Steorn's Orbo http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/ Dispatches from the Future en Copyright 2008 Mon, 21 Apr 2008 01:24:46 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Steorn Still Alive dispatchesfromthefuture.com. I stopped promoting the original domain and turned it into a redirect leading to the new domain, so that existing links wouldn't just go dead. I figured I'd leave things that way unless and until Steorn expressed disapproval. Well that finally happened this week. I received an e-mail from the international law firm Seyfarth Shaw LLP asking that I turn over the domain to Steorn. Here's an excerpt from the letter:
This firm has been retained by Steorn, Ltd. (“Steorn”) to protect its trademarks and domain names. Steorn is the owner of U.S. Trademark Reg. No. 3,386,304 and U.S. Trademark Reg. No. 3,382,850 for STEORN, dating back to at least as early as 2001, for technological services including research design and development in the field of energy systems, as well as technology consultancy advice and analysis in the field of energy systems. Steorn is the owner of U.S. Trademark Reg. No. 3,379,126 for ORBO for similar use. STEORN and ORBO are collectively referred to as the “Marks.”
I'll be happy to hand over the domain name, and would have been even without the scary threats of enormous fines that they were thorough enough to include. But I'm even happier to see that Steorn is still alive and well enough to care about their "energy systems"-related trademarks. Here's hoping "Orbo" has a future as more than just a name.]]> http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2008/04/steorn_still_alive.html http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2008/04/steorn_still_alive.html Mon, 21 Apr 2008 01:24:46 -0500 Irish president visits Steorn Mary McAleese visited the Steorn offices on October 4th.


Irish president Mary McAleese beside Steorn CEO Sean McCarthy

While this is further evidence that Steorn is still up and running, she unfortunately was not there to announce a prosperous future of free and clean energy. Instead, she was commenting on the success of Ireland's Bolton Trust, an institution providing capital to encourage the growth of innovative new companies, which has provided some funding to Steorn. Her speech, which never mentions Steorn specifically, can be found here. ]]> http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2007/11/irish_president_visits_steorn.html http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2007/11/irish_president_visits_steorn.html Wed, 07 Nov 2007 01:51:00 -0500 Steorn breaks its silence almost complete silence from Steorn, CEO Sean McCarthy granted an interview last week which was published today at the Free Energy Truth blog. The difficult questions were left unasked, but the interview does give a feeling for what Steorn's been up to lately. Here are some excerpts: On what they've been doing for the past few months:
We continue to work on Orbo. Obviously we are looking at different implementations of it, more reliable implementations of it both mechanical and non mechanical. We’re also looking at the material science behind these time variant magnetic transactions as in what’s the real driver for them. What makes one material have a different response from another material? We’ve looked at a lot of third party research, fund some research and obviously do our own research into this area, we have managed to rule out most of the drivers to time based domain response (eddy currents, heat and so on) but as to why ferrite has a different response to Iron – well more work to be done.
On where the second demo will be located:
It will most likely be in Dublin, Ireland.
On what their recently trademarked name SteornLab refers to:
An awful lot of what we have developed over the years has been based on tests... SteornLab relates to the productization of these testing technologies we’ve developed over the years.
On whether Orbo creates or extracts energy:
It’s a question of views. I would say that, in the same way as there is a mass/energy equivalent there is also a form of time/energy equivalent and whether you consider that energy creation or conversion is a matter of semantics.
On whether Steorn will license Orbo for military and weapons applications:
It’s specifically precluded.
On the development of the mechanical, as well as a solid-state version of Orbo:
We have some engineering issues that we are currently resolving in terms of mechanical systems; we are constantly looking at ways to capture and express the energy in a real world environment that are simpler and simpler and there is nothing simpler than a solid state device. So it’s in the plan, but its not something that we [are] actively engaged in at this time.
On whether anyone else has ever discovered the effect behind Orbo:
I think lots of people have. I can look at many of the other free energy claimants and understand exactly how they could work. I could also see why many would be difficult to replicate without understanding what was happening.
There are two main points that I take from this interview: 1) Steorn is still humming along, and still believes in what they have, and 2) Don't expect a second demo any time soon. I add the second point because Sean thinks that the second demo will "most likely" take place in Dublin. If it were to take place further off than Dublin, a good deal of planning would be involved; so the fact that it's still not certain whether it will be in Dublin or elsewhere means that they haven't reached the point yet of planning for an actual second event. Another curiosity is that Steorn is already looking to productize the testing technology they've acquired and developed for the purpose of testing Orbo. For them to spare the energy to develop a tangential line of business, does this mean they are running short of cash, or doubting the future prospects of Orbo, at least in the near term? Steorn is still chugging away, and most signs are that they're still confidant in the development of Orbo. Once again, there's nothing new here – the message from Steorn is, as usual: just you wait. ]]> http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2007/10/steorn_breaks_its_silence.html http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2007/10/steorn_breaks_its_silence.html Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:10:54 -0500 Established inventor validates Orbo video emerged showing the successful engineer and inventor, Thieu Knapen, discussing Steorn's technology, which he has personally tested. His conclusion is unambiguous: Orbo generates free energy.

"Then I saw things that... I didn't believe."
