Slashdot Mirror


Irish Company Claims Free Energy

raghus writes "An Irish company has thrown down the gauntlet to the worldwide scientific community to test a technology it has developed that it claims produces free energy. The company, Steorn, says its discovery is based on the interaction of magnetic fields and allows the production of clean, free and constant energy — a concept that challenges one of the basic rules of physics." I can't wait until I can use this free energy to power my flying car and heat my aquarium of mermaids.

28 of 1,125 comments (clear)

  1. Big deal... by rthille · · Score: 5, Funny


    Years ago, I harnessed the energy from the monkeys flying out of my ass, and I haven't paid an electric bill since...

    --
    Awesome furniture, accessories and cabinetry in Santa Rosa, CA: http://humanity-home.com/
  2. Obligatory Simpson quote by adamy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Lisa, in this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics.

    --
    Open Source Identity Management: FreeIPA.org
  3. Yeah, good luck! by Otter · · Score: 4, Funny
    I can't wait until I can use this free energy to power my flying car and heat my aquarium of mermaids.

    For the typical nerd, the outcomes in decreasing order of likelihood are:

    • Perpetual motion
    • A human female
    • A mermaid
    • Multiple mermaids
  4. Re:You can tell something about these people by uradu · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ah, magnets...the never-ending source of fascination for crackpots in need of remedial highschool science. If you just arrange them in the right configuration that no-one before has tried, align them just right... After all, you can push pins and stuff around with a magnet THROUGH a table top, there has GOT to be magic in there.

  5. NO NO Really!!! This Could Work!!! by ElboRuum · · Score: 5, Funny

    I already have the patent on several "free" energy sources, but they aren't strictly free. There's the Feline Buttered Bread Commutator for example. It operates by strapping a piece of buttered bread buttered face up to a cat's back, then dropping it from a height. Since a cat always lands on its feet and buttered bread always lands butter side down, the whole apparatus simply hovers and spins in midair. By adding a wire coil to the cat and by putting a strong magnet in close proximity, voila! Free energy. Of course, it's not that there isn't any loss. For example, the cat needs to be fed and the bread gets stale. The cat tends to vomit occasionally, so there is some clean up involved.

  6. NOBODY PANIC by RyoShin · · Score: 4, Funny

    I've alerted the authorities, and the Science Police will soon arrest them for breaking the Laws of Thermodynamics.

  7. Re:You can tell something about these people by darkmeridian · · Score: 4, Funny

    Technically, the company is correct. Generators produce electricity by moving metal through a magnetic field. The trick is making the metal move through the magnetic field.

    Personally, I'm going to use my perpetual motion device to run my Pentium IV Extreme computer powered by Windows Vista while I play Duke Nukem Forever on the Phantom Labs produced graphics card.

    --
    A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
  8. Top Irish Scientists by lbmouse · · Score: 4, Funny

    Maybe these guys are related to the scientists that lived in Ireland before Michael McCloud invented a new type of beverage in his basement.

  9. Re:You can tell something about these people by Rakshasa+Taisab · · Score: 5, Funny

    "I'm also of the opinion if we started using something which was naturally in abundance, like earth's magnetic fields, it would cumulatively and ultimately affect something we'd regret later."

    If we were to start tapping into the magnetic field at such a scale it would devastate the field of magnotherapy. When traditional medicine fails you, where will you turn if the magnetic fields were practically gone due excessive exploitation?

    --
    - These characters were randomly selected.
  10. Re:You can tell something about these people by ArsonSmith · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Don't worry, we're going to give the energy away for free but we'll make up for it in volume."

    They would have to be even more "not-too-smart" then the average greedy venture capitalist investor.

    --
    Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
  11. Re:You can tell something about these people by Profane+MuthaFucka · · Score: 5, Funny

    You say it's not magic, but it is magic. Ordinary devices like electronics have smoke in them. If you let the smoke out of a CPU, for example, it no longer works. In all of my experiments with magnets I have not been able to detect smoke of any kind! NO SMOKE! It's magic.

    --
    Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
  12. Re:You can tell something about these people by thatguywhoiam · · Score: 5, Funny
    I've heard stories about made-up claims of free energy all the way back in middle school. Looks like they didn't pan out. I have little confidence in more of the same. And yet, I'll bet a conspiracy theorist will come along and blame the failure of this magical technology on big oil hitmen.

    You take a sensible approach. After all, the odds that this is real are astronomically low. But if it actually is some new miracle technology, existing energy companies will certainly try to destroy it. So you are covered either way.

    --
    If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
  13. Re:Is it marketing by XMyth · · Score: 4, Funny

    Well, the site is still up from a Slashdotting...which is quite suspicious.

  14. Re:You can tell something about these people by stefanlasiewski · · Score: 5, Funny

    Shouldn't we let that take place before we fry them in oil?

