Nicolae Vasilesco Karpen
Google "Vasile Karpen", and you'll find thousands of
this:
"Built by Vasile Karpen, the pile has been working uninterrupted
for 60 years..."
Here is is again, PLUS his French Patent ( erroneously reported as
being patented in 1922 -- actually, it was 1924 ) -- and an
English translation.
http://uk.ibtimes.com/articles/20101227/karpen-039pilebattery-produces-energy-continuously-since-1950-exists-romanian-museum.htm
27 December 2010
Karpen's Pile: A Battery That
Produces Energy Continuously Since 1950 Exists in Romanian
Museum
by
Ovidiu Sandru
The "Dimitrie Leonida" National Technical Museum from Romania hosts
a weird kind of battery. Built by Vasile Karpen, the pile has been
working uninterrupted for 60 years. "I admit it's also hard for me
to advance the idea of an overunity generator without sounding
ridiculous, even if the object exists," says Nicolae Diaconescu,
engineer and director of the museum.
An old photo of Karpen's pile
The invention cannot be exposed because the museum doesn't have
enough money to buy the security system necessary for such an
exhibit.
Half a century ago, the pile's inventor had said it will work
forever, and so far it looks like he was right. Karpen's perpetual
motion machine now sits secured right in the director's office. It
has been called "the uniform-temperature thermoelectric pile," and
the first prototype has been built in the 1950s. Although it should
have stopped working decades ago, it didn't.
The scientists can't explain how the contraption, patented in 1922,
works. The fact that still puzzles them is how a man of such a
scientific stature such as Karpen's could have started building
something "that crazy."
The prototype has been assembled in 1950 and consists of two
series-connected electric piles moving a small galvanometric motor.
The motor moves a blade that is connected to a switch. With every
half rotation, the blade opens the circuit and closes it at the the
start of the second half. The blade's rotation time had been
calculated so that the piles have time to recharge and that they can
rebuild their polarity during the time that the circuit is open.
The purpose of the motor and the blades was to show that the piles
actually generate electricity, but they're not needed anymore, since
current technology allows us to measure all the parameters and
outline all of them in a more proper way.
A Romanian newspaper, ZIUA (The Day), went to the museum for an
interview with director Diaconescu. He took the system ouT of its
secured shelf and allowed the specialists to measure its output with
a digital multimeter. This happened on Feb. 27, 2006, and the
batteries had indicated the same 1 Volt as back in 1950.
They had mentioned that "unlike the lessons they teach you in the
7th grade physics class, the 'Karpen's Pile' has one of its
electrodes made of gold, the other of platinum, and the electrolyte
(the liquid that the two electrodes are immersed in), is high-purity
sulfuric acid." Karpen's device could be scaled up to harvest more
power, adds Diaconescu.
Karpen's battery had been exhibited in several scientific
conferences in Paris, Bucharest and Bologna, Italy, where its
construction had been explained widely. Researchers from the
University of Brasov and the Polytechnic University of Bucharest in
Romania have even performed special studies on the battery, but
didn't pull a clear conclusion.
"The French showed themselves very interested by this patrimonial
object in the 70s, and wanted to take it. Our museum has been able
to keep it, though. As time passed, the fact that the battery
doesn't stop producing energy is more and more clear, giving birth
to the legend of a perpetual motion machine."
Some scientists say the device works by transforming thermal energy
into mechanical work, but Diaconescu doesn't subscribe to this
theory.
According to some who studied Karpen's theoretical work, the pile he
invented defies the second principle of thermodynamics (referring to
the transformation of thermal energy into mechanical work), and this
makes it a second-degree perpetual motion machine. Others say it
doesn't, being merely a generalization to the law, and an
application of zero point energy.
If Karpen was right, and the principle is 100% correct, it would
revolutionize all of the physics theories from the bottom up, with
hard to imagine consequences. Though I guess this isn't going to
happen very soon, the museum still needs proper private funding to
acquire the necessary security equipment required by the police to
exhibit the device.
FR577087
Pile électrique
[ PDF ]
EC: H01M6/00; Y02E60/12
IPC: H01M6/00; H01M6/00
1924-08-30
Pile électrique. L'objet de la présente invention est une pile
électrique transformant la chaleur du milieu ambiant en énergie
électrique. Cette pile est formée, soit de deux. phases liquides,
soit l'une phase liquide et d'une phase gazeuse, les deux phases
étant en contact, mais n'étant pas miscibles, soit enfin d'une seule
phase liquide; et de deux électrodes en métal ou en charbon en
contact avec les phases. Les électrodes sont, dans tous les cas,
inattaquables par les liquides ou les gaz:avec lesquels elles sn
trouvent en contact, leur poids et leur na ture restent invariables
pendant le repos et le fonctionnement de la pile, différant en cela
de toutes les piles connues. Il en est de même des différentes
phases liquides ou gazeuses de la pile, lesquelles resténf égaiement
invariablés, aucune réaction chimique ne seproduisant entre les
éléments de la pile phases et electrodes.