Knapen founded the Dutch company Kinetron in 1984, where he invented the microgenerators used in watches that are powered by the movement of the wearer and so do not require a battery. Apparently Sean McCarthy has told the SPDC that Kinetron will be manufacturing the Orbo motors to power the demo devices that are set to be manufactured to coincide with the public release of the Orbo technology. In the video Knapen is shown commenting on an early demonstration 'toy' designed to display higher energy output than input, but not designed to cycle perpetually. This video was made sometime before December 12th 2006, when it was presented to a small group at the Kinetica museum; it was also long ago shown to the SPDC. However, this is the first time that the video is available to the public. The documentary style editing and peppy background beat suggest that the video was put together as a promotional piece. It was allegedly found during an unrelated Google Video search by Steorn forum member RunningBare.]]> http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2007/09/established_inventor_validates_orbo.html http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2007/09/established_inventor_validates_orbo.html Sat, 01 Sep 2007 01:54:47 -0500 Steorn effect replicated? Free Energy Truth blog announced that coming Friday will be an interview with someone who claims to have independently replicated the effect behind Steorn's free energy technology. If true, this would be the first time that anyone outside of Steorn has been able to replicate the effect and talk about it publicly. Of course, after the failed demo, repeated delays, and now complete silence that we've gotten from Steorn, it's reasonable to expect nothing less than full disclosure and a video of a self powered device before this claim is considered to be worth taking seriously. A successful demonstration, however, would beat Steorn to the punch and be the first display of a potentially revolutionary discovery. Further updates on this will follow as more information becomes available. Update 8/31: The previously announced interview has been posted at the Free Energy Truth blog; the interviewee is a man named "Blake". Consensus on the Steorn forum is that this is Alton "Blake" Walston, a member of the SPDC who has gone by the forum handle ablaker2. Blake claims to have followed schematics provided by Sean McCarthy and built an Orbo device that ran continuously for at least 8 hours. According to his account the precise configuration of magnets in his device required a good deal of trial and error experimentation to get right, and after its initial 8 hour run he has thus far been unsuccessful at coaxing self-sustained motion from the device a second time. While Blake claims to be committed to getting his Orbo spinning again, and says he'll be sure to have a video camera on hand next time when it does, as it stands now Blake has only an anecdotal account of a one-time event to offer, with no objective record of any kind that it actually took place. It's certainly interesting to have this story brought out from the confines of the SPDC, but until Blake's Orbo is running continuously, repeatedly, and on video, it remains nothing more than that -- a story.]]> http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2007/08/steorn_effect_replicated.html http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2007/08/steorn_effect_replicated.html Wed, 29 Aug 2007 01:49:28 -0500 Dead silence wrote on July 31st, "Steorn don't even speak with the SPDC1 nowdays. Not a peep. Very weird." Later on August 5th he wrote, "I'm beginning to think that Grimer was on to something when he said the SPDC was a cult. Sean speaks, usual no evidence waffle, the SPDC bows down to kiss his ring. It's really fuckin' weird in there." On August 11th, GrantHodges wrote "There isn't any news on Steorn for this month. I'm in the SPDC and well . . .there isn't any news." Given the silence from Steorn, some have wondered whether they'd packed up and cleared out. Forum member Crank, who lives a few miles from Steorn, dropped by their office on July 31st. She reported back that the situation there was normal, and all employees were still present. One older item of interest that came out recently is the design of the demonstration unit that Steorn intends to have manufactured in a limited quantity (100,000), to be sold off as part of the public introduction of the Orbo technology. The device, shown below, looks like a horsehead or "nodding donkey" style oil pump, sitting atop an oil barrel. A video of this device in action was made available to the SPDC, however Sean stated that the motion of the prototype unit seen in the video was not actually generated by an Orbo. So, it proves nothing except that Steorn is laying plans for the public introduction of Orbo.

Finally, some links. Two articles have been published recently about Steorn's claims (and failed demo): Physics World Metro Part 1, Part 2 And there's a new Google discussion group, Steorb, devoted to Steorn. Not very active these days, but people can post there without fear of the occasional bannings and threads deletions that occur at the Steorn company forum. This period of silence from Steorn can only be the calm before a storm... but whether that storm will be a successful demonstration of free energy or just the collapse of the company, remains to be seen.]]> http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2007/08/dead_silence.html http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2007/08/dead_silence.html Mon, 20 Aug 2007 22:29:05 -0500 "It's not the end of the Steorn story." interview to the technology site Engadget that was published today. Much of it is an elaboration of what we have heard already: the reasons for the failure of the demo and Steorn's plans moving forward. Sean directly addresses the notion that the Orbo technology works only in the confines of his own mind, and confidently asserts that a successful demo will occur in the near future. Some excerpts follow:
So we will be doing a demo, again. Obviously people will believe it when they see it and I can understand the skepticism about that. It is a deferral, our guys are currently in the process of rebuilding some more robust systems and changing some parts to prevent the engineering thing from happening again and we'll be back out in the near future with it.
Regarding DrMike's opinion that Orbo is no more than a delusion on the part of Sean:
How can I criticize. We invited the guy to come from Canada to see something. He didn't see it. It's his opinion. He has no other basis, he has nothing else to work on, other than sitting and having a chat with us. I can't possibly criticize, Doctor Mike for what he said. It's exactly what I would have said, I probably would have been harsher if I had been in his shoes.
