Searching for Water Resonance.
Part of the folklore of free energy is that, some materials including water, have almost magical properties at when stimulated at certain frequencies. This led to a search for these magic frequencies, because they promised all kinds of wonderful things ... including over unity power generation !. If we consider the Meyer device it works at a specific frequency and he went to a great deal of trouble to make sure it stayed working on that frequency. This is all clearly shown in his patent WO92/07861, which incorporates a phase locked loop to make the exciter track the changes in the water capacitor cell. His problem was that with the circuit switched off the water capacitor had a certain value. As soon as the cell started gassing, the gas replaced some of the water between the plates. This caused a problem because gas has a completely different dielectric constant than water. When the dielectric constant changed ... it changes the capacitance of the water capacitor .... which in turn moves the resonant frequency of the tank circuit (made up from the two resonant chokes, the blocking diode and the water capacitor). The effect of this is that if we had a resonant circuit it in the first place ... the circuit moves to an off resonance condition, the voltage across the water capacitor falls resulting in a drastic reduction in the rate of gas production. So resonance is very important .... the big question is which one !.
If we wire a capacitor and an inductance is series or parallel, together they form a tuned circuit, that has a resonant frequency. At resonance the voltage across the inductance or the water capacitor is at a maximum. If we want to develop a maximum voltage across either component then the frequency of stimulation must equal the resonant frequency of the tuned circuit, ie the water capacitor and two resonant chokes. At this point we have to assume that they really do form a tuned circuit. The next move is to excite that tuned circuit to find out what it's resonant frequency is. This has to be done with the water capacitor full of water, which has a dielectric constant of about 84. This means that providing the water does not short out the plates, the capacitor will have it's empty value multiplied by a factor of 84 ... since C approximates to .....
We have already seen that the gassing can play havoc with the resonant frequency of the tank circuit. Another consideration is that water is consumed in producing the gas .... so the water level in the cell will drop with time. Meyer claimed that the water was consumed at a rate of about 5 gallons per hour but I have never seen confirmation of that rate. As soon as the water drops below the level of the plates the capacitance of the water capacitor starts to fall, gas output falls, when the plates are completely uncovered gas production obviously stops, until you fill it up again. If you divide 5 gallons by the gallon capacity of your cell, it will tell you how many times you have to fill it up on a one hour journey Hi!. "Oh shit". they cried !.
Now if a water resonance frequency exists, before we can take advantage of it, we first have to find it and then make our exciter output frequency is exactly the same. Easy isn't it ?. The lesson is that we move the equipment frequency to the Magic frequency ... cos it does not work the other way around !.
Why the quest for resonance ?
If we connect two spoons to a battery and place them in a jar of water, they will split the water into two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen ... and if you had enough of this gas mix then you could run a car engine using it. The process is called electrolysis and the thermal efficiency is between 30 - 35%. That leaves plenty of scope for improvement .... even before we consider over unity. I will tell you now that if you can achieve an efficiency of 60%, then you have reason to be proud of your efforts. Electrolysis is often regarded as a 'brute force method".
If you wanted to make a high performance car then it would best be done with high performance components. Since the Meyer cell is basically an electronic device, we need to look for high performance electronic components. For example with a simple inductor and capacitance tuned circuit we can actually give the tuned circuit a rating for performance and we call this Q. The importance of Q is that in a parallel tuned circuit it provides current magnification and in a series tuned circuit it provides voltage magnification, .... ie if you have Q then you need less 'brute force' to achieve the same end result.
Resonance is the tendency of a system to oscillate at maximum amplitude at certain frequencies, In other words it is essential if you want to do things efficiently. Resonance does not give us something for nothing, it simply minimises all of the normal losses. So although it is possible to do things using brute force ... the wise man always looks for more elegant methods that are more efficient.
Resonance in water.
If you wind 1000 turns of 26 swg enamelled copper wire around a glass bottle filled with water and then flash this coil a cross a 12 volt car battery ..... all of the protons in the bottle, that were previously aligned with earths magnetic field .... immediately realign them selves with this new field. As soon as this field collapses the protons want to realign back to Earths magnetic field. The problem is that the protons are spinning like a top and instead of a smooth precession they 'wobble' back, in the same way as a child's top wobbles as it runs down. If after flashing the coil we then connect it to a high gain frequency counter we can actually measure the 'wobble' frequency ...... and it is directly proportional to the ambient field strength. For example in Southern England ... away from any magnetic anomalies ... the wobble frequency is about 2000 Hertz. If magnetic anomalies are present then the wobble frequency will change. This is the principle of the early magnetometers.
