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Steorn to Push Tipping Point for Magnet Motor Technology
To solidify the credentials of a radical, new energy approach,
Irish Company intents to select jury of 12 hard-core skeptics with high
academic qualifications to review existing data, then design testing
procedure, test, and publish the results.
PESN Interview with Sean McCarthy, Steorn CEO, Aug. 21, 2006
by Sterling
D. Allan
Pure Energy Systems News (PESN)
Copyright © 2006
DUBLIN, IRELAND -- Irish high-technology firm,
Steorn, has stirred the imagination of the world's scientific community
with their recent posting of an advertisement
in The Economist on Aug. 18 announcing that they have a working
free-energy technology. The full-page ad stated that their
independently-tested technology is capable of providing the world with
"an infinite supply of pure energy," so that the need to
recharge a phone or refuel a car becomes obsolete. The brief
announcement stated that they are seeking a jury of twelve scientists who
are "the most qualified and the most cynical" to test the
technology and publish their findings.
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Compressed version
of ad posted in The Economist; Aug. 18, 2006. |
Discovering and Refining a Magnet Motor
The mystery technology turns out to be an all-magnet motor, with no
electromagnetic component involved. Current-day Physics says such a
thing is impossible.
"We thought it was impossible too," said Sean McCarthy, CEO of
Steorn, in an interview with Sterling D. Allan, Executive Director of PES
Network, which over the last four and a half years has been apprised of
some twenty different claims to operational magnet
motor systems, none of which have been validated.
Specializing for many years in technology to help combat counterfeiting
and fraud in the plastic card and optical disc industries, the group at
Steorn accidentally stumbled onto this free energy phenomenon three years
ago in the course of developing another project. "It wasn't so
much a Eureka moment as a get-back-in-there-and-check-your-instruments
moment," said McCarthy. (Ref.)
Sean McCarthy, CEO of Steorn, with
a test rig during development. This is not part of the
design to be tested by the scientific jury. |
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Source: Steorn.com |
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Michael Moriarty, CFO; Michael Daly, COO; and Richard Walshe,
Marketing Manager of Steorn |
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Source: Steorn.com |
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"What we have developed is a way to construct
magnetic fields so that when you travel round the magnetic fields,
starting and stopping at the same position, you have gained energy,"
he told Ireland's RTE radio.
Steorn engineers have built in excess of ten test rigs in the process of
testing, characterizing, and optimizing the technology, analyzing various
components and possible configurations of the design, McCarthy told PESN.
"That has been our prime focus -- to test the hell out of this."
They've also employed element-analysis software. Integrating what
they learned through these various test rigs, they were even able to
derive equations that show mathematically that the system will work.
"We've tested scalability, from micro -- the size of a fingernail --
to a macro size," said McCarthy.
Earlier Independent Validations
During this time of development and refinement, Steorn has had a number of
independent tests done, each of which has validated the technology.
However, out of fear of damaging their academic reputations, never have
those scientists involved in the qualified testing been willing to go
public with their findings. Around 90% of the scientists
Steorn approached declined to test one of the devices. Some just
hung up the phone, according to McCarthy.
Seeking On-the-Record Validation
So frustrated with this lack of willingness on the part of accredited
personnel to go on the record, McCarthy said that six months ago his
company was just about ready to give up the project. In his view,
getting credible scientific confirmation of the technology is foremost.
"This represents a tipping point, not just for Steorn, but for an
entire industry," he said.
In order for such a revolutionary technology to have the public support
needed for it to become used widely, McCarthy says that confirmation from
the academic community will be crucial. "That is our focus at
this point," he said.
McCarthy declined to specify how many prototypes they have built, or how
long they have run, how much power they produce, and other details of the
design.
All of this documentation will be presented in full to the jury of twelve
scientists that are soon to be selected to analyze the technology.
As of the time of this writing, 1,300 people have expressed interest in
serving on the jury of scientists; and 15,516 people have signed up to be
notified of the results.
The selection of the jury will screen out anyone who has past involvement
or other indications that might be construed as showing support of the
technology in some form or other. "We want cynics," said
McCarthy.
"We are not seeking validation from the court of public
opinion. What we need is validation from the academic world,"
he said. Once that has been achieved, then the public can know.
Commercialization
Also at that point -- if the results of the jury are positive -- the
commercial development will begin, proceeding with financing, licensing,
manufacturing, marketing. Until then, the company is refusing any
offers for investment or licensing rights. They intend to pay all
expenses involved in the jury review of the technology. This is to
dissuade any claims that the company is fraudulently creating a spectacle
to raise money.