Again, obviously if I'm delusional, whatever answer I give is going to be based on my own delusions. The only thing that I can say -- I can say a couple of things about it. First thing is that the answer that anybody looking at us and wants to know will ultimately be delivered contractually. It's going to happen whenever it happens from a bunch of scientists. So unless they're delusional as well, if they agree with us then we deal with that at the time. If you stand back from the failed demo and say ok, I don't think anybody should believe this -- I wouldn't believe this in the circumstances, demo or no demo -- there is a process that's in place that's a real process where real scientists are going to draw a conclusion and that conclusion will be made public. The other side of it which I think is why people have taken the delusional route is because an awful lot of people had expected us to rig the demo. They expected us to have a hidden battery or whatever it is. If we were in that business, believe me, there would have been a spinning wheel. But we're just not in that business, the business of scamming people or rigging demos. It failed, it's prototype technology. Huge disappointment to us. We'll redo it. But the answers to the question -- the demo doesn't answer the question, it provides some thoughts from supporting evidence when it happens. But the answer to the question will be done by professionals and then we're either be found to be delusional or not.
On Steorn's plans going forward:
Obviously we are going to have to redo the demo. There is no question that we are not going to do the demo. We will, as I said before, not pre-announce it this time. We will get it set up properly, but the ground rules will be identical. The ground rules will be physical public access to the device, online webcams so it will be as open as possible. If anybody has seen the intended device and then realizes that it's, well, not impossible obviously to hide a certain energy source, it becomes quite a convoluted process. So we are going to try and demonstrate the technology in it's simplest, simplest format in a place with public access where people can watch online and talk to people there. That will be one thing we have -- and to invite skeptics along. We have to do that. We have to embrace the skepticism. But equally to understand, these are not intended to be slam dunk results, because they won't be. There will always be issues and rightfully so. A simple demo, no matter how long it lasts, isn't proof of the claim. Proof of the claim is scientific analysis. But we are going to have to do other things as well. I won't go into details, but the biggest mistake that we've made and obviously we have to learn from our mistakes was to pre-announce the London demo. We've paid the price for that, we won't do it again. But we will be doing probably an awful lot more than we had intended. Basically when it happens we'll be letting people know. It will not be that far away.
A final word:
I've met an awful lot of disappointed people. People who came, who believed, who wanted to see history made. Disappointed skeptics, people like Doctor Mike who we dragged half way around the world -- and all I can do is apologize to them and say look it didn't work, but we are going to do it again. It's not the end of the Steorn story. Unfortunately, I'm sure that many people wish they've never heard of us again but we'll be back and we'll be back in the not too distant future.
To read the full interview, click here.]]> http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2007/07/its_not_the_end_of_the_steorn_story.html http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2007/07/its_not_the_end_of_the_steorn_story.html Tue, 17 Jul 2007 17:15:09 -0500 Choose your delusion Sean lives in a world of delusion. His greatest strength is the ability [to] convince people of things, and it is also his greatest weakness. I am certain that Sean has seen a "start - stop" device operating. That it never existed outside his mind doesn't matter. -DrMike DrMike's full report states the case a bit more tactfully, but no less damningly:
I am certain Steorn really believed I would see something that resembled their claim... Watching Sean and listening to him talk (and boy can he talk!!) I am convinced he has seen everything he describes. Unfortunately, the rest of us have not... My conclusion after going through all this is that Steorn is neither hoax nor scam. It is delusion. The reason it seems surreal is because it is surreal - we are the real part of someone else's imagination.
What's more, after reviewing Steorn's technical documents describing how magnetic viscosity is employed to violate the laws of thermodynamics, DrMike is convinced he sees the flaw in their logic; unfortunately he can't share his idea with us due to Steorn's NDA, so we have little to go by but his confidence.
If it was a hoax, the whole upstairs [workshop] would not exist, nor would Sean have taken the time to go through all the details of how he thinks it all works. I can not describe any of those details without breaking the NDA, so it puts me in a fairly strange position. The flaws in the thought process are clear to me, but Steorn considers these details proprietary information.
