Irish Company Claims Free Energy

raghus writes "An Irish company has thrown down the gauntlet to the worldwide scientific community to test a technology it has developed that it claims produces free energy. The company, Steorn, says its discovery is based on the interaction of magnetic fields and allows the production of clean, free and constant energy — a concept that challenges one of the basic rules of physics." I can't wait until I can use this free energy to power my flying car and heat my aquarium of mermaids.

How long before Exxon Mobil...

[sugapablo]

...puts out a bounty on these guys? ;)

Big deal...

[rthille]

Years ago, I harnessed the energy from the monkeys flying out of my ass, and I haven't paid an electric bill since...

Obligatory Simpson quote

[adamy]

Lisa, in this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics.

Yeah, good luck!

[Otter]

I can't wait until I can use this free energy to power my flying car and heat my aquarium of mermaids.

For the typical nerd, the outcomes in decreasing order of likelihood are:

• Perpetual motion
• A human female
• A mermaid
• Multiple mermaids

Re:You can tell something about these people

[uradu]

Ah, magnets...the never-ending source of fascination for crackpots in need of remedial highschool science. If you just arrange them in the right configuration that no-one before has tried, align them just right... After all, you can push pins and stuff around with a magnet THROUGH a table top, there has GOT to be magic in there.

NO NO Really!!! This Could Work!!!

[ElboRuum]

I already have the patent on several "free" energy sources, but they aren't strictly free. There's the Feline Buttered Bread Commutator for example. It operates by strapping a piece of buttered bread buttered face up to a cat's back, then dropping it from a height. Since a cat always lands on its feet and buttered bread always lands butter side down, the whole apparatus simply hovers and spins in midair. By adding a wire coil to the cat and by putting a strong magnet in close proximity, voila! Free energy. Of course, it's not that there isn't any loss. For example, the cat needs to be fed and the bread gets stale. The cat tends to vomit occasionally, so there is some clean up involved.

NOBODY PANIC

[RyoShin]

I've alerted the authorities, and the Science Police will soon arrest them for breaking the Laws of Thermodynamics.

Re:You can tell something about these people

[darkmeridian]

Technically, the company is correct. Generators produce electricity by moving metal through a magnetic field. The trick is making the metal move through the magnetic field.

Personally, I'm going to use my perpetual motion device to run my Pentium IV Extreme computer powered by Windows Vista while I play Duke Nukem Forever on the Phantom Labs produced graphics card.

Coefficiency

[Khyber]

Most car AC units have an energy coefficiency of somewhere around 400% - for every one watt of power used four watts of heat are removed. So having greater than 100% isn't impossible.

Actually, my physics teacher demonstrated hos to get energy out of magnets. We took a low-power LED bulb, two magnets, and a stabilizing platform to hold the magnets. We set the magnet's south poles facing each other, and wrapped the whole thing in ultra-thin cooper bell wire, which was atached to the LED and a diode. By simply pushing the magnets together the LED bulb would every now and then try to light up, it would flash but we could never keep the light on.

Don't discount it. Remember it onyl takes a tiny weak spark to get massive amounts of power out of gasoline. It just depends on what form that 'spark' comes in, and what form of 'gasoline' you're using.

Top Irish Scientists

[lbmouse]

Maybe these guys are related to the scientists that lived in Ireland before Michael McCloud invented a new type of beverage in his basement [devilducky.com].

Re:You can tell something about these people

[nizo]

After further rummaging through their website, I think you are correct. Sadly I won't be able to use my flying car for free :-(

Re:You can tell something about these people

[Rakshasa Taisab]

"I'm also of the opinion if we started using something which was naturally in abundance, like earth's magnetic fields, it would cumulatively and ultimately affect something we'd regret later."

If we were to start tapping into the magnetic field at such a scale it would devastate the field of magnotherapy. When traditional medicine fails you, where will you turn if the magnetic fields were practically gone due excessive exploitation?

Re:You can tell something about these people

[ArsonSmith]

"Don't worry, we're going to give the energy away for free but we'll make up for it in volume."

They would have to be even more "not-too-smart" then the average greedy venture capitalist investor.

Re:You can tell something about these people

[Profane MuthaFucka]

You say it's not magic, but it is magic. Ordinary devices like electronics have smoke in them. If you let the smoke out of a CPU, for example, it no longer works. In all of my experiments with magnets I have not been able to detect smoke of any kind! NO SMOKE! It's magic.

Re:You can tell something about these people

[thatguywhoiam]

I've heard stories about made-up claims of free energy all the way back in middle school. Looks like they didn't pan out. I have little confidence in more of the same. And yet, I'll bet a conspiracy theorist will come along and blame the failure of this magical technology on big oil hitmen.

You take a sensible approach. After all, the odds that this is real are astronomically low. But if it actually is some new miracle technology, existing energy companies will certainly try to destroy it. So you are covered either way.

Re:Even if it were true...

[Anonymous Coward]

If its true, the current energy corporations will do anything and everything possible to make sure it never sees the light of day...and everything stays the same.


