A Battery That Produces Energy Continuously Since 1950 A Battery That Produces Energy Continuously Since 1950
A Battery That Produces Energy Conti... 
Hveragerthi
14 y
4,516
R
http://www.greenoptimistic.com/2010/12/25/karpen-pile/
The “Dimitrie Leonida” National Technical Museum from Romania hosts a weird kind of battery. Built by Vasile Karpen, the pile has been working uninterrupted for 60 years. “I admit it’s also hard for me to advance the idea of an overunity generator without sounding ridiculous, even if the object exists,” says Nicolae Diaconescu, engineer and director of the museum.
The invention cannot be exposed because the museum doesn’t have enough money to buy the security system necessary for such an exhibit.
Half a century ago, the pile’s inventor had said it will work forever, and so far it looks like he was right. Karpen’s perpetual motion machine now sits secured right in the director’s office. It has been called “the uniform-temperaturethermoelectric pile,” and the first prototype has been built in the 1950s. Although it should have stopped working decades ago, it didn’t.
The scientists can’t explain how the contraption, patented in 1922, works. The fact that still puzzles them is how a man of such a scientific stature such as Karpen’s could have started building something “that crazy.”
The prototype has been assembled in 1950 and consists of two series-connected electric piles moving a small galvanometric motor. The motor moves a blade that is connected to a switch. With every half rotation, the blade opens the circuit and closes it at the the start of the second half. The blade’s rotation time had been calculated so that the piles have time to recharge and that they can rebuild their polarity during the time that the circuit is open.
The purpose of the motor and the blades was to show that the piles actually generate electricity, but they’re not needed anymore, since current technology allows us to measure all the parameters and outline all of them in a more proper way.
A Romanian newspaper, ZIUA (The Day), went to the museum for an interview with director Diaconescu. He took the system our of its secured shelf and allowed the specialists to measure its output with a digital multimeter. This happened on Feb. 27, 2006, and the batteries had indicated the same 1 Volt as back in 1950.
They had mentioned that “unlike the lessons they teach you in the 7th grade physics class, the ‘Karpen’s Pile’ has one of its electrodes made of gold, the other of platinum, and the electrolyte (the liquid that the two electrodes are immersed in), is high-purity sulfuric acid.” Karpen’s device could be scaled up to harvest more power, adds Diaconescu.
Karpen’s battery had been exhibited in several scientific conferences in Paris, Bucharest and Bologna, Italy, where its construction had been explained widely. Researchers from the University of Brasov and the Polytechnic University of Bucharest in Romania have even performed special studies on the battery, but didn’t pull a clear conclusion.
Vasile Karpen, the inventor
“The French showed themselves very interested by this patrimonial object in the 70s, and wanted to take it. Our museum has been able to keep it, though. As time passed, the fact that the battery doesn’t stop producing energy is more and more clear, giving birth to the legend of a perpetual motion machine.”
Some scientists say the device works by transforming thermal energy into mechanical work, but Diaconescu doesn’t subscribe to this theory.
According to some who studied Karpen’s theoretical work, the pile he invented defies the second principle of thermodynamics (referring to the transformation of thermal energy into mechanical work), and this makes it a second-degree perpetual motion machine. Others say it doesn’t, being merely a generalization to the law, and an application of zero point energy.
If Karpen was right, and the principle is 100% correct, it would revolutionize all of the physics theories from the bottom up, with hard to imagine consequences. Though I guess this isn’t going to happen very soon, the museum still needs proper private funding to acquire the necessary security equipment required by the police to exhibit the device.
Re: A Battery That Produces Energy C... Hveragerthi
14 y
4,076
Great post Hv, I've been looking into zero point generators for some time now, and have posted quite a bit of info, but your post gives a good insight into the history of the generator and the inventor.
I would love to have a go at building one of these, and there are several designs around, that are worth looking into.
Have you ever thought of building one yourself?
No, I have never really grasped the concept of zero point energy. I know my dad has studied it quite in depth though since he is a major electronics expert., and was talking about building some things along those lines a while back. We don't talk anymore though so I don't know if he ever built any prototypes.
My big fascination has always been with plasma physics. One of the ideas I came up with when I was 21 was using plasma to in essence burn garbage, which would not only reduce landfill waste, but would also allow for the recover of recyclables, aluminum, glass, gold, zinc, copper, etc. Funny thing is that I saw recently that some company just patented the idea and has a prototype running. The prototype is said to be generating considerably more electricity than is put in, just like plasma engines do.