There were only ever three classes of possible explanations for Steorn's claim; either it was a purposeful deception, an honest mistake, or a genuine method for generating free energy. Given the actions taken by Sean McCarthy and Steorn over the past year, as well as what we've found out about Steorn's history and finances, I'm willing to bet against the first option, purposeful deception (this would include all forms of deception such as scam, hoax, fraud, marketing tactic, alternate reality game, social experiment, film subject, etc.). DrMike, after having met and spoken at length with Sean and other Steorn employees, is also ready to discard that possibility. Of the two remaining options, DrMike is convinced that Orbo is an honest mistake on the part of Steorn. But how can a company with dozens of employees, including a number of engineers and PhDs, maintain such a blatantly erroneous belief over the course of several years? DrMike explains this as the result of the force of will and the charismatic persuasion of one deeply delusional man, Sean McCarthy. This story sounds terribly unlikely at first glance. What about all of Steorn's other engineers, who build and test Orbo devices? Wouldn't they have realized along the way that they had never actually witnessed proof of the basic assumption underlying their work? What about all of Steorn's other employees, hanging on for years as their company abandons "serious" work and devotes itself full-bore to the quixotic quest of defying the most basic laws of science? How could a single man be so delusional as to believe without a speck of evidence that he's accomplished the impossible, and yet preserve a veneer of coherence that allows him to maintain the confidence of his company and investors, and gather an international group of optimistic followers? As unlikely as this may sound, a combination of delusion and charisma has been used to create mass movements in politics and religion throughout history. And the unlikeliness of this possibility must be weighed against the unlikeliness of its alternative: that despite the conservation of energy being among the most solidly proven and repeatedly demonstrated theories in all of science, and despite hundreds of years of failed empirical effort toward violating that theory, a simple arrangement of permanent magnets has accidentally been shown to create energy from nothing. And recall that no one who has made the pilgrimage to Steorn and is capable of reporting back to the public has yet seen a working Orbo. Not Crank, not Dr. David Timoney, not DrMike. What does Sean McCarthy have to say these days, in the aftermath of his failed demo and as his mental health is increasingly being questioned? His confidence is unshaken. Recently he answered a series of questions on the Steorn forum, presenting the failed demo as a disappointment, but no more than a temporary obstacle:
Clearly no one involved in the company is happy about the failed demo, but despite this we also need to keep perspective - it's a failed demo[.] It has shaken to the core any confidence that people not involved with the company have, and this is understandable. But we know what we have so things are not as dire as people would like to make them. We will do the demo, and then move on.
About DrMike's allegations against Sean's grasp of reality, he replies:
I guess that in a way I understand his comments, its not true but in the circumstances I doubt that you will believe me.
Sean also gave a post-demo interview on Irish radio recently. (Click to listen; interview begins 20 minutes in.) He continues to seek media attention and his confidence appears to be intact. In the interview he states that a new public demonstration of Orbo "will not be too far away." We now have Sean McCarthy, convinced he can pull energy from nowhere, and DrMike, confidant that Sean's claim is impossible and that he knows just where Sean's logic went wrong. Neither of these people are able to produce an ounce of solid evidence. Once again we are left with little information, weighing the odds between the impossible and the impossibler. Sean asserts that a new and successful demo will occur, unannounced beforehand, in the near future. He also states that the previous failure will lead to more openness on Steorn's part, to public evidence of the reality of Orbo. If DrMike is right, then none of this will happen -- we'll never see a working Orbo, because Steorn can't make one and they won't fake one. As for this author, I'll keep an open mind to Steorn's claim until the end of the summer. If by then we haven't seen a working Orbo, I'll agree with DrMike that, for the good of his family and his employees, Sean McCarthy had best retire and spend some quality time in the care of a doctor.]]> http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2007/07/choose_your_delusion.html http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2007/07/choose_your_delusion.html Mon, 16 Jul 2007 03:01:51 -0500 First glimpse of an Orbo here. Below is a closeup of the Orbo:
Whether the Orbo is capable of working as claimed is as yet unknown, but that hasn't stopped people from analyzing how it's put together and how it would work if it could. Steorn forum member Axle posted several images showing an exploded view of the Orbo based on the published photos:

click to enlarge
The "stator" is shown in green and blue, and contains a circular arrangement of eight magnets fitted into slots around the periphery of a central cavity. In that cavity spins the "rotor", with four magnets around its circumference. The stator and rotor are connected by two bearings, seen in orange -- the weak links that, according to Sean, put an end to the demo. Some of this detail is conjecture, given the quality of the photos that the design is drawn from. The design resembles a variation of a classic magnet motor, a recurring motif among attempts to create perpetual motion machines. A magnet motor cannot generate more energy than is put into it because, due to the way magnetic fields work, there will either be a stable state where the rotor is being pushed in one direction just as strongly as it is being pushed in the other direction, or else the operation of the motor will progressively weaken the magnets themselves until the spinning stops. If Orbo does work, then it's doing something very unusual with the configuration of magnets, perhaps (according to Sean) somehow taking advantage of the time variance involved in the effect of magnetic viscosity. (Some members of the Overunity forum are trying to figure out how this might work). Until (and unless) Steorn reveals just how their Orbo is put together, all we can do is make speculations based on what little we have seen. But if Sean is holding a spinning Orbo device in these published photos, I think we can narrow down the possibilities of what it actually is to these four: 1) A fake -- hidden in there somewhere is a battery, strong enough to keep the device running for a few days (or maybe, as it turned out, just a few hours). 2) A type of "magnet motor" that will spin for a while, during which time the magnets themselves are weakened, eventually stopping the motion. This is in direct contradiction with Steorn's statement that tests showed no weakening of the magnets... but we've seen that Steorn's engineers (like any, to be fair) are not infallible. 