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[Phys-L] Re: A BOOK FOR A SCHOOL LIBRARY



MY RECOMMENDED BOOK:

A book about a Japanese active researcher (born in 1945), Todahiko
Mizuno is worth having. Ordering information is shown at the end.
Experimental findings of this material scientists, a professor from
Hakkaido University, are very controversial. But this has nothing to do
with high quality of his research, as illustrated by the following (too
long?) passage:

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“I had the cell fabricated by Mr. Mori of Santsuri Nachine & Tools, who
has been making things like this for me for many years. It was designed
to operate normally at 150 C and 10 atmosphers, with maximum operating
temperature and pressure of 200 C, 150 atmosphers, a large safety
margin. Needless to say, the cell was equipped with a safety valve. The
cell was made in October 1989. Of course, just because it was made
according to my specifications, that does not mean it worked right off
the bat.

The first step was a pressure test of the outer cylinder, but it would
not do to use hydrogen for this purpose, so I began with nitrogen gas
at 5 atmospheres, then 10, then 20 atmospheres, increasing the pressure
little by little, ending up at 135 atmospheres. I held the pressure
steady at each step for three days and watched for changes. I read the
pressure from the electronic transducer installed in the lid. At 10
atmospheres there was absolutely no leak, but at 20 atmospheres there
was a small but significant leak, reducing the pressure by 0.2 to 19.8
atmospheres over three days. In other words, the cell leaked 160 cc of
nitrogen. I put the cell in a large bucket of water and determined that
the leak originated from the power lead junction in the lid. Later I
raised the pressure still further and discovered leaks at various other
spots, centered around the junctions and ports on the lid, which took
me two months to fix. I installed the coil heater around the base of
the cell and tested the heating characteristics. I looked at the
temperature rise with nitrogen, and I tested to see if high
temperatures caused leaks. And indeed, I found a leak when the
temperature of the whole cell was raised to150 C at 50 atmospheres.
This turned out to be coming from the Teflon packing in the joint
between the lid and the body of the cell. I changed the design of this
joint and had the cell machined again, and the leaks finally stopped.

Next came a pressure test with hydrogen at high temperature. Hydrogen
at high temperatures is strongly reactive. Exposing the platinum,
palladium or stainless steel components to hydrogen would be dangerous,
so I began by testing the Teflon inner cell alone, removed from the
steel cell body. I was pleased to find I had no problems with the inner
cell. I wrapped the coil heater directly around it. I raised the
temperature to 100' C and I saw no leaks at 10 atmospheres, so I
performed another pressure test of the entire cell with the Teflon
inner cell assembled inside the stainless steel outer vessel. At 100' C
and 50 atmospheres there was no leak, but above that a gradual leak
developed. Gas was coming out of the pressure transducer orifice. I
could not determine where the gas escaped from the inner container.
Once again I tested the Teflon inner cell alone, using nitrogen. I saw
the vessel was swelling slightly, changing shape and leaking out of a
crack between the cell and the lid. I took a fresh look at the entire
design. I decided to modifY the Teflon inner jacket lid, adding a
stainless steel reinforcing inner lid. I solved the problem by pressing
down on the reinforced Teflon lid, and by making the lower Teflon
portion smoother. By this time it was already March 1990. Along the way
I ran into other problems I had not bargained for. The palladium
electric leads absorbed hydrogen and changed shape, so I had to replace
the leads above the water line with platinum.

Next, finally came the platinum recombiner test. To judge recombiner
performance I had to confirm that all free hydrogen and oxygen gas in
the cell was converted back into water. I selected a platinum mesh
because platinum does not absorb hydrogen, so the gas remains a
stoichiometric mix. I put distilled water and lithium (0.5 molar LiOH)
in the cell. I set the temperature at 30 C, and began electrolysis at I
ampere. After the first two hours the pressure rose to about 2
atmospheres, then after a few minutes it fell back to one atmosphere,
which confirmed that the catalytic recombiner was working with air
mixed in the head space. In this case temperature is important; this
catalysis begins to work above 50 C. Once it is activated it continues
to function in a stable fashion. I selected a piece of platinum 5 cm
wide, 20 cm long, woven with a fine 0.1 mm mesh. Here again the price
was sky high: 200,000 yen ($2,000). I then folded it and wrapped it
around the inside upper portion of the cell. The fat platinum wires
held their shape, the recombiner stayed in the correct position.

In this tedious, step by step, painstaking fashion, I fixed various
problems until I was at last ready to begin the main experiment.
Although there is nothing new about an electrolytic cell, designing and
building this one had been tough and getting it to work was a heck of a
struggle. The lesson was once again brought home to me just how
difficult it is to make a new machine work properly. I think this can
be said for any technology. When someone brings you a device that has
already been perfected and adjusted in good working condition, you can
always learn to operate it. That is easy. You learn the true value of a
machine when you design and build it yourself from scratch.

