Mixed Signals
Any sufficiently advanced information is indistinguishable from noise
Thursday 5 July 2007, 9:17 AM
Steorn demo fails to appear - update
Those engaging chaps from Dublin who claim to have rewritten the laws of physics and invented a perpetual motion machine are in town. More precisely, Steorn has taken over the Kinetica Museum, an arty space in the remains of London's Spitalfields Market, put up a load of banners and as from 11pm last night was due to be streaming live video of the machine - now called Orbo - doing its funky, Scotty-defying stuff. As of 11am today, the museum is scheduled to be open to all, so we can eyeball it for ourselves.
Imagine. A new era in mankind's history of technology, and the first ever public demonstration is happening about two miles from home. Too good to be true!
I popped over last night on the off-chance that something might be happening -- a press event was rumoured -- and caught Steorn MD Sean McCarthy as he hung around outside the venue chatting to a couple of fans.
He wasn't in the mood for a full interview ("You must be Rupert", he said without detectable enthusiasm) but he did mention a couple of curious things. "We've made the demo out of perspex so there's nowhere to hide any batteries", well, fair enough.
But what to make of "We don't expect to convince anyone with the demo straight off, it's more a sort of cat and mouse game. We'll see how people react and change it accordingly"?
No, me neither. But with that, he was gone. I took some photos, but there was nothing much to see - the museum has trendy glass walls, and inside you could just make out a big black cube within which the device is purportedly being constructed.
As for the demo - as of this morning it wasn't running.
Steorn says:
"A test unit which was built yesterday in Kinetica, in the temporary lab we have set up. Once we had signed off on the final magnetic configurations we went to transfer this magnetic config to the display unit & casing on the exhibition floor.
Here they ran into some technical issues, firstly a problem with the bearings, which was fixed once identified. The next issue appears to be an environmental issue. We think possibly the temperature from the lighting system in the immediate area, but this has to be further assessed in the morning.
The current plan of action is to have a technical meeting in the morning and we will update you from there - we are planning to turn on the web streaming by lunch time so we can give you an ongoing update on progress (and you can see some stressed Engineers working in real-time, if it is not fixed by then!)
The demo will go ahead as soon as we fix the small outstanding issues."
Meanwhile, the Steorn fans are not happy. Some have travelled considerable distances to see this...
More later. I'll pop over there at lunchtime and see whether we're any closer to the global revolution in human affairs that Steorn has promised, or whether it still looks like a bunch of Dub chancers having a laugh.
[UPDATE]
Still not there, but as Steorn has just said that the museum will be closed all day there's probably no point. Nothing happening online either, where the only streamed video appears to be from a fixed camera somewhere south of the Thames. Kinetica is north, near Liverpool Street Station.
PreviousComments on this post
"Cat and mouse game", "the museum will be closed all day today", "technical difficulties"...
And to top it all you don't get any decent updates from the Steron site.
I still dont know if these 2 are bluffers but they certainly look amateurs!!
If you really have a good idea sell it on or you ll ruin it
I ain't all that surprised... Perhaps it require some proximity to Liffey water?
Perhaps you can arrange a trip with some of the physics dept. from Queen Marys on the Mile End Road for a good laugh.
I posted a few live demo videos @
http://www.steornpower.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5
you can see what the feeds have been like so far.
Just like old times, delays, excuses, a little "whoopies" here and there, museium closed,
If this device was of any effeciency, it would have been able to demostrate the powering of a lightbulb for a UNreasonable amout of time so people would believe.
I'm sure it will work.
I think it works using the following Idea..
It works on the assumption that energy = resistance to force * time.
It needs a lot of thinking about.
I think it works similar to how a rail gun works. Where a magnetic field is turned off and on at strategic points. This generates a pulse.. You can do the same think with magnetic shields.
All you need to do is shield the magnets from each other on a wheel and a fixed point. Once the wheel with the magnets being shielded from each other pass the point of no return they are exposed and you will get the two magnets repulse each other.
I have worked on this Idea for about 2 years. Could not get it to work consistently... But with the money they have spent I sure they have done t.
bart0120 join the queue of people that think that magnetic shielding
will get them excess energy. Perhaps Steorn are ahead of you in the queue. As head of research at a company that used to make magnetic shielding I have met a lot such as you. Most seem to think that magnetic shielding works like opaque paper to a magnetic field. It works by diverting the field around the shielded object and it takes as much energy to insert the shield in the field as can be gained from the shielded object.
Unless the laws of electromagnetism are wrong magnetic fields are rigorously conservative. If you move a configuration of magnetic objects around and get back to the starting configuration there will be zero net energy change. This is what Steorn claim to have disproved but engineers have used those laws to predict the behaviour of millions of configurations and have always found the laws obeyed. The chances of a fairly simple configuration of common materials providing net energy gain when no discrepancy has
ever been found are very small.
If all they are doing is spinning a balanced wheel with no net energy
output and slight problems with the bearings or light level can stop it they are at best generating microwatts. Even if it were valid this amount of power from a sizeable device is of no practicable use
and it is amenable to fraudulent energy inputs such as a light air current.
"Our initial assessment indicates that this is probably due to the intense heat from the camera lighting. "
So why don't they just turn the lights down? Or the AC up?
This comment has been deleted at the users request
Well, it's all over now. Stumps drawn and Steorn going home, all out for no score.
What a bizarre business this is
Shocking, I didn't see that coming...
This is got to be going down hill from here. Heat from light bulbs damaging their apparatus to the point of complete un-recoverable damage.
I'm wondering what type of material would cause it? Glue? Wax? Lubrication got vaporized? After this fiasco, I'm starting to tend on the side they are total fraudsters looking for lime light.
This is definitly sh!tty publicity for their claims. Not even the xbox 360 is that prone to heat!
Why "Steorn" do not release they "free energy engine" ?
Because it doesn't work!