3) A very low friction magnet motor that will keep spinning if held and jostled a bit, but that without this small input of energy will eventually slow to a halt. It's possible that such a device could have fooled Steorn into believing they had a perpetual motion machine. This is difficult to reconcile with Sean's claim that a test Orbo has been run continuously for several weeks, however -- unless it was being carefully cradled by a hopeful and deluded energy source for part of that time. 4) It just might, of course, be the real thing. ]]> http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2007/07/first_glimpse_of_an_orbo.html http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2007/07/first_glimpse_of_an_orbo.html Tue, 10 Jul 2007 17:58:12 -0500 Video of Q&A: Sean takes it on the chin Sean accepts full blame for the failure and presents an explanation for it that is, at least in some respects, more credible than what we'd gathered so far. According to Sean, they had brought three working demo devices to London. The display device ran for four hours in London before being set up in the display space. Soon after being set up, however, it stopped running. Taking it apart, they isolated the problem to the two bearings in the device, which had apparently been damaged, resulting in increased friction. They proceeded to swap out the bearings with one of their other demo devices, started it up, and found that it quickly failed as well - more damaged bearings. Swapping out again, they've broken a total of 5 of the 6 bearings they had with them (from the three demo devices). They do not know what is causing the bearings to break; the fact that the failure appeared to be specific to the demo space itself led to the speculation that heat from the museum lighting was at fault, but that is far from certain. Sean blames himself for going against the advice of everyone else at the company by allowing only three days for the engineers to set up the exhibit. As a result of having "dropped the ball big time", he's now facing a lot of pressure to make changes - from shareholders, people in the company, and the media. These changes may include a policy of greater openness, releasing videos of the working device and possibly even blueprints, as well as staging a successful public demo as soon as possible. One change he'll make for the next demo is that the event will not be announced until the device is in position for display, tested and working. Sean comes across as being worn and disappointed, but still confidant in what he has. His stated intention is to produce a successful live demo in the near future. It's still just possible that this week's disaster will have been a bump in the road for Steorn, rather than the end of the line. ]]> http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2007/07/video_of_qa_sean_takes_it_on_the_chin.html http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2007/07/video_of_qa_sean_takes_it_on_the_chin.html Fri, 06 Jul 2007 23:57:05 -0500 Kinetica demo cancelled Further to Steorn’s announcement yesterday (5th July) regarding the technical difficulties experienced during the installation of its “Orbo” technology at the Kinentica Museum in London, Steorn has decided to postpone the demonstration until further notice. Sean McCarthy CEO stated that “technical problems arose during the installation of the demonstration unit in the display case on Wednesday evening. These problems were primarily due to excessive heat from the lighting in the main display area. Attempts to replace those parts affected by the heat led to further failures and as a result we have to postpone the public demonstration until a future date.” He continued that “we apologise for the inconvenience caused to all the people who had made arrangements to visit the demonstration or were planning on viewing the demonstration online.” Over the next few weeks the company will explore alternative dates for the public demonstration.

Questionable quote below empty demo box: "For an engineer nothing is impossible."
CEO Sean McCarthy made himself available for questions this afternoon to a group of people who had traveled to London to see the demo, but the content of this talk is not yet available. Steorn has captured some of the media attention they were seeking, though perhaps not with the desired results: Forbes: Powered By Blarney? CBC: Energy-from-nothing device fails to move Guardian Blogs: Another case of too good to be true? Engadget: Holy snakeoil Batman, The Steorn Orbo exhibition has been canceled. Belfast Telegraph: Irish firm's display of 'free-energy' machine delayed BBC: The perpetual myth of free energy The Economist: Perpetual nonsense What does this debacle mean for the future of Steorn? The way I see it, either 1) Steorn has actually discovered a means of producing free energy, or 2) they're frauds, or 3) they're too incompetent to realize that they have nothing. Over the past year they've taken every step I'd expect from a company that is confident that they have something revolutionary and real. Finally they put it all on the line by orchestrating a media event to introduce their technology to the public. And then... they fall flat on their face. They put a lot into this demo; it was polished, set in a well designed space peppered with brazen quotes about the power of scientific creativity to overcome rigid dogmatism, and centered around a simple transparent box that could be viewed from any angle in that London room or in the online world. I believe that they expected it to work. But with delay after delay, it refused to. Why? The reasons we've been given so far don't sound very solid. First they broke some bearings, but were quickly able to replace them. Then they found that the plexiglass construction of the device had been permanently warped, and they placed the blame on heat generated by the lighting. This raises the question of their competence. Can museum lighting several feet distant permanently warp plexiglass? Let's charitably assume that it can. Why had they not previously tested the device under the conditions of the demonstration? Why didn't they have a backup device, or at least backup parts? In the two days they spent fiddling to fix it, why couldn't they have flown in another device from their lab in nearby Ireland? This week's events demonstrate that Steorn doesn't have the competence to stage and test a reliable and successful display of their device. But where does this incompetence end? Does it run so deep that they've succeeded in deluding themselves for years about the reality of their discovery? Proponents of the "fraud" theory can find support in this failure as well. Some think that Steorn was prepared to display a device that faked free energy, and they failed to even get that decoy running smoothly. Others posit that this week's failure was planned from the beginning, so they can claim that they honestly intended to demonstrate, but were thwarted by Murphy's Law. I doubt the former approach because, even if they succeeded in demonstrating a fake device, where would that bring them in the long run? It would only raise expectations and media attention, while they would still have nothing genuine to deliver. I also doubt the "planned failure" hypothesis because this was an expensive and unnecessary ordeal, their reaction appears to have been one of genuine panic, and they've lost far more credibility than they've gained. For these reasons, I'd place my bets right now on incompetence rather than fraud. Whether they're lacking merely in the ability to stage and test an impressive demonstration, or lacking the more fundamental ability to recognize that they do not have what they believe they have, still remains to be seen. ]]> http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2007/07/kinetica_demo_cancelled.html http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2007/07/kinetica_demo_cancelled.html Fri, 06 Jul 2007 08:50:21 -0500 Steorn demo delayed - again. We are experiencing some technical difficulties with the demo unit in London. Our initial assessment indicates that this is probably due to the intense heat from the camera lighting. We have commenced a technical assessment and will provide an update later today. As a consequence, Kinetica will not be open to the public today (5th July). We apologise for this delay and appreciate your patience. Several media outlets have begun reporting on the situation: ZDNet: Steorn demo fails to appear Wired Blog: The Perpetual Energy Machine: Art Project? Science Blogs: Repeat after me: Conservation of energy precludes perpetual motion machines Silicon Republic: "...the hypothetical perpetual motion machine fell victim to the laws of physics..." The cameras at Kinetica have been working sporadically, so we can view the mostly empty plexiglass case where Orbo should be. (Cameras 1, 2, 3, 4). Several pictures of the exhibit space can be found at the Free Energy Tracker blog, here and here, while Steorn employees desperately scramble to get it working here. My favorite theory so far as to the cause of the problem:
Maybe the Orbo only works back at the lab where there's some radiation source.