The testing stage was finally over. I was ready to begin the real
experiment. By now it was already June; I had spent eight months
preparing. I decided to use a large piece of palladium for the cathode.
It was a centimeter thick and weighed about 100 grams. If everything
went according to plan, when the cathode was fully saturated with
deuterium the oxygen pressure inside the cell should not go over 10
atmospheres, leaving a good safety margin. I began by washing out the
vessel. I rinsed it repeatedly with ultra-high grade purified water.
Then I filled the cell with this purified water and added lithium to
make an LiOD concentrate at 0.5 molar, and I performed electrolysis
using only platinum electrodes. I continued for about a week, raising
the temperature up to 150 C. I discarded the liquid that had been in
the cell, and this time I put 400 ml of heavy water into the cell. I
added enough lithium to make a 0.5 molar LiOD solution. I used high
purity reagents from the German company Merck, which it is safe to say
contain virtually none of the impurities which might cause problems.
Contaminants from all metals combined did not amount to 0.1%. In other
words, the total amount of contaminants in the cell was about 10 mg.

The reason I was obsessed with excluding contamination will become
clear later, when I describe my efforts to substantiate the occurrence
of a large scale nuclear reaction by detecting transmuted reaction
products. To succeed in chemistry, you must pay meticulous attention to
every detail at every stage. It may seem like a nuisance, but you
cannot do valid research without precise preparation.

It was time to prepare the palladium rod, which was the most important
step. First I attached a 1 mm platinum electrical lead rod to the fat
palladium rod. I spot welded them by pressing the ends of the rods
together and passing a high current through both of them. The metal in
the parts where the two rods were in contact partially melted, firmly
bonding them. Compared with other methods of bonding, this treatment
introduces fewer contaminants. Using a piece of quartz glass, I scraped
the area around the weld and the part of the rods which had been in
contact with tungsten welding electrodes, polishing until it was
smooth. After treating it in aqua regia (an acid mix), I put it in a
beaker of acetone and washed it many times in an ultrasonic cleaner.
Then things got complicated. I put the cathode in a specially prepared
aluminum cylinder lined on the inside with a thin sheet of palladium,
and I evacuated the aluminum cylinder while raising the temperature to
200 C for about a day, to remove gas /Tom the inside and gas adsorbed
on the cathode surface. I gripped the cathode with large Teflon
tWeezers and suspended it in the cell, which was a difficult job. I
carefully degassed a dummy platinum cathode and installed it in the
cell. Then I began initial electrolysis with two platinum electrodes,
leaving the palladium electrode present in the cell but without power.
The platinum electrode acted as a "getter," removing contamination from
the electrolyte, the other electrodes, the recombiner, and the cell
wall. I set the temperature at 150 C and ran electrolysis at 1 amp for
a week. Then I made the palladium electrode positive (an anode) and ran
the current for a few hours, to clean the palladium. Finally, I removed
the dummy platinum cathode and analyzed the accumulated contamination
on it.

After finishing this, I removed head space gas from the cell with te
vacuum pump, and I was fmally ready to begin the main electrolysis run.
I took this closed cell to the underground laboratory for the first
time, and began a complex series of experiments. It was already June
1990.

First, I raised the temperature to 130 C using the external heater, and
when the temperature stabilized I was able to commence electrolysis.
The pressure gradually rose. After ten days had elapsed, pressure was
up to 10 atmospheres; after about fifteen days it rose to13 atmospheres
and stabilized. Electrolysis was proceeding normally, the deuterium was
being absorbed into the palladium, and oxygen was left behind in the
head space. Everything about the experiment was going as we had
expected it would. Three weeks passed. The neutron flux did not
increase as we had hoped. But we did see a distinct 2.45 MeV peak in
the spectrum.

We measured the temperature at a steady 140 C. The electric current and
pressure also remained stable; nothing appeared to be changing. The
current density was 45 mA, or 1.5 amps applied to the total cathode
surface area of 33 cm2. Input voltage was 5 or 6 volts, making total
power about 8.4 watts. At 135 C, the cell constant was 0.3 C per watt,
so the temperature rise from electrolysis was only 2.5 C.

Plate 16 shows the entire course of the experiment. The lines indicate
the pressure, temperature and the concentration of deuterium in the
palladium (loading). Electrolysis was performed three times. I ran
electrolysis for three weeks, then stopped it for six weeks, in three
cycles . . .”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
title: Nuclear Transmutation: The reality of Cold Fusion
author: Tadahiko Mizuno
ISBN 1-892925-00-1
published in 1997
can be oredered at <www.amazon.com>, list price $20 (or $14.70 used)
On Friday, Jul 22, 2005, at 21:15 America/New_York, Ludwik Kowalski
wrote:
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Ludwik Kowalski
Let the perfect not be the enemy of the good.
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