Yup, the 2nd Law Of Thermodynamics is a plot made up by big energy companies to keep the rest of us in their thrall

Re:Is it marketing

[XMyth]

Well, the site is still up from a Slashdotting...which is quite suspicious.

Pshaw

[srussell]

I can't wait until I can use this free energy to power my flying car and heat my aquarium of mermaids.

Duh! Everybody knows there's no such things as flying cars.

--- SER

Here's how it works

[rice_burners_suck]

It's really quite simple. You build a water wheel. Water spills on it, turning a generator. The water spills below, where a pump, powered by the generator, pumps it back onto the top of the water wheel. Voila! Instant perpetumobile!

And all these idiot scientists think there's no such thing as perpetual motion.

Re:Fry them now

[IAmTheDave]

Man, can you BELIEVE this bullshit? This guy really wants us to believe that the Earth revolves around the SUN. It's unbelievable - I can practially watch the Sun go around the Earth, not to mention the pure and simple blasphemy that his statements bring with them.

Excommunicate this bastard NOW. Make it quick, painful, and public. We don't need a whole rash of people believing in this hogwash, undoing years of education about the creation of this planet and the Sun's role in God's plan for mankind.

Stomp him out now.

(P.S., I do believe it's hogwash, but a first-round verification can't hurt anyone but dumb-ass investors. If they've been "running it in the lab" for years, they obviously don't need cash to assemble a prototype, so let the verification go through. No harm, no foul - to us at least.)

Re:You can tell something about these people

[stefanlasiewski]

Shouldn't we let that take place before we fry them in oil?

That depends. How much energy is required to fry them in oil? Is this energy free?

Re:You can tell something about these people

[susano_otter]

Actually, people think of more efficient ways to do work all the time, with the result being that things are constantly getting cheaper, and the savings are being passed on to you, because of human greed.

Re:NO NO Really!!! This Could Work!!!

[IgLou]

I don't think you have to feed the cat or does the whole thing about cats landing on their feet only apply to living cats? Hmm, further testing is required. Anyone got a dead cat?

There is something disturbing about the image of this contraption though... Maybe it would be better to put the whole thing in a giant black box then it would be Schroedingers Feline Buttered Bread Commutator and it would spin endless because the cat isn't dead until you look inside the box! In your face laws of nature!

Re:You can tell something about these people

[hcdejong]

In all of my experiments with magnets I have not been able to detect smoke of any kind!

You must have not been applying enough power.

Re:NO NO Really!!! This Could Work!!!

[kirkb]

Anyone got a dead cat?

There might be one inside this box...

Re:You can tell something about these people

[pixelpusher220]

From the article:

"For the first six months that we looked at it we literally didn't believe it ourselves. Over the last three years it had been rigorously tested in our own laboratories, in independent laboratories and so on," he said.

Roughly translated:

We can't *believe* how fscking stupid our neighbors are...we ran a power cord from their external outlet 3 years ago, and they haven't even noticed!

Dude....free energy!

Re:You can tell something about these people

[snowgirl]

Vacuum energy comes close enough to being. Now if only we could figure out how to harness it.

I actually make very effective use of vacuum energy while I'm vacuuming my carpet...

OH, you mean that other vacuum...

The Emperor's Clothes

[snowgirl]

The VC fools, not wanting to admit to themselves that they have been swindled with one of the oldest cons in the book, will happily throw more money at them.

The magnets have no clothes! They're naked!!! *averts her eyes out of embarassment*

I have one and it works

[Flying pig]

basically a set of permanent magnets that are rotated inside a wire framework. When the magnets complete one full revolution, no less than 6 rectified pulses are produced. Just by turning it at a few thousand RPM, I get 45 amps out at 14 volts - that's nearly a horsepower.

What's more, it's easy to operate. I just have it on a bracket on my car engine and spin it up with a simple little rubber belt. Mind you, the Mk 1 has a few problems to iron out - I need to find a way of enabling it to keep running when the engine stops, at the moment it stops when the engine does and I think this might be the braking effect of the drive belt. Anyone got any ideas, or know where to get in touch with Mr. Bosch whose name is on the side of it?

Re:You can tell something about these people

[jo42]

"Why do you keep on turning that hand-crank on the side?"

Re:I interviewed Shawn McCarthy this morning

[Dr Caleb]

So Sterling, how much does being a shill for these guys pay? And if the laws of Thermodynamics have been broken [pesn.com] why weren't we told?

Maxwell's demon

[benhocking]

Maxwell's demon [wikipedia.org] would never permit you to harvest vacuum energy.

Now you're just talking crazy...

[ElboRuum]

Of course it works... Both the cat and the bread WANT to LAND... It's what bread and cats DO... It's like... their overarching purpose or something.

While you're correct in theory, the problem is one of simple common sense.

Have you ever tried strapping a piece of bread to a cats paws without

a) cleaving the bread in twain?
b) the cat licking the butter off the bread?
or
c) the cat scratching the shit out of you?

If you have, well then you know what I'm talking about. Yessir.

Re:You can tell something about these people

[antifoidulus]

where do we get the energy to run around in circles?

Gerbils dude. Lots and lots of gerbils.

Fry the messenger too!