I have seen a number of my old ideas recently patented. Another was an experiment I was working on 20 years ago for a nuclear "solar" battery. I bought some Pb210 and some zinc sulfide for a "phosphor" source. The idea was to use the beta particles to excite the "phosphor" to create light that would then be painted on solar cells so the cells were exposed to the light 24 hours a day. Another company recently patented that idea as well. They are blending the radioactive isotope sources and the phosphor source in a plastic matrix so the matrix continuously glows Then they sandwich this on to a solar cells to create the batteries. They want to market these for among other things computer batteries that never need charging.
My problem is that I am great at coming up with the concepts, but often lack the knowledge and/or funds to build the inventions I come up with. Especially when it comes to electrical, which a lot of my inventions involve. The best I can do is to build ozone units since they do not involve an circuitry. So I have been focusing more on my inexpensive ideas that do not involve electronic circuitry right now. Right now these are growing opals, rubies and making synthetic whale poop.
The opals seem to be coming along pretty well and the whale poop has finally stopped smelling like a dead body so it is nearly done. These are slow processes though, a year or more to complete. The rubies I just started recently and the first try was quite an experience. Imagine opening up the kiln to lots of smoke and flames.
But what I did come up with has me on a new path of manufacturing with that one. Something appears to be crystallizing inside the container, but it is too early to tell yet what it is. Long explanation but I was trying to crystallize several things out of the solution as a means to draw some of the impurities out of the Al2O3. So I expected to form peridot (olivine) first, followed by ruby. This is why I am not sure yet what is forming. The opaque part of the solution makes it hard to see what is happening other than something that has attached to the container wall and is growing. Funny thing is that the top has a clear green liquid with the same looking gel as I get when making the opals, so I may end up with those as well. Time will tell.
I did meet a guy recently who knows a lot about electronics and circuitry so I have been going over some of my ideas with him. So he is going to help me build some of the stuff I need for some other experiments such as one of my oldest projects, making diamonds. Last time I tried this was 20 years ago as well. Not a pretty picture. Luckily it was a low pressure process, but enough pressure built up that it blew and ended up all over the ceiling and walls as well as me. My roommate was not happy. I know I was on the right track though as the basic principle is being used to produce diamond by another company. They are using a slight variation though using a microwave beam as where I was using along the lines of the original method of doing this, involving a tungsten coil. I think I finally figured out the key to how they are produced under low pressure now. So I am going to have this guy build me some specialized equipment that should allow for the production of real diamonds under low pressure, but with larger sizes and dirt cheap. Hopefully these projects will fund many of my alternative energy projects I have been wanting to try.
Re: A Battery That Produces Energy C... Hveragerthi
14 y
4,008
Ahh the old funding problem, this is a problem in my country as well, particularly for ideas concerning alternative and renewable energy sources. The oil and coal companies are very keen to know what research is being done in this field, and buy a lot of patents, and bury them.
This makes it very hard to get industry or government funding for these products. I have a friend who ended up selling his patent to an oil company, simply because he had to. He was going broke trying to fund his project himself, and the oil company offered him a great deal of money, which he decided that he had to take.
This meant his idea was buried, and he isn't allowed (by contract), to even continue the research. This is the reality today.
Yes, this is all too common. Even when sold out for other reasons. I was talking to someone once who was telling me about machine he and his friends built that would take anything organic such as leaves and grass clippings and turned it in to crude oil. The oil companies bought them out for $60 million and buried the project. He did not tell me how they did it but I finally figured it out anyway. The technology would be pretty simple for someone in the proper field and not costly at all to build a prototype.
I've seen some of the Science behind created gemstones, but doesn't the process require vast amounts of energy?
Depends on how it being done. The opals actually only took about 5 minutes of cooking on the stove. So far the ruby project used a small kiln run for 1.5 hours. I have several other processes that should do a better job faster and with even less energy, but I don't have the equipment for this yet. The diamonds will actually be very low energy required as well now that I figured out the key. The old methods like GE has been doing since the 50s is energy intensive and the diamonds actually end up costing more than the naturally found ones. But they do this anyway then dope them with boron to make them in to semiconductors. Apollo's process should not require much energy either, but the process is slow since they are grown with a layer of atoms at a time. So in the long run it could be rather expensive. Gemesis on the other hand is supposedly producing gem quality diamonds for about $5 a carat according to one source. But from what I have seen this is still kind of a hit and miss process. The process I am working on should do the same at a fraction of their cost and should allow for the production of extremely large diamonds. The actual size will depend on which process I use. The low pressure process should allow for diamonds the size of a golf ball to a softball. And with the high pressure process my goal has always been to produce a bowling ball size red diamond just for fun, then use the same process to produce smaller marketable diamonds.