-PaulLowrance
So will this have been no more than a bump in the road, or the moment the skeptics have been waiting for when Steorn finally faces up against the hard reality that what they claim to have can't possibly work? Only time will tell. ]]> http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2007/07/steorn_demo_delayed_again.html http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2007/07/steorn_demo_delayed_again.html Thu, 05 Jul 2007 10:30:21 -0500 Steorn reveals Orbo today front page of Steorn's site:
View the online demonstration here at 6pm Eastern Time (ET).
The Irish Times is carrying an article about the demonstration. Excerpt below:
While 22 scientists continue their exhaustive tests on the Orbo technology the inventors are asking the public to come and see a demonstration for themselves at Kinetica Museum, Spitalfields Market, London. A live working demonstration will be streamed on the internet from 6pm tonight. It can be viewed on the web from four different camera angles, before opening to visitors on Thursday. Sean McCarthy, chief executive of Steorn, said: "What we are showing basically is a very simplified version of the technology. It's virtually all-clear plastic and magnets so we are demonstrating obviously that there is no battery hidden and so on. What the system will be doing is literally lifting a weight, demonstrating work being done for free."
Wired Blog and others are also carrying the news. A story in Silicon Republic excerpts an interview with Sean giving more technical details. For a list of recent online news articles relating to Steorn, check Google news here. Below is a link to the page where the demo will be streaming live over the web. There will be four cameras trained on Orbo; of these only camera 4 is operational at the time of writing, and it is showing test footage. Streaming video of Orbo demo Update: Due to technical difficulties with the Orbo device itself, the demo will not start today as planned, but rather tomorrow, July 5th. They intend to turn on the video stream around noon GMT. The statement released by Steorn about this is reprinted below. I'll leave it to you to decide whether these are the same sorts of "technical difficulties" that have plagued all other perpetual motion machines in the past.
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. Please accept our apologies on this and we will update you first thing in the morning.
]]> http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2007/07/steorn_reveals_orbo_today.html http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2007/07/steorn_reveals_orbo_today.html Wed, 04 Jul 2007 13:04:37 -0500 What if? Kinetica Museum, and will last 10 days. Sean has stated that it will begin in the first week of July, and that it is intended to coincide with (and ride the wave of environment-friendly media attention generated by) Al Gore’s Live Earth concert on July 7th. Free T-shirts will be handed out. All of this waiting leaves us with little to do but speculate. So I thought I’d take this time to sit back and ask, "What if?" Steorn’s claim may be impossible, but Sean seems intent on forging ahead nonetheless. So, what if it’s true? What if we’re on the brink of having a revolutionary new energy source that’s cheap and requires no fuel? What if oil, natural gas, coal, wind, solar and nuclear power are all about to become obsolete? The many benefits that make free energy the stuff of utopian dreams are well known. Our current sources of energy are dirty, dangerous, destructive and expensive. Fossil fuels such as coal and oil fill the air with soot as well as carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas that threatens to bring about catastrophic global warming. Harvesting and transporting fossil fuels also wrecks havoc on the environment, as strip mining, the controversy over drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the occasional accident such as the Exxon Valdez demonstrate. No one wants a nuclear power station in their neighborhood due to the propensity for disastrous slip-ups as with Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. After decades of development, solar and wind power aren’t yet inexpensive enough to begin to compete. Ethanol from corn crops is a much touted false promise, because even if we were to convert all of our corn crops to energy production we couldn’t replace the need for fossil fuels, and in the meantime we’d starve. Free energy would enter this scene as a magic elixir; it would end global warming and allow for a cleaner and better protected environment. This would be especially beneficial to nations with burgeoning economies such as China, which could continue its exponential growth unhindered by energy limitations and the associated environmental concerns. Besides providing free and clean energy for existing uses, Orbo has the potential to open up entirely new possibilities. For example, the potential for desalination to provide clean water to dry areas of the world is strictly limited now by the energy needed both to desalinate and to transport that water. Free energy could change the economics of desalination, allowing desert regions to become fertile and green. Likewise, both the coldest and warmest parts of the globe would become more livable as heating and cooling technology lose their dependence on an expensive energy infrastructure. In fact, the elimination of the need for an energy infrastructure would bring a new empowerment to the individual. The basic necessities of heat and electricity would become available even to the poor without a monthly energy bill. No more power lines criss-crossing the streets; no more oil deliveries or gas stations. Each home and each vehicle would become energy independent, as would each individual. This change alone could go a long way toward reducing poverty and perhaps even redefining the relationship between the person and the state. Free energy could usher in a greener Earth where the basic needs of life are more