textfiles/bbs/KEELYNET/ENERGY/potapov1.asc

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|  File Name      : POTAPOV1.ASC     |  Online Date     :  07/12/95          |
|  Contributed by : Jerry Decker     |  Dir Category    :  ENERGY            |
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The following file provides information relating to a remarkable Russian
heating device that uses a vortex and cavitation to produce heat in sufficient
quantities to heat buildings and homes.  Associated .GIF images are
POTAPOV1.GIV and POTAPOV2.GIF.  This text file combined with the 1&2 .GIFs is
available bundled as POTAPOV1.ZIP.

This article was written by Christopher P. Tinsley and published in the new
journal called 'Infinite Energy'.  Gene Mallove, ex-editor of 'Cold Fusion'
magazine, is the editor and the publication is simply excellent.  If you want
to stay abreast of the latest happenings in the field of over-unity devices,
please consider subscribing to:

        Infinite Energy  -  PO BOX 2816  -  Concord, NH  -  03302-2816
                Tele : (603) 228-4516  -  FAX  : (603) 224-5975
              InterNet email : INTERNET:76570.2270@compuserve.com

          Six issues per year for $29.95 US/Canada or $49.95 foreign
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        This article is from Volume 1, No.2, May/June 1995, pages 33-37

                  Water Fuel Device Conquers the Marketplace!
                   by Christopher P. Tinsley, Nottingham, UK

Perhaps the oldest of military regulations is "Never Volunteer."  It was my
disregard for this wise and ancient rule which led to my arrival in late May
(without a visa) at Kishinev, the fair capital of the former Soviet Republic
of Moldova.

Fortunately, I was in the company of that gentleman, scholar, linquist and
distinguished scientist, Dr. Peter Gluck of Cluj in Romania.  It was he
(clearly believing - maybe rightly - that I was some naive and innocent
Westerner) who had met me at Bucharest's Otapeni Airport, and accompanied me
on what might best be described as an 'interesting' journey by train.

One of the interesting things about the journey from Bucharest to Kishinev is
the length of time it takes.  Another is the removal of each carriage in turn
from its bogies, and its placement on a different set of bogies - ones
designed to fit the different separation of Russian rails.  Fortunately, this
naive Westerner had taken the precaution of providing himself with a large bag
of peanuts and raisins, so we did at least have something to eat while being
harangued by officials who did not seem to care that Intourist in London had
told me that visas were obtainable at the border.  The letter of introduction
which I had asked Dr. Arthur C. Clarke to write also prove its value at this
point.

But what, you might ask, was your humble scribe doing in Moldava with a
distinguished Romanian scientist, no visa, a bag of peanuts, and a letter of
introduction from Arthur Clarke?

Preceded by many rumors, reports at ICCF5 had formally confirmed the existence
of a micro-cavitation water heater being sold commercially in the CIS.
Independent reports from Moscow stated quite clearly that the machines were
over-unity - they produced far more heat energy than they consume in
electricity.  Peter Gluck had visited the offices and factories of the VIZOR
company in Kishinev, had reported back that there was indeed a thriving
company manufacturing these devices; and had himself conducted preliminary
tests which showed the over-unity effect.  The purpose of our journey was,
therefore, to purchase some of the machines, and obtain documentary evidence
of their commercial success and over-unity performance.  Somebody had to do
it, and I volunteered.  For all its minor discomforts and difficulties, this
became the most extraordinary trip that this "Wandering Goy" has ever made -
so far.

For, make no mistake about it, the machines are real.  The commercial success
is real too.  Without the generosity of Dr. Clarke, the journey would have
been at the very least delayed.  Arthur Clarke has frequently made the future
by defining it in advance, but on this occasion he may well also have speeded
into reality - in his own lifetime - something which he had suggested in a
novel as a possible energy source of the far future.  This is not at all
certain, but, for reasons I'll explain, I lean strongly towards that idea.

Despite Peter's report, I didn't know what to expect to see at VIZOR.  I
certainly didn't know what to expect of Kishinev either.  Bucharest hadn't
been much of a surprise, because it has featured so much on television in
recent years.  But, irritating as it probably is to the Moldovans, a few
Westerners are even quite sure where it is.  It is a small country lying to
the northwest of Romania, and Kishinev is a pleasant and obviously thriving
city.  It may be that - as it seems - the old Soviet bureaucracy still exists
there, but there is an air of energy and purpose to the place.

