Crystal Power CeLL by John Hutchison

[Koen1]

Don't you think guys that with such ideas you are going a bit out of focus?

As far I understood Hutchinson's power Cell (Converter) is based on the Casimir Effect and piezoelectricity (should be completely water-free)....I think that you are risking to go back to galvanic reactions (driven in moist ambient).

Well... in fact, Hutchison did use water in his mixes...
And yes, I do think we should try to keep things as dry as possible, because we do not want to get a galvanic cell.

On the original video, Hutchinson mixes the ingredients on a simple piece of news paper....and the "special" chemical he uses look to me so much dry....just like powder...

Don't forget that "tech tv" video is a demo video, it is vague, montaged, resequenced and cut, and Hutchison does not tell nearly all there is
to know about the concept. The mix of powders that he shows in the newspaper is indeed a mix of powders. The can he uses is indeed a metal can. What metal?
He doesn't say. The rod he uses to mix the stuff and as central electrode is of similarly unknown material. He heats it for an unspecified time at unspecified
temperature, and puts an unspecified "high voltage" on the electrodes for again an unspecified period of time. You see, the video is mostly a demo to show
off how he can make these mystery energy cell dirt cheap as if it's a piece of cake, and to promote his zpe energy connection. It does not show the entire
procedure or method in detail, it does not provide the details of the materials used, it does not explain all the related theory behind it. Nor does Hutchison
freely share those details; he is quite secretive about the entire subject.

If I may ask:

Why do you led in water-based chemical reactions?

Yes, through water, crystallisation is probably easy but as far as I remember from the school, it is really difficult to prevent crystals, obtained in such a way, to adsorb / absorb moisture....for me the risk of developing galvanic reactions is too high in that way...that's why some of your cell acquire more power after some day....

The reason why I add water to my mixes, is that in baking a ceramic, it is very difficult if not impossible to form bonds
between different silicates and metals without using water to facilitate the chemical reactions.
Otherwise, the only way to make a solid from a mix of rock and mineral powder is to fuse them at extremely high temperature,
something like 1300/1400+ degrees.
Believe me, if I had the facilities to do that, then I would be doing so right now
If you can suggsest a method to produce a solid material based on silicate and mineral compounds, at "kitchen" temperatures (up to 250/300 degrees max?
at least, Hutchisons little electric heater can't have been much more than that) without using water, then I would like to hear your ideas.

As for me, I try to aim the amounts of ingredient compounds I use so that there is only very little excess water after all obvious chemical reactions
have taken place, so that the resulting material should contain as little water as possible. After that, I generally leave my cells to dry and settle
in a moderately warm and dry place, and I also have a box overloaded with dehumidfier packs which I put them in, to try and get as much as possible
of the remaining water out.

I also think that the necessity of two different metals as electrodes, could confirm my doubts....

I am not sure if you should view the results of some of our experimental cells as confirmation of your doubts (? of our methods? or of our entire endeavour?)
but I like to see them as just experimental results, which in my own view serve to gain a better understanding of the processes and
preferred arrangement of the ideal cell. Obviously these are not the ideal ultimate cell types. These are variations in which we try our ideas of possible
ingredients.
As for the necessity to use different metals, that is also not entirely fixed...
Most of my cells are either unpolarised or polarised with a low voltage, and
I think in that method the two different metals may help the material "self polarise"
(to some small degree) while it is settling and solidifying.
That said, I have also tried some other materials; for example, I made a bit of a sloppy
cell with a galvanised steel tube and a similarly galvanised steel nail as the central
electrode only about a month or two ago. That showed a voltage of around 200 mV and
a flimsy 0.005mA when I last tested it, if I recall correctly. Well anyway, I made a number
of iron-iron, aluminium-aluminium, and copper-copper cells, but most of them were duds
and the ones that weren't were not at all impressive, millivolts. But that may have been
due to the different material mix I used back then...
I will dig up that galvanised steel cell and test it again, to check if it's still going.

...theorically, once that a voltage discharge is created in the quartz particles and there is a correct alignment among them, the electrons will automatically flow in the correct direction building up voltage and current without necessity of "pulling" them with metals of different electro-negativity.