It will be interesting to see what you end up with, do you think the end product will be gem quality, or are you looking at producing for the industrial, (such as laser technology), market ?
The goal is all gem quality stones, but the diamond project is also targeting industrial use but still with gem quality. I read that industries goal is to form diamonds large enough to make computer chips since these can be run at speeds that would melt silicon chips.
It is also possible to create diamonds that are harder than naturally found pure diamonds. This has already been done.
Though I have one other experiment I want to try that if it works the way I suspect would create a material that should be considerably harder than diamonds altogether. That is more of a long term project since I need a lot more space to build the set up, such as the ranch I am after.
Good luck with you research Hv :)
Thanks, I will keep you informed. At least you know why I am so anxious to get that potential Martian meteorite analyzed. That will buy the ranch and fund all my research.
Then you can fly out and teach me how to use the spectrometers, microprobes, etc.
Please do keep me informed on your progress :)
Do you have any photos of the opals you have already created?
They are not finished yet. In fact I stuck my finger in to one of the jars last night to check on them and they are still in the gel state. Opals have to be dried very slowly to prevent them from cracking. So I kept the jars sealed tight through the summer then uncapped them a few months ago so the water would slowly evaporate. It is taking longer to evaporate the water than I thought.
You might want to give this a try yourself since you are probably neat some opal mines and therefore would have access to the opal clays. Check this out:
http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v12/i1/opals.asp
He did leave a key piece of information out, which I think he did to keep others from doing this and collapsing the opal market. But I figured it out.
I know Australia is big on sapphires also. I will have to get some photos of the one I found a few years ago not far from here and post it for you.
Re: A Battery That Produces Energy C... Hveragerthi
14 y
4,085
I might just give it a try, very interesting, very interesting article.
I'm quite a long way from any opal mines, its mostly gold mining around my area. There are a lot of beautiful quartz crystals in my area though, people plough them up in the paddocks.
I do have access to some very pure silica, would this be suitable?
Actually you would be better off using either diatomaceous earth or clay. These will provide the aluminum oxide that will help give the opals strength. Although they say opals are just SiO2 this is not necessarily true. I am using kitty litter (betonite clay) for some and I found a DE kitty litter that I am going to try next.
My Dad has done a lot of sapphire prospecting and I have several gems that he has found over the years, some very dark blue ones which I've had cut and polished. My friend and I will be going gold nugget hunting next winter, the same area we'll be travelling to, is also known for meteorites, so I'll keep my eyes peeled
If the gold is laced through the quartz or is in natural nugget form both are more valuable than their gold weight alone. So don't melt these down if this is the form you find.
Keep in mind though that you need export permits on meteorites if you plan to send any out of the country.
Here are some photos of the sapphire I found. I showed it to a geologist last night to confirm that it was a sapphire. It has the same general crystal structure as some of my smaller white sapphires and I can barely scratch this with the sharp edges of my white sapphires. I am hold the cut end in place. From the interior it appears that it is a blue-green sapphire, though it is hard to say what color it will be after the necessary heat treating. I cannot recall the actual weight, but I think it was just over 9 pounds (4.08kg or 20,411 carats).
Re: A Battery That Produces Energy C... Hveragerthi
13 y
3,846
DE and clay I have in abundance, so will give it a try. Thanks for the advice :)
When you get ready to try it let me know and I will fill you in on the part he left out.
My friend and I, will be looking for nuggets, but the areas we are going to prospect have quartz everywhere. There are some dry creek beds, and washaways, that will be the most promising for nuggets.
Wow, that is some impressive sapphire!! Will you have it cut and polished, or keep it in it's natural state?
I am going to cut it up and have it heat treated. I need to start with a small chunk to see how it is going to come out since you never know how sapphires will react to heat treatment until done. And I cannot afford to have the whole thing heat treated at one anyway. Even doing a small 5 carat stone is about $30. And there will be more out there. In fact I have a larger stone at the house that I am wondering if may also be a sapphire. It is a little larger than a bowling ball, but weighs a little over 40 pounds. So it has the same density and is roughly the same color inside, but it does not have a crystalline shape. I call it the skull since this is what it closely resembles. When I first found it I thought it may be a orientated meteorite since it also has what looks like flow lines and a small "fin" on the bottom. It also exhibits some rust on the outside, along with bing pretty magnetic and testing extremely strong for nickel with the ammonia-dimethylglyoxime test. So everything points to it being a meteorite except one thing. The interior is more glassy like the sapphire. I have not seen any meteorites with such a glassy interior. So I may have to get that one tested to see if it is also a sapphire. The two stones were found only about a mile or so apart.