The head of VIZOR and the scientist who is the inventor of the machines we had
come to see, Dr. Yuri Semionovitch Potapov, gave Peter and I a full day of his
time.  Or as much of it as he could, he spent quite a lot of it trying to fend
off customers who wanted more and more of his units.  Fans of the series Monty
Python's Flying Circus will recall the regular appearance on the show of the
Spanish Inquisition in their robes.  By contrast, we had a group of Orthodox
clergy, who told us at length of the great savings they had found with the
Potapov heating machines.  One of these, a local parish priest, had tried to
do a calorimetric study to find out just what was happening.  The vagaries of
the Moldovan electricity supply had defeated his efforts, but hadn't dampened
his enthusiasm for the cost savings he'd had over the winter.  Dr. Potapov
agredd to install a larger machine in a nearby monastery, so that not only the
water but the monk's cells could be heated.

Further, he decided that he could install it at no cost to the monks.  In fact
we found out during the day - mostly from Dr. Potapov's enthusiastic staff -
that he provides significant sponsorship to many Moldovan cultural and
artistic people.  He was also completely happy that all our discussions were
made under the watchful eyes of the 8mm video and 35mm SLR camera I had
brought with me.  I had complete freedom to film and photograph anything
whatsoever.  So I did, and the resulting record has been seen with
astonishment and enthusiasm by quite a number of people.

I declined to perform the calorimetric tests which were offered.  The only
installation which was available at the time was the heating system for an
experimental workshop in the Institute for Applied Physics, and it just
wasn't practical to make satisfactory measurements.  I could have done so, if
I had been prepared to accept the figures for water volume and power
consumption; and perhaps in a full day it would have been possible to get some
kind of crude figures for static calorimetry.  This failure should have
dampened my enthusiasm, but it didn't.

The real reasons for my enthusiasm are - apart from the personality of Dr.
Potapov - the obvious commercial success of the company, and the unarguable
volume of production of the heating machines.  At one point I filmed two
hundred of the middle-sized YUSMAR units awaiting shipment, and large numbers
of the very large YUSMAR 5-M and 4-M machines, which are suitable for heating
hotels or factories.  (The name "YusMar" comes from Yu S (Potapov) with the
'mar' coming from the name of the Moldovan opera singer Maria Biesu).  I
understand that some customers buy only the basic unit, which is quite small;
but most seemed to be sold complete with the pump and electric motor which
drive the fluid through the unit itself.  The motor is the sole source of
power to the YUSMAR device.

It might be pointed out that none of these things suggest an over-unity
machine.  That is quite funny to anybody who has spent much time in
manufacturing industry.  If anybody is having trouble with this piece of
elementary logic, the answer to the riddle is at the end of this article.
Heretical as it may be to suggest this, there "are" other means than the
purely scientific for the assessment of reality.

But what is happening inside a YUSMAR?  The way Dr. Potapov tells it, it's
quite simple.  A vortex is established in the liquid in the tube.  The
velocity gradient within the liquid is so great that cavitation occurs - not
between the liquid and the tube walls, but between adjacent layers of liquid.
This is of course reminiscent of the Griggs Hydrosonic machine, but in that
device the cavitation is induced by shear between metal and liquid, not
between layers of liquid.

Both the YUSMAR and the Hydrosonic device produce excess energy.  The YUSMAR
seems to be the more effective and simpler of the two, with tests being done
in Belarus which suggest Coefficients of Performance (COP) of as high as 10.
That is, ten times as much heat being produced as energy taken by the motor.

The various independent test results do show a rather alarming variation in
COP.  A closer look shows that this appears to result largely from different
parameters of use.  The performance of the machine depends critically on a
number of variable factors - liquid viscosity, flow rate, and the like.  It is
hoped that the tests due to start shortly in the USA will provide a proper set
of performance curves to show how these parameters change the COP.

It is well-known that "no experimental results can be accepted without
theoretical confirmation."  That is true within science, but - happily - not
within the world of commerce.  Even so, we must ask what is the source of the
energy.  No energy source other than chemical or nuclear energy is accepted by
conventional science as being applicable to a machine of this kind.  Chemical
energy could not supply such power for any length of time, which leaves
nuclear power - mass-energy conversion.  Prof. Lev Sapogin of Moscow has
proposed a most interesting theory to explain the YUSMAR machine, but his idea
is for mass-energy conversion which is unrelated to conventional nuclear
energy.  What is certainly true is that unless there is a transformation of a
stable nuclear species to another stable one, with no nuclear radiation
emitted, then the energy does not have a nuclear source as we understand it.
Thorough searches have been done for X-rays, gammas and neutrons, with nothing
found.  Admittedly, some lower energy particles might fail to penetrate the
thin wall of the YUSMAR machine.  But it is difficult to see how they could
even be occurring with no effect on the machine or the water which flows
through it.  Raising of the natural level of deuterium in the water by a
factor of ten appears to have no effect.  The machines work just as well with
the addition of ethylene glycol, they work with oil - they can even be made
from food-grade stainless steel and used for pasteurising milk.