A good question would be what other other resonance frequencies exist in the limited frequency spectrum, covered by the Meyer patents ?. Another good question would be "Do any other water resonance frequencies exist anywhere else on the frequency spectrum ?". If no-one can answer this question, then someone has to find out, with a equipment capable of providing indisputable answers. The rest of this article considers the means or doing just that.
The Meyer patents suggests that the frequencies he used lie in the range 1 to 10 kHz, however this could be deliberately misleading so to be on the safe side we need to look at a much wider bandwidth. The micro-processor I use in my designs is the PIC and it can easily generate pulse of sine waves in the range 250 Hz to 40,000 Hz. Of course any audio signal generator can cover the same range but I wanted something more suitable, ie 1 Hz steps, variable duty cycle in the range 1 - 100% in 1% steps and most important of all the generation of custom waveforms. I also decided to incorporate into this special signal generator all of the circuitry required .... with only the exclusion of the tank components and that includes an output driver capable of working at up to 50 volts at 20 amps. Options were a 100 amp driver and a frequency multiplier that would extend the upper frequency range to 400 kHz.
The only other essential tool is some means of indicating a resonance peak. Since we are interested in maximising the amount of hydrogen produced, we could use a gas rate indicator for this purpose. You can find some notes on gas rate indicators elsewhere on this site.
I designed the frequency multiplier because a lot of researchers are investigating the frequency spectrum slightly above 40 kHz.
First we have to understand that when we change the frequency in 1 Hz steps we have to make two adjustments, the water cell resonant frequency AND the exciter frequency. Changing the exciter frequency is easy but changing the resonant frequency of the tank circuit is not so easy!.
Using conventional electronic theory, we can change the resonant frequency of the tank circuit in two ways, by varying the inductance, or by varying the water cell capacitance. In theory both of these need to be changed at the same time in order to maintain the same Q in the tank circuit. In practice changing the value of the capacitance can be achieved by changing the water level between the capacitor plates. We can change the value of the inductor by either removing turns or by varying the resultant permitivity of the core, by sliding it in and out of the inductance. Slide it in and the inductance will increase, lowering the resonant frequency of the cell, sliding it out will decrease the inductance and raise the resonant frequency of the cell. since only small changes will be required for 1 Hz steps some mechanical method is required to allow fine tuning. The usual method is to attach a fine threaded rod to the core and simply screw it in or out.
To carry out the sweep we simply step through the frequency range, adjusting the value of the inductance and capacitor to resonance at each step, noting the gas rate. At each step we have to dwell long enough for the cell to react to the change. Since there are 39750 steps 1 Hz steps in the range 250 - 40kHz, it is obviously a time consuming process that unfortunately cannot be automated because of the need to adjust the value of the inductance and the water capacitor at each step.
Do we need water resonance ?
I think the answer is no. While you television, mobile phone could not work without resonance a WFC can, and the proof is electrolysis. Can a Meyer cell work without resonance ?. If you have seen a Meyer cell and can prove it works at over unity, I would have to say that although resonance is desirable ... it is not essential. Here are my reasons .....
1. Resonance does not give us something for nothing, it simply reduces circuit losses. We could overcome the losses with sheer brute force. In the case of a tank circuit resonance has the effect of multiply the applied voltage by the factor Q. There is no reason why we cannot simply increase the power input levels to overcome the losses .... but that would mean accepting inefficiency.
2. Water resonance, if it exists , also offers greater efficiency. I suspect it does not exist in the frequency range of 1Hz to 40 kHz. Since the Meyer patents suggests that he was working in the 1 to 10 kHz range ... he does not appear to have found a specific water resonance frequency. The sole purpose of his proposed automatic frequency control circuit in WO 92/07861 was supposed to ensure that the exciter frequency tracked cell frequency excursions caused by the varying capacitance of the water capacitor. However the circuit diagram shows that the frequency of the exciter could ONLY be changed manually. The phase locked loop only varies the duty cycle.
3. Tube resonance. If you hit a metal tube, that is suspended at a node it will produce a musical note. The amplitude of the note at a specific frequency, is enhanced by the resonance of the tube. The resonance of the tube is determined mainly by the length of the tube and to a lesser extent it's diameter. The question is ... did Meyer use tube resonance to enhance to the gas output of his cell ?. If you say he did not, then ask yourself why did he included tuning slots on each tube ?. If you think he did not, they why does he refer to a resonant cavity ?.
If you strike a freely suspended tube and hit it in the right place, you will hear a musical note. Now fill the tube with water, strike it and tell me what you hear ?.
The wise man dismisses nothing.. We therefore have to go down every path and and investigate everything we find. Over unity is all about efficiency, resonance enhances efficiency and that is why we have to consider it.
Copyright John Kent 2008.