I'll post some photos of the nuggets we find :), when we find them. I'm pretty confident we will.
That would be great. Find some big ones!!!
Could the meteorite contain obsidian? That would explain the glassy interior? Just a thought :)
No, meteorites do not contain obsidian. They can contain silicate inclusions including chondrules. But I have never seen one that is pure silica. If it were not for the strong positive for nickel then I would not wonder so much if it could be a meteorite. But nickel is actually very rare in terrestrial rocks except at meteorite impact sites and a couple of places in the world like parts of Oregon and Greenland. And the only other characteristics it has is the high density and rust on parts of the outside primarily. So unless it is a whole new category of meteorite the only other thing I can think of that it can be would another sapphire. I will have to try a hardness test on the ground area.
Re: A Battery That Produces Energy C... Hveragerthi
13 y
3,829
Could the meteorite contain obsidian? That would explain the glassy interior? Just a thought :)
Hi Spud,
Wanted to update you on what I found out. The "skull" is not a meteorite. It is another sapphire. Explains why it is so frickin heavy!!! It is the same exact interior color as the 9 pound sapphire. So I took the cut piece and tried to scratch the area I had ground down for testing, and the two stones are also the same exact hardness. But the "skull" weighs 43.85 pounds (96.47kg).
That should shatter the record for the largest uncut sapphire, which currently is the Dodama sapphire:
http://www.emirates247.com/offbeat/this-is-life/world-s-largest-sapphire-foun...
Wow, that is very exciting, I wonder what the quality would be if it were cut and polished.
It still needs to be heat treated, but there are very few inclusions so the quality should be pretty high. Under the microscope the inclusions are few and are mostly some type of dull, silvery metal. But again so small that they are not visible to the naked eye. And it appears to be a blue-green sapphire, which fits with the fact that the stone is also magnetic. Blue-green sapphires are one of the few if not the only magnetic sapphires.
What are you going to do with these gems?
The 9 pounder is already cut so I am going to cut off a small chunk to send of for heat treatment. This way I will know for sure the quality and color.
The larger one, which looks like has less inclusions I am leaving intact for the moment. I am trying to get a hold of IGA to have the whole stone certified since this would be a record stone for the largest uncut sapphire. Currently that title is held by the Dodama Sapphire, which is only 27 pounds:
http://www.dodomasapphire.com/Dodoma_Sapphire/Overview.html
To really beat the record though it will have to be certified, which is why I am contacting GIA. They said I have to call back Monday though.
Would they bring you enough cash to buy your ranch?
Oh yes, then plenty more if it proves to be gem quality. Even the smaller one would buy the ranch and leave me plenty left over. Personally I think my sapphires are better looking than the Dodama Sapphire.
Looking at the price tag of the Dodama sapphire, if you were able to raise as much from yours, you could indeed by your ranch, fund your research, even build your own lab. (I'll come and work for you in your flash new lab if you like).
I would love it. I will need training on some of the analysis equipment anyway such as the spectrometers.
Here is a little info on Sapphires, for those that want to have a better understanding and may not be quite as nerdy as me. :)
Got some more links for you. This first one has multiple pages on sapphire specifically, but I also recommend reading the pages on ruby as well since this is really red sapphire:
http://www.minelinks.com/alluvial/sapphire.html
http://gemhunter.webs.com/rubysapphire.htm
Re: A Battery That Produces Energy C... Hveragerthi
13 y
3,927
“But the "skull" weighs 43.85 pounds (96.47kg). That should shatter the record for the largest uncut sapphire , which currently is the Dodama sapphire”
What a great find to stumble across and seems a good bit larger than the Dodama mentioned but check your weight calculation. 43.85# = 19.89kg
On one TV news report, the Dodama was estimated at 60,000 carats which I calculate at 26.45# or 12kg.
Yes, I get confused trying to do conversions between US and metric measurements. But I know that it does weigh considerably more than the Dodama Sapphire. On the good news side this means I will be able to afford a math tutor to learn metrics
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