What, then, is the source of the energy?  Professor Sapogin's theory - that
matter is being converted into energy by other than conventional nuclear means
requires more understanding than I am able to bring to it.  For nuclear energy
to be released under these sorts of conditions - seems wildly improbable.  The
remaining notion is that the energy of the 'quantum vacuum' or Zero Point
Energy is being tapped in some way.  The appeal of the last idea is that there
is at least a pre-existing theory for such a mechanism; even if its
application in this case seems more than a little obscure.

One thing is worth considering, even if only as a synthesis.  The 'micro-
fusion' machine of E-Quest operates by ultrasound-induced micro-cavitation.
The Griggs machine and its predecessor use it too.  The phenomenon of
sonoluminscence occurs in micro-cavitation and, to judge by the article
"Bubbles Hotter than the Sun" [New Scientist, April 29, 1995], not a very
great deal is understood about the physics of these tiny bubbles.  Another
thought is that the destructive effects of cavitation have presented engineers
with difficulties for decades, but perhaps there has been an opportunity
hidden in the problem - and the attempts to suppress the problem have caused
the opportunity  to be missed.

And the answer to the little riddle?  How do we know a machine is over-unity
without testing it?  The answer is simple enough.  It a machine sells widely
as an electrically-driven water heater, in countries which are struggling to
recover from a massive economic collapse, and satisfied customers keep coming
back for more - then you have a mystery to solve.  If the machines cost many,
many times more than an immersion heater (which is by its nature virtually
100% efficient, and is presumably more reliable than the YUSMAR pump-and-
motor-and vortex tube) - then you have a mystery which is soluble only by
accepting that marketing forces operate just as well in the Commonwealth of
Independent States as they do everywhere else.  Doubtless our Gentle Editor
will be fascinated to hear any alternative suggestions.
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  Infinite Energy will keep you informed on the status of calorimetric
  testing of the "Yusmar" devices of Dr. Yuri Potapov.  These tests will
  be occurring this summer in both the US and in the UK.  Don't miss our
  continuing coverage of this apparently remarkable turning pint in the
  'cold fusion' and new energy saga.....> The Editors of Infinite Energy
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Vanguard Notes

This appears to be an astounding breakthroughs, not only because it uses
practical vortex/cavitation/Hilsch tube technology, but it is admirable in how
the inventors approached marketing the unit.  They took one of 'get-off-your-
butt', build it and SELL IT to those who can use it approach.  Dr.  Potapov
and his group are to be highly commended for DOING SOMETHING, rather than
sitting around talking about it or worrying about patents and other contracts
that rarely come to manufacturing/marketing.

                            FIRST TO MARKET WORKS!

If the machine doesn't work, IT WON'T SELL and will collapse of its own
failure.  These guys KNEW they had a working device and just started selling
it, not worrying about peer review, analysis by academia or anybody's
endorsement.

At our recent Roundtable meeting, this was THE hot topic, with correlations
ranging from Schauberger's Vortex principles to the Hilsch tube that separates
high volume air flows into hot and cold air streams.  What a thought, using
high velocity WATER or other fluids with a Hilsch tube?

In a recent discussion with Bill Beaty, who runs an excellent alternative
science page on Internet (http://www.eskimo.com/~billb) as well as a Vortex
conference that stays on the cutting edge of Hydrosonic technology, he said
that Scott Little had recently finished the first Over-unity test of a YUSMAR
and these first tests did NOT appear to produce over-unity effects.

However, there are two differences from the actual machines, one is a suction
pipe at the bottom of the vortex and another is what appears to be a Hilsch
separator in the inlet.  Another test will be carried out soon with the
modifications.  We hope to have reports on these tests from Scott as well as
other information on this major advance in PRACTICAL devices.

One other point Bill brought up, a potential of 10KV develops in the tube when
the YUSMAR is in operation and a blue glow appears around the device.  This is
reminescent of the high voltage halo that appears around high pressure water
cutting equipment as well as a characteristic of Schauberger style vortex
units.

William Baumgartner used to demonstrate an experiment called the 'Wasser-
Fadden' (water-thread).  It required a high velocity stream of water >90PSI
passing through a needle size hole and streaming into a bucket coated on the
inside with wax to make it non-conductive.  As the water streams out, it is
ripped apart on a molecular level, releasing this molecular bonding energy to
create a high voltage charge accumulation.  The production of electricity from
rapid water separation was researched in the 1800's by a Dr. Lenard.  As the
water flows, a glowing, levitating halo of water mist will form around the
orifice.

At any rate, the YUSMAR is creating a lot of excitement, not only in Russia
but in the States.  Various US companies are looking into the device and
carrying out tests to determine actual efficiency and optimum operating
parameters.  See FRENETTE.ASC for correlating information.
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