    That depends. How much energy is required to fry them in oil? Is this energy free?

    --
    "Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
  15. Re:You can tell something about these people by hcdejong · · Score: 4, Funny

    In all of my experiments with magnets I have not been able to detect smoke of any kind!

    You must have not been applying enough power.

  16. Re:You can tell something about these people by pixelpusher220 · · Score: 5, Funny

    From the article:

    "For the first six months that we looked at it we literally didn't believe it ourselves. Over the last three years it had been rigorously tested in our own laboratories, in independent laboratories and so on," he said.

    Roughly translated:

    We can't *believe* how fscking stupid our neighbors are...we ran a power cord from their external outlet 3 years ago, and they haven't even noticed!

    Dude....free energy!


    --
    People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people :-D
  17. Re:You can tell something about these people by snowgirl · · Score: 4, Funny

    Vacuum energy comes close enough to being. Now if only we could figure out how to harness it.

    I actually make very effective use of vacuum energy while I'm vacuuming my carpet...

    OH, you mean that other vacuum...

    --
    WARNING! This girl exceeds the MAXIMUM SAFE standards established by the FDA for BRATTINESS
  18. The Emperor's Clothes by snowgirl · · Score: 5, Funny

    The VC fools, not wanting to admit to themselves that they have been swindled with one of the oldest cons in the book, will happily throw more money at them.

    The magnets have no clothes! They're naked!!! *averts her eyes out of embarassment*

    --
    WARNING! This girl exceeds the MAXIMUM SAFE standards established by the FDA for BRATTINESS
  19. I have one and it works by Flying+pig · · Score: 5, Funny
    basically a set of permanent magnets that are rotated inside a wire framework. When the magnets complete one full revolution, no less than 6 rectified pulses are produced. Just by turning it at a few thousand RPM, I get 45 amps out at 14 volts - that's nearly a horsepower.

    What's more, it's easy to operate. I just have it on a bracket on my car engine and spin it up with a simple little rubber belt. Mind you, the Mk 1 has a few problems to iron out - I need to find a way of enabling it to keep running when the engine stops, at the moment it stops when the engine does and I think this might be the braking effect of the drive belt. Anyone got any ideas, or know where to get in touch with Mr. Bosch whose name is on the side of it?

    --
    Pining for the fjords
  20. Re:You can tell something about these people by antifoidulus · · Score: 4, Funny

    where do we get the energy to run around in circles?

    Gerbils dude. Lots and lots of gerbils.

  21. My personal free energy invention by popo · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... involves the opposing forces of:

    (a) Smoke, and
    (b) Some mirrors.

    Oh, and I'll also actually need (c) A curtain.

    Please send all VC monies to my address in the Caymans.

    Thank you.

    --
    ------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
  22. Re:You can tell something about these people by Prof.Phreak · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...patent for that machine would expire 20 years from its filing date and would then become public domain

    Yeah, just like Disney's copyrights!

    --

    "If anything can go wrong, it will." - Murphy

  23. Re:Why the hostility? by soft_guy · · Score: 5, Funny

    viola. Virtually free energy.
    Ack! I hope we don't have to get free energy from violas! Those things sound awful!


    Look, it depends on how its played. If I *have* to have someone play a viola in order to power my car to get to work, then perhaps I could chip in for lessons. Or else we could design a soundproof chamber for them to play in, possibly. You have to think creatively - that's what free energy from violas is all about.

    --
    Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
  24. FFVF Commutator by spun · · Score: 4, Funny

    My patented free energy device is the "Founding Fathers-Vanishing Freedoms" Commutator. Everyone knows that our Founding Fathers spin in their graves when our freedoms are taken away, so we just add a wire coil and a magnet. Every so often we have to reinstate our freedoms or the whole thing will cease to work. I'm currently investgating other ways to piss off the founding fathers so we won't have any down time.

    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
  25. Re:Why the hostility? by eric76 · · Score: 4, Funny
    Free energy is one of the biggest discoveries that people are seriously searching for.

    What most of us are searching for are two women at once. With that, we can generate our own energy.

  26. Re:Why the hostility? by escher · · Score: 5, Funny

    Viola energy is just a repackaged form of string theory.

  27. Re:The energy *could* come from *somewhere*... by Glonoinha · · Score: 4, Funny

    They could hook up a big version of the device with some blades or something, let the wind push it around in order to move the different parts through the various magnetic fields - making a net positive return of energy...

    Naw, that would never work.

    --
    Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
  28. Re:Why the hostility? by StikyPad · · Score: 4, Funny

    That "worthless" helium would be very useful to the mixed gas scuba diving market, which currently has to rely on the meager pickings of helium separated from natural gas.

    Man, you guys are missing the most plentiful supply of helium in the world. One word:

    Balloons.