THE second law of thermodynamics is safe, at least for now. The jury is still out on the Griggs鈥� pump, a device which its inventor says produces more energy as heat than is needed to run it. Tom Droege, an engineer and physicist from Chicago, has inspected the pump on behalf of scientists who contribute to a forum on the Internet called sci.physics.fusion, which discusses all types of fusion. If the pump does what Jim Griggs claims, it will be the first proven case of cold fusion.
Griggs, who founded a company called Hydro Dynamics in Rome, Georgia, has spent the past eight years developing the pump. Last month, Droege flew down to talk to Griggs and his colleagues and inspect the device.
His inspection proved inconclusive, but he told Griggs what evidence he would have to supply to make a proper scientific case for his claim. One simple but critical thing is a logbook to record how each experiment is set up and calibrated. 鈥淲ithout a logbook I have no idea how they think or work,鈥� says Droege. Griggs got the message. 鈥淚 will buy a log book,鈥� he says.
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Droege鈥檚 visit was paid for by a whip-round among physicists who contribute to sci.physics.fusion (This Week, 17 December 1994). They donated $1000 after getting fed up with the claims being made for the Griggs鈥� pump by Jed Rothwell of the organisation Cold Fusion Advocates.
Droege spent four hours at the company, talking and watching the Griggs鈥� pump in operation. He was chosen to investigate the pump because he is an expert in building complex apparatus. Droege designed most of the electronics for CDF, the detector on the Tevatron particle accelerator at Fermilab, on which the top quark was discovered. He made several unsuccessful attempts at building cold fusion machines in the basement of his home.
The only measurement Droege made was with a Geiger counter, on the off chance that he could pick up evidence of a radioactive process. 鈥淭he reading was lower than in my basement,鈥� he says.
What is being claimed for the Griggs鈥� pump is either cold fusion at work or nothing short of a violation of the second law of thermodynamics, one of the cornerstones of physics. Not surprisingly, people who make such claims have difficulty finding a journal that will publish their findings. 鈥淗owever; Mr Griggs has no such problem,鈥� says Droege. 鈥淭here is a 鈥榡ournal鈥� ready and willing to publish his paper. It is sci.physics.fusion. I can guarantee he will get a prompt and fair 鈥� if somewhat raucous 鈥� reading.鈥