-Motor - After several weeks of enduring endless skepticism by people about his claim to a working, very simple, all-magnet motor design, Mylow has posted a very convincing video showing his latest iteration running. (PESN; April 30, 2009)
[at link, there are links]
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http://pesn.com/2009/05/01/9501534_NSA_apologizes_to_Mylow/
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