easily met for the poor. Is there any downside? Probably not for you and me. But many people, some of the wealthiest and most powerful people on the planet, have a lot to lose should free energy become a reality. From George W. Bush’s closest pals to Osama Bin Laden, there are dozens of billionaires and probably thousands of millionaires who owe their wealth to oil and today’s other dirty, non-renewable energy sources. Spencer Johnson’s popular book “Who Moved My Cheese?” is a parable about how the sources of reward in our lives change over time. This is a problem that everyone deals with, either by trying to prevent the cheese from moving, by moving with it, or by ignoring the whole thing and watching the cheese run out. Well, free energy would threaten to move more cheese than perhaps any other single development in history. This is why I’m convinced that it doesn’t require a proclivity for conspiracy theorizing to imagine that some very powerful people would try to prevent the enormous shift from the status quo that free energy would provoke. Who stands to lose as a result of free energy? First, there are the energy companies who produce our current energy supplies, and all of their distributors down to the local power company, oil delivery service, and gas station. Along with these are the entire industries that support these services, such as those that build everything from oil rigs to furnaces. Then there are the individual and institutional investors in these companies, and the politicians they support. Next are the millions of employees of these companies, few of whom will be celebrating when they lose their jobs. Then there are the entire nations whose wealth, and in some cases whose very existence depends on their oil revenue. These include most Arab nations, some South American and European nations, and most notably Russia. If it turns out that Orbo is a reality, how would these people with vested interest in the status quo try to keep their cheese in place? The simplest solution would be to buy the technology from Steorn and bury it, or to do away with everyone who knows how it works. These sound like wild conspiracy theories, I know; but with thousands of people having trillions of dollars to protect, there’s bound to be a few who would be willing to take either of these steps. Thus far Steorn has shown absolutely no interest in selling their technology. If this attitude remains intact, then there may be no way to keep Steorn from going public with Orbo outside of physical threats, or worse. The question then becomes whether Steorn makes enough information about their technology publicly available before they attract the attention of those who would like to nip it at the bud. Once the “secret” is out to more than a handful of people, there’s no more burying it. If Orbo does make it out to the public, then the options of its opponents are fewer. We will probably see many of the same politicians who have shown a complete disregard for the contributions of the current energy industry to global warming suddenly take a keen interest in the many possible hazards of free energy. Perhaps, they’ll say, free energy will accelerate global warming by introducing runaway amounts of heat into the Earth’s atmosphere “out of nowhere”? Or maybe, the mysterious magnetic interactions at work in Orbo cause cancer? Or sabotage the food supply by disrupting the ability of bees to navigate? However, fear-mongering and limited political attempts at suppression would not be sustainable, because some countries such as China stand to benefit so much from free energy that they would be unlikely to play along with this tactic. In a competitive world environment, once one country has free energy all of its competitors will need to have it as well, lest they fall behind economically. So it’s an all or nothing situation – either free energy is widely adopted, or it is suppressed worldwide, and the only way to do that might be with force. Hopefully even the parties that stand to lose the most if free energy becomes available will be unwilling, or unable, to start World War 3 in hopes of preserving their fortunes. Even if the shifting of so much cheese doesn’t provoke widespread war, it’s bound to result in some chaos, if only temporarily. Much of the world’s money is invested in energy interests, and the sudden devaluing of current energy resources is likely to produce some degree of economic collapse, possibly even worldwide depression. Some nations will be hit especially hard, such as Russia, whose economy has become largely based on oil revenue. If the Russian economy collapses, it may mean revolution; in the chaos, the security of Russia’s enormous nuclear stockpile may be compromised. A nightmare scenario would see desperate Russian factions selling off nuclear weapons to Al-Qaeda style terrorists. If a genuine free energy device is demonstrated by Steorn this week, the course of history will be altered. Some of the implication would be, in the words of the science fiction author David Brin, “worrisome and disturbing.” In the short term, free energy may result in economic collapse, violence, and starvation. But I think that in the long run, once society has had a chance to reorganize, free and clean energy may be a building block of very bright future. ]]> http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2007/07/what_if.html http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2007/07/what_if.html Tue, 03 Jul 2007 03:21:06 -0500 Orbo at Kinetica museum next week? Expect news of this to break next week in the mainstream press. A working model of the orbo device is going on display in a London Museum. www.kinetica-museum.org UPDATE: More (possibly) inside information from MikeDuke:
What day does the demo begin? How long does it last? As I understand it the "demo" as far as the visiting public are concerned is going to be an Orbo device spinning round inside a glass cabinet. (Presumably behind protective glass). From that perspective I would expect it would last the entire time that the device is on public display. It will have a camera trained on it and will be viewable over the internet 24 x 7. Might have a little trouble with demand for that video mind you unless Kinetica has dark fibre access to the Internet backbone. Press interviews are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday. The Kinetica museum opens Wednesday at 11am but there is some confusion as to whether Wednesday will be a press event and close to public or open. The Museum are saying nothing. Thursday 5th seems like the first day which is a safe bet. Mind you press people are lazy f'kers and I would imagine that coming late on the Wednesday shortly before closing time might also work because the press have deadlines and they'll piss of early. You might be able to sneak in after they've gone on the 4th July. By Tuesday 3rd evening you should see the first press reports and that will tell you more. Have you seen the Orbo working yourself? No, I've never seen the device. My understanding is that what will be shown is a freestanding Orbo device with no wires going in or out. You push it with a finger to start the rotation and it continues rotating by itself, overcoming air friction and friction at the bearings. Apparently the motion of the device is smooth and continuous not jerky and staggered like a cog inside clock or ratchet. I might be wrong, of course, but assuming this is essentially correct then this is going to be a rather compelling demonstration, because the device will clearly be drawing additional energy from somewhere in order to overcome air resistance and mechanical friction, (since those things cause it to lose energy as heat). Members of the public will bring testing devices to make sure that the device is not being powered by electrical induction (pretty easy to detect a 25,000 volt power cable hidden in the roof). Forum members believers and skeptics alike have said they will bring measurement devices. I know of no battery technology small enough to be hidden inside such a device and turn it around for 150 hours so that would seem unlikely also. 150 hours of powered motion is a lot of joules of work. I would assume that the Orbo device will be mounted on perspex or something so viewers can see it from every direction. I would also assume that the case will be sealed so we know it has not been tampered with overnight. (web cam on it 24 x 7) Of course none of this is "proof", but then again it is building their case for it being real. One day the National Physical Laboratory will test the device I am sure, but probably not until it has been powering your mobile phone for 9 months.
I don't know how reliable this source is, but it won't take more than a few days to find out. Thanks Mike! UPDATE 7/1: The following is an excerpt from a comment left on this post (see the original comment here). This information hasn't been verified, but we should know the truth in a few days.
Transcript of telephone call recorded at 17:24 BST July 01, 2007 Kinetica receptionist: "Hello Kinetica" SH: Hi, I'm just looking at your website, what have you got on next week, because the old Soundwaves one has finished hasn't it? Kinetica receptionist: Yes, Soundwaves exhibition is over and then we've got a private exhibition next week, umm, which is not curated by Kinetica. It will be open to the public from Thursday, but unfortunately I can't say anything about it. SH: From Thursday, yeah, not your normal open times, Wednesday? Kinetica receptionist: No, because Wednesday we still won't be set up, So Thursday it is open to public SH: Right Kinetica receptionist: and it's running until the 15th of July. SH: Right Kinetica receptionist: And were all the way through, we are staying open Mondays and Tuesdays as well for that week SH: So of the following week you'll stay open Monday and Tues? Kinetica receptionist: Pretty much all the way through from the 5th to the 13th, SH: From the 5th to the 13th, did you say 15th earlier? Kinetica receptionist: No the 13th, Friday the 13th, lucky for some. SH: Ok, excellent, thanks very much goodbye. Kinetica receptionist: Bye.
Anyone who'd like to test the veracity of this conversation might follow Sherlock's lead by ringing up Kinetica themselves, at 020 7392 9674. UPDATE 7/3: Kinetica Museum has posted a page about their upcoming exhibit: http://www.kinetica-museum.org/new_site/index.php?ptitle=Future%20Exhibitions&mfile=event_exhibition_main.php?mode=future There is no information about the exhibit at all, just dates: July 5th through 13th. This lines up exactly with the information we've been getting about the Steorn event. Also, a Steorn forum account that had posted a link to this post on that forum has been banned -- more indication that the information in this post is on the right track. UPDATE 7/4: A brief article has begun appearing on several news sites, stating that Steorn's demo is indeed set to begin today. No location is given. Here are a couple of the pages where it has been posted: Independent.ie Belfast Telegraph Here's the text of the article:
Irish firm to put free-energy machine on display today Wednesday July 04 2007 The Irish company which claims to have designed a machine that creates energy from thin air is due to put the technology on display today. Steorn claims its Orbo device uses the interaction of magnetic fields to generate a constant source of free and clean energy. If true, the technology would defy the laws of physics. It is currently being tested by 22 of the world's top scientists, who are expected to conclude their review sometime next year. In the meantime, Steorn is putting the Orbo on display in London and on the Internet later today.
For more up to date news stories about Steorn, try Google News.]]> http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2007/06/orbo_at_kinetica_museum_next_week.html http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2007/06/orbo_at_kinetica_museum_next_week.html Thu, 28 Jun 2007 12:35:14 -0500