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NEWSCIENCENEWSCIENCENEWSCIENCE WHATEVER 9 Sceusse otras a d could find no basi HAPPENED TO. al flaw. locument and could find no basic He said the theory put Professor von THE RADICAL NEW THERMAL Platen in a class with Thomas Edison, who ENGINE perfected the electric light bulb, and Marconi, who developed the modern radio. A Swedish scientist has revived a cen- But other scientists were more sceptical. turies-old controversy with contentions that One physicist said the theory ran counter to he has discovered the theoretical basis fora all known laws. perpetual-motion machine. “There is only a limited amount of ener- Most foreign scientists dismiss the gy around. If you use energy up and don't notion of such a device as contravening replace it, you run out," he said. fundamental laws of thermodynamics, but The physicist was asked if it was possi- the Swedish claim has created much excite- ble that Professor von Platen had hit upon ment among scientific circles in an entirely new law of thermodynamics Stockholm. that could explain his ideas. The man making the claim is Professor "Every day there are millions of process- Baltzar von Platen, 77, regarded in Sweden _ es going on and they all obey the laws as as the inventor of the modern refrigerator we know them," he said. and the first person to produce synthetic At the heart of Professor von Platen's diamonds. idea is a spontaneous heating process His theories involve the production of which is continuous. energy through a complex process involv- It begins with the air-water-ammonia ing air, ammonia and salt in an apparatus _ process in the centrifuge. As it spins faster rotating at very high speed, but scientific and faster, the pressure at the extremities sources said the system was difficult to increases up to 1,000 times that of the explain in layman's language. atmosphere (14.7 x 1000 = 14,700 p.s.i.), Professor von Platen has said in newspa- generating heat which could be used to per interviews that unless his ideas are drive a turbine. invalidated by some natural law, the energy Professor Sven Brohult, Director of the could be hamessed to run cars, warm hous- National Academy of Engineering es or power aircraft. Sciences, said that even if the theory were He is expected to file a patent application only partly correct, the practical applica- soon, and the Secretary of the Royal _ tions could be enormous. WHATEVER [Vanguard Sciences Note: We under- stand that heat pumps are routinely claimed to have excess energy outputs in the range of two to five times what it takes to operate the heat pump. An engineer named Mike Eskely, whom we met here in Dallas, also claimed to have a turbine which generates over unity by high-velocity rotation of gases. Although we never saw a working model, he is convinced he is onto some- thing and has over 50 patents to his name. Mr Eskely told us that in Texas there are laws that protect the power companies from having to purchase energy that is not produced using ‘acceptable’ co-generation sources. One of the methods that is forbid- den is the heat pump. If you try to sell your excess power (generated through a heat pump co-generator) back to the power company, they are not required to buy it. As we understand it, they are required to purchase excess power generated from solar, wind, fossil fuel, geothermal or hydro co-generated systems.] (Source: This document was originally pub- lished in The Canberra Times on 7 May 1975, but we found it listed as PLATEN.ASC at KeelyNet BBS, +1 (214) 324 3501, sponsored by Vanguard Sciences, PO Box 1031, Mesquite, TX 75150, USA. Contact Jerry at (214) 324 8741 or Ron at (214) 242 9346. Those with a web browser can visit the KeelyNet web page in Australia at: hitp://zeta.cs.adfa.oz.au/KeelyNev/, or in Europe at: http:/hwww.ibg.uu.se/elektromag- num/physics/KeelyNet/) HAPPENED TO...? THE RADICAL NEW THERMAL ENGINE POWER-LINE RADIATION STANDARDS UNDER FIRE BY EXPERTS Richard Luben, a biochemist from the University of California, says that people have reason to be concerned regarding the effects of power-line radiation on their health. Luben is on three panels set up by the US Government to evaluate scientific evi- dence surrounding electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure. One of these panels is the National Council on Radiation Protection. Luben has been investigating the effects of EMFs on biochemical processes in cells. He told a Brisbane meeting that EMFs do not penetrate cells, but they do seem to affect receptor mole- cules on the external surface of the cell, and the way signals move across the cell membrane. The changes that occur are similar to the effects on cells of known car- cinogens. 40 « NEXUS FEBRUARY-MARCH 1996