Me too. And I have to say I don't quite trust the impartiality here. But I'm not so sceptical that I'm going to dismiss scientific evidence.
You're right. However, in this case it's not simply a matter of checking the scientific evidence. This case is somewhat unusual, in that there is a high risk of deliberate fraud. The normal scientific process is not always that good at detecting fraud (which is one of Randi's main teachings), so if we suspect the possibility of fraud, we need to perform due diligence to exclude it.
The paper while badly written, making use of bizarre experimental methods, and having a discussion full of wrong interpretations, nevertheless makes a number of measurements which are difficult to dismiss.
- The power meter is of good quality and appropriate for measuring complex waveforms.
- The IR thermometry, while poorly calibrated, and prone to a number of unaccounted errors, is unlikely to be bad enough to dismiss the claim of "anomalous" heat.
- The fact that the device "core" could not be examined without first being taken to another facility and returned, is odd, but given the size of the core, and level of anomalous heat, a known energy source could not have been concealed within it, even if sleight of hand had meant that the core was swapped prior to examination.
This leads us to 2 possible conclusions:
1. There is an unknown source of energy within the e-cat.
2. There is an unrecognised and unmonitored method of delivering energy to the e-cat.
2 is clearly more likely and needs to be excluded with care, particularly given the circumstance where there is a high risk of fraud.
So, if I were trying to smuggle in energy, how would I do it. Lasers? RF transmitters? Possible, but dangerous and expensive.
What about confusing an electricity meter with capacitors, complex waveforms etc.? It's certainly possible to slow or reverse a mechanical electricity meter with capacitors, but modern electronic meters will generally see through this sort of tampering. Same with waveforms. Most electronic meters will accurately measure even the most complex waveforms. What about DC currents? Possible, but technically difficult, and there is the problem that you need also to provide a DC voltage.
What about mislabelling or otherwise tricking the experimenters into measuring the wrong thing? This is where it gets very easy. When you connect an electricity meter, you connect a voltage probe and a current probe to each "phase" that you wish to measure. To smuggle in a near limitless supply of
energy, we simply need to convince our examiners to connect the meter to certain wires, while using other wires to carry the power.
Here's how I'd do it: A normal 3 phase power lead has 5 cores, and 5 pins on the plug. Neutral, Phase (hot/Live) 1, Phase 2, Phase 3 and Earth/Ground. Keep P1, P2 and P3 connected as usual, and label/colour code them appropriately. Perhaps, I'll conveniently separate the wires out, ready to have probes connected. Meanwhile, I'll disconnect the earth wire, and rewire it as a "secret" phase wire.
I'll use my "trade secret" power supply, to suck power from the monitored phases as and when required, to make things look good. But it will also suck power from my "stealth phase" wire, cunningly disguised as a safety earth.
Of course, the current flowing in my stealth wire, will appear in the neutral wire - but that's alright, you don't need to measure neutral current to measure power - in fact most power meters *don't* measure the neutral current, because it is only in rare conditions that measuring it is of any use (and energy metering is not one).
So, do we have any evidence that this sort of scam might have been at play? Well, yes, kinda. There is some weak circumstantial evidence which suggests something like this may have been going on.
The experimenters say they were not able to measure the power flowing from the power supply unit to the e-cat device, during the experiments showing "anomalous" power. However, for the control run, they were freely permitted to connect their meter to the output of the power supply, and verify the power flows. Of course, had this type of connection been permitted during the real "experiment" then any attempt to smuggle in electrical energy would have been obvious.