Heh, well, that depends on whose theory you follow.
Yes, in just about every theoretical approach you should be able to use two similar metal electrodes, because once the
cell material has solidified it has an internal structure that is such, that electrons moving through it "automatically" move
in one direction and not in the opposite direction.
So yes, when the ideal material and method has been established, we should try to make cells with two similar electrodes.
That is, if you wish to minimise galvanic reaction.
On the other hand, if the cell is entirely dry, there will be no galvanic reaction, and it just so happens that the junction
between different metals and materials has certain electrodynamic properties, that may or may not aid electron emission
from a specific crystalline matrix inside the polycrystalline material.
Like i said, it depends on what theory you follow, and my theoretical approach is slighlty more complex than just
assuming we can "align the quartz particles" so that electrons flow in one direction. Oh, that's part of it, sort of,
but it's not nearly the whole story...

I hope you see now why we use water in our experiments.

If you have other questions or suggestions, please do post them,
your input may lead to valuable insights.

[Koen1]

@Ian: sludge in the mix? hmm...
Well I guess it depends on the rest of your mix eh...
I would say try to make sure the sludge compound integrates with the
ceramic matrix... So choose ingredients that link nicely with
the sludge, but slightly better with eachother, and still form a nice
matrix. Or choose a sludge to go with your compound.

Then again, for the more adventurous experimenter it may suffice to
determine the composition of a conductive ceramic mix and
dumping a large amount of dried and powdered battery sludge
in there, then baking it into a powder and polarising it...

Now it seems highly unlikely to me that the "sludge" from dead
alkaline batteried would be usefull at all, as that is simply a
zinc-carbon compound (in nearly all cases). That said, zinc (oxide)
and carbon are ingredients that can help to make a ceramic conductive,
so they might be applicable in the ceramic mix after all... But then
perhaps simply using zinc/zinc oxide powder and carbon powder
would be easier than dismantling tons of dead batteries to get the
tiny bit of sludge out.
NiCad or PbS, if you can find them maybe ancient AgCu sludge might be
usefull, at least this is a two metal compound.
Unfortunately the current trend is to move toward metal-"ion" a.k.a.
metal-"hydride" batteries, which only contain metals like lithium or nickel.
... phasing out the electrinium supply, do you think?

[nightlife]

Koen1, thank you for the caution but please note that I am a automotive technician and I am very aware of the dangers of battery contents.

I wasn't able to play with the idea today due to being very busy. Mondays, LOL, I hate them as much as Fridays. I will try to do this tomorrow as well as couple other things I have in my head.

[Koen1]

Koen1, thank you for the caution but please note that I am a automotive technician and I am very aware of the dangers of battery contents.

alright, sorry.
Better to warn people a thousand times than to have one person kill himself...

[ian middleton]

G'day all,

Yesterday I managed to plate ( coat) an aluminium electrode with gallium. Turned it into a pretty cool looking mirror. The electrode is actually 20mm diameter pipe ( 3/4 in) .
Using a larger diameter cleaned copper pipe about 100mm length for the cathode.
Made up a standard mix (ingedients aready posted) and heated in hot sand for 3 hours.
The sand allowed a slow cool down for the next 5 hours after the stove was turned off.

So I have a large diameter copper tube into which the mix is poured and inserted into the middle  of that  was the gallium coated aluminium pipe. A voltage was applied from the bug zapper.

When I measured the voltage at the start of polarization in was onlt 1.8V.
Not suprising seeing a wet cell would suck every bit of current from the bug zapper and lower its voltage. As the cell dried, over a period of 8 hours or so , the voltage increased and I finally pulled it at 640V.  I could have left it longer.
The aluminium electrode was attatched to the +ve and the outer copper to the -ve.

As soon as the polarizing voltage was disconnected the voltage on the cell dropped like a stone.
Within 20 seconds the voltage had fallen to 1.8V and continued to fall.
After a minute it had gone down to 10 mV.

In true Aussie style I thought "Bugger!"  only to see the voltage move through zero and increase in the opposite polarity. The aluminium electrode, which was supposed to + was now at
-1.08V. That is where it has stayed all night.
So the damn thing changed it polarity right before me in the space of 3 or 4 minutes.

A quick current check with a 10Kohm load pulled it down to 0.8V @ 80uA.

A bit dissapointing seeing I was hoping the gallium would open a quantum flux gate and release mega fryons tuned to the galactic center. Ah well, next week perhaps 

I must admit though the gallium coated aluminium tube did look pretty swish, I just might just chuck all this in and go and make artistic wind chimes for those guys in Byron bay.

See you later

Ian