[Anonymous Coward]

While we're at it, can we lambaste slashdot for bringing us this mentally putrid shit? I mean seriously, I know you're thinking "you must be may be new here," but is it too much to ask the slashdot NOT be "News for Crackpots, Radio-transmissions-from-my-teeth that matter"?!

Re:You can tell something about these people

[hackstraw]

I think its great that everyone thinks Venture Capitalists are complete idiots. If thats true then where did they get the money to invest in the first place?

Their father.

Recreating their results

[drgroove]

requires drinking approx 6 pints of Guinness, at which point the core concepts of thermodynamics begin to blur a bit with the game of darts you're playing at the pub.

My personal free energy invention

[popo]

... involves the opposing forces of:

(a) Smoke, and
(b) Some mirrors.

Oh, and I'll also actually need (c) A curtain.

Please send all VC monies to my address in the Caymans.

Thank you.

Re:Good grief

[emurphy42]

(We will eventually solve the tech for a flying car but the liability is insoluble.)

Depends how good your autopilot software is.

Re:You can tell something about these people

[doodlebumm]

Equipment to gather the energy - $5000 installation + $300/month subscription fee

Free?

[8ball629]

Doesn't sound too free to me if you have to pay with your LIFE!

powered by the squad of irish leprechauns ...

[porky_pig_jr]

inside the spinning wheel, ehh make it 'magnetic field'.

Re:Coefficiency

[jimand]

Actually, my physics teacher demonstrated hos...

Really? I got that demo from my sex-ed teacher.

Re:don't think so...

[iphayd]

Of course, you've just explained how to get "free" energy.

New from Foo State Lottery - Generator! For every $5 _and_ five minutes on this exercise bike hooked up to the power grid, you have a chance of winning over $30.

Not only would the energy be free, the masses would be paying us to generate it!

Re:You can tell something about these people

[Prof.Phreak]

...patent for that machine would expire 20 years from its filing date and would then become public domain

Yeah, just like Disney's copyrights!

Maxwell's Vacuum Cleaner

[NotQuiteReal]

You know, when they are done building the space elevator [wikipedia.org], they could just run a hollow tube along side it.

Then, whenever you needed to suck things into the vacuum of space, just uncap the tube. Free vacuuming, with no annoying noises!

Also - that Beatles song - Maxwell's Silver Hammer - was that about special tools needed to build the elevator?

Re:Why the hostility?

[The_Wilschon]

viola. Virtually free energy.

Ack! I hope we don't have to get free energy from violas! Those things sound awful!

Re:Why the hostility?

[soft_guy]

viola. Virtually free energy.
Ack! I hope we don't have to get free energy from violas! Those things sound awful!

Look, it depends on how its played. If I *have* to have someone play a viola in order to power my car to get to work, then perhaps I could chip in for lessons. Or else we could design a soundproof chamber for them to play in, possibly. You have to think creatively - that's what free energy from violas is all about.

FFVF Commutator

[spun]

My patented free energy device is the "Founding Fathers-Vanishing Freedoms" Commutator. Everyone knows that our Founding Fathers spin in their graves when our freedoms are taken away, so we just add a wire coil and a magnet. Every so often we have to reinstate our freedoms or the whole thing will cease to work. I'm currently investgating other ways to piss off the founding fathers so we won't have any down time.

Re:Why the hostility?

[shawnap]

I like the sound of this new viola energy idea. I much prefer it to the current method of securing energy by implied threat of violins.

Re:Why the hostility?

[schon]

worthless (you can't drink it) helium.

Just because you can't drink helium doesn't make it worthless. You can, for example, use it to make one awesome impersonation of a Keebler elf.

Re:Mermaids

[w_albright]

Maybe the company will provide free tanks of mermaids to go along with the free energy.

Re:You can tell something about these people

[Anonymous Coward]

The cost of the energy required was just too great. Now that we have free energy with this wonderful invention, you can find the smoke inside magnets.

-M

Re:Why the hostility?

[eric76]

Free energy is one of the biggest discoveries that people are seriously searching for.

What most of us are searching for are two women at once. With that, we can generate our own energy.

Re:They are a web marketting company!

[shadowbearer]

3. Get it vetted by real scientists who say it's bullshit, and

  4. Profit if he still decides to market it (wanna debate that?), because most people are FUCKING STUPID(tm)

  Which would still mean he proved something, eh? *snort*

SB

Re:Why the hostility?

[escher]

Viola energy is just a repackaged form of string theory.

Re:The energy *could* come from *somewhere*...

[Glonoinha]

They could hook up a big version of the device with some blades or something, let the wind push it around in order to move the different parts through the various magnetic fields - making a net positive return of energy...

Naw, that would never work.

Re:Why the hostility?

[WhiteWolf666]

On the other hand, the ability to blow up a small town could potentially make you very, very rich, as well.

Just pick the right town.....

Re:Why the hostility?

[StikyPad]

That "worthless" helium would be very useful to the mixed gas scuba diving market, which currently has to rely on the meager pickings of helium separated from natural gas.

Man, you guys are missing the most plentiful supply of helium in the world. One word:

Balloons.

Re:Why the hostility?

[g1zmo]

Ohm...

Resistance is futile.