To protect the intellectual property, the company has filed seven
international (PCT) patents, two of which have already become public;
another will become available within a few days.
If and when the time comes for commercialization, Steorn will select
well-seasoned companies as licensees for manufacturing and
marketing. They want businesses which already have the key
infrastructure established, in order to expedite rapid production and
dissemination of the technology. These can further refine the design
as needed for various applications.
"We've come up with the transistor; other people can build the
microchips", McCarthy said, drawing an analogy.
The Review Process
McCarthy itemized three primary facets that will need to be addressed in
any validation of the technology. The first thing to prove will be
that there is indeed mechanical work being done. The second thing to
prove will be that the amount of energy coming from the system is not a
function of the amount of energy that went into creating the magnets in
the first place. Finally, the last thing to prove will be that the
energy is not coming from some unseen environmental source that can be
depleted, such as ambient heat in a room or nearby transmission lines.
"We're a technology company, not Physicists. We've shown that
it can work. It will be up to the the Physicists to tell us how
it works." That answer may be years, if not decades in coming.
But the core question of whether or not it works, and whether or not it is
feasible for implementation as an energy-generating technology is the
pressing question that will be presented to the international
cross-section of scientists, who will make up the jury of twelve.
But the core question of whether or not it works, and whether or not it is
feasible for implementation as an energy generating technology is the
pressing question that will be presented to the jury of twelve scientists,
drawn from an international cross section.
Each jury member will sign a contract that states that Steorn will provide
all funding for the review, and that the results will be published,
including disclosure of each jury member's name and credentials.
Once convened in Dublin, the jury will be presented with the information
that Steorn has about the technology.
The scientists will then decide how to proceed with testing.
Inasmuch as adequate testing might take several months, the jury is likely
to select an independent testing firm to do the actual testing, which they
will oversee. This is likely to take several months. Then,
when the testing is complete, the jury will reconvene to analyze the
results and render their decision.
"We're not going to rush the process," said McCarthy.
"Having solid academic validation of the technology is too
valuable." The results will be published regardless of the
outcome, he added.
When asked if he or his company has been impacted
by the threat or fear of possible suppression
of the technology, as has allegedly been the case in many other similar
revolutionary energy technology situations, McCarthy responded: "Not
in the slightest." "We don't live in the conspiracy-theory
world." He said his company has worked extensively as a vendor
for law enforcement, and has confronted some "pretty scary
people," and has good security in place. "Furthermore,
it's not a person, but a company that has produced this technology."
# # #
SOURCES:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
Feedback
Seek Honest Skeptics, Avoid Review Sabotage
On Aug. 21, 2006, Mary-Sue
Haliburton wrote:
I don’t think it goes without saying that it will be essential to
make sure that these are honest cynics. Dishonest cynics and professional
skeptics or groups thereof could very well fudge the experimental design
or manipulate the readings to ensure failure of the device, or so that
they can publicly proclaim failure of the device even if it did work.
I suggest that in addition to not being believers in new energy, these
skeptics must not be employees or shareholders in any competing
traditional-energy technologies or any business related to these
technologies (advertising, sub-contractors, industry publishing, etc.),
and should not have relatives who have such ties either. Also, if they are
associated with a university, they must disclose the sources of their
research funding. This information must be part of the public reporting of
the study.
Dishonest or biased testing has been alleged and often directly observed
to occur many times, especially when hardcore skeptics are involved. I
have seen examples of testing by such skeptics in other fields including
health and agriculture, that were explicitly designed to discredit rather
than to analyze honestly the alternative approach or phenomenon.
Therefore, I recommend that when Steorn chooses its jury of twelve, you
should also select a larger scientific review panel to look over the
shoulders of the skeptics. This group should include a range of
opinion, rather than only hard skeptics, to ensure that every argument is
fully heard and fairly reported. This second-level review group will be
responsible for confirming that the jury-scientists’ plan is balanced
enough to allow for success of the technology should it be possible, and
that procedures, equipment and data recording are honestly done while the
testing is in progress.
Otherwise, you run an extreme risk that this skeptic test will be
trumpeted around the world as "disproving" your technology, and
further that it may be used to smear the reputation of your company as
well as of its staff engineers. If you are primarily engaged in work to
deter fraud, you should expand that imperative to deter scientific fraud
too. Expect it. It's all too likely to happen. Your ad has "waved a
red flag" in front of a whole herd of bulls. (Expect a lot of bull to
result if you don't also have skilled cowboys to steer the herd into the
corral... if that's not stretching the metaphor too far!)
Steorn Forum
See also
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Page composed by Sterling
D. Allan Aug. 21, 2006
Last updated August 21, 2006
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