Hutchison's renowned "Crystal Power Cell"...
For his sake, I will leave the research I've done into the subject out of the post, as well as the ingredients.
I just want to bounce around a few ideas outside of his sphere of influence.
Basically, the casimir effect occurs when 2 reflective plates are parallel to eachother, with a pico-scale vacuum between them. The smaller the vacuum, or the larger the plates, the larger the force exerted. For different elements, the casimir effect will either push out, or pull in, with greater force than the vacuum alone can produce. The effect disappears when either plates are charged.
If a piezoelectric material is used in the construction of casimir producing plates, then wouldnt it make sense that the casimir force exerted would produce electricity?
And since a charge on a casimir plate nullifies the effect... the following would happen:
1.) Casimir effect exerts a force on the face of a piezoelectric.
2.) Force is converted to electricity.
3.) Casimir effect is negated by the charge.
4.) An outlet is provided for the charge, say, a small motor...
5.) The charge being gone, the Casimir effect returns in full
6.) Repeat steps 1-5 indefinitely.
Researchers into the Casimir effect have concluded that a set of casimir plates would have to be the size of a football field, perfectly parralel, held about 4 picometers apart in a perfect vacuum in order to produce a "usable" amount of energy.
The hutchison method for "crystal power cells" produces sets of casimir plates, the total area of which extending far beyond the required parameters for the casimir plates.
Interesting idea.
It is a possible explanation how these crystal batteries actually work.
Utilizing the Casimir effect would proof that ZPE can be harvested.
We should discuss this further.
with piezoelectric crystals, the converse effect is a distortion of crystalline structure, that is, they expand when charged.
The force of expansion is enough that when charge is removed, and the crystals revert to shape... there are miniscule vacuums left between the faces of the crystals.
Therefore, make a crystal that conducts electricity well, add in some piezo-electric crystals as well, and voila... you've got a casimir battery.
Theres more to it, but I've run out the math and this seems to be what's happening.
The the power isn't coming from nothing, but it harnesses the differentials in energy density inside the vacuum and ouside the crystal.
Most experiments done on casimir effect fail to include the greatly heightened energy density in the materials themselves, as well as in a solid state surrounding, rather than a vacuum surrounding the plates.
Nuttin to say. Jus rep'in the fans.