Roarty, Francis X wrote: > [quote] At the point where electrical contact was broken, the cell gas > was very nearly a stoichiometric mixture of hydrogen and oxygen. . . . > I think that is a quote from Shanahan but anyway it is completely wrong, as I said. The HAD cells described by Fleischmann and Pons were all open, and the oxygen was long gone when the hydrogen emerges. The only thing in the headspace after the boil-off is boiled off water vapor. It drives out the oxygen, and air.
For a closed cell, there is a little orphaned oxygen in the headspace -- obviously just enough to recombine with the emerging hydrogen. But there is hardly any gas. F&P used relatively large cathodes that held enough hydrogen to produce ~600 J maximum, which -- as Fleischmann pointed out -- would last a few seconds at this power level. Most cathodes nowadays are smaller. Shanahan either did not realize that his hypothesis is preposterous and innumerate, or he realized it and he plans to publish it anyway. Either way he is no scientist. Shanahan's arguments are pretty much the same as Morrison's circa 1990. There has been no change in the skeptical camp; no learning, and argument worth discussing. These people understand nothing about conventional electrochemistry or cold fusion. In a sane world, Shanahan would not be able to publish this rubbish anywhere but his own blog. - Jed