Les figures annexées de i â 3 indiquent des formes diverses de
réalisation de la pile, objet de l'invention.
La figure 1 représente une pile formée de deux phases liquides A et
B, les électrodes étant complètement immergées l'une dans la phase
A, l'autre dans la phase B.
Exemple se rapportant â la figure 2. Les phases A et B résultant
d'un mélange d'eau, d'alcool amylique et d'hydroxyde de sodium,
mélange qui se sépare, â l'équilibre, en deux phases; la phase B
surtout aqueuse, la phase A surtout alcoolique. Les électrodes sont
en charbon ou en platine. La force électromotrive, dirigée, â
l'extérieur, de A vers B est, â la température de la chambre,
d'environ 0,4- voit. La figure n représente une pile dans la quelle
l'une des phases est liquide et l'autre phase est liquide ou
gazeuse. L'une des electrodes est en partie immersed dans l'une des
phases, en partie dans l'autre phase, la deuxième électrode est
complètement im mergée dans l'une des phases.
Exemple se rapportant â la figure 3. La phase B est formée d'une
solution- aqueuse d'hydroxyde de sodium, la phase A est formée d'air
et de vapeurs- de B ou de benzine. Les électrodes sont en platine,
en nickel ou en charbon. La force électromotrice dirigée, â
l'extérieur, de À vers B est; â la température de la chambre,
comprise entre o,4 et o,8 voit.
La figure 3 représente une pile formée d'un seul liquide, dans
lequel se trouvent deux électrodes différentes.
Exemple se rapportant â la figure 3. Le liquide est formé d'eau
rendue bonne con ductrice de l'électricity par un sel alcalin, par
exemple le carbonate de sodium, et les electrodes sont formées :
soit de deux métaux dif férents comme le platine et le nickel, soit
d'une électrode métallique et d'une autre electrode en charbon, soit
encore d'une électrode en charbon et d'une autre électrode toujours
en charbon, mais de qualite différente, par exemple, une électrode
en graphite et l'autre en charbon de cornue ou une électrode en
charbon de bois et l'autre en charbon de cornue, etc. Les électrodes
peuvent être mas sives ou formées de poudres contenues dans. des
sacs, ou des vases poreux, etc. La force électromotrice est comprise
entre o, & et 0,8 voit.
Dans tous les modes d'exécution de la presente pile, les phases sont
en équilibre chimique; aucune réaction n'a lieu entre les phases en
contact, il ne se produit aucune va riation de la concentration des
phases, comme c'est le cas pendant le fonctionnement des piles de
concentration connues. Aucun changement n'intervient non plus dans
le poids ou la nature des electrodes. La pile se refroidit, pendant
le fonctionment, sous la tempéra ture du milieu ambiant, lequel peut
être un milieu naturel que Pair, Peau, la terre, etc., et reçoit de
ce milieu la chaleur équivalente â l'énergie électrique déveloped.
'Les piles connues de concentration, emp aussi au milieu extérieur
la chaleur équivalente à l'énergie électrique produite, mais pendant
le fonctionnement de ces piles les concentrations de l'électrolyte
autour des électrodes, tendent â s'égaliser et la force
électromotrice de ces piles finit par s'annuler; la quantité d'
electricite fournie est limitée. Au contraire, dans la présenté
pile, les concentrations des phases en contact avec les electrodes
se maintiennent invariables, la quantity d'électricité que cette
pile peut débiter n' est limitée. Gette pile transforme
indéfiniment la chàieur du milieu ambiant en energie electric, elle
contredit donc 3rd deuxième princïpé, de la thermodynamique.
FR577087
Electric battery.
The purpose of the present invention is a battery transforming the
heat of the environment into electrical energy.
This battery is formed of two liquid phases, or one liquid phase and
a gaseous phase, both phases being in contact,
but are not miscible, or finally of a single liquid phase; two
electrodes and metal or coal in contact with the phases.
The electrodes, are, in any case, unassailable by liquids or gases
with which they come into contact; their weight and nature remain
unchanged during rest and operation of the cell, differing in this
from all batteries known.
The liquid phase-gas battery remains equally invariable; no chemical
reaction is occurring between elements of the battery, phases, and
electrodes.
The attached figures of 1-3 indicate various forms of realization of
the battery, object of the invention.
FIG 1 represents a battery formed of two phases, Liquids A and B,
the electrodes being completely immersed in one phase A, the other
in phase B.
Example referring to FIG 1.
Phases A and B resulting from a mixture of water, amyl alcohol and
sodium hydroxide mixture that separates, in balance in two phases,
especially aqueous phase B, phase A above alcoholic.
The electrodes are carbon or platinum.
The electromotive force, led outside, from A to B is, at room
temperature room, about 0.4 volt.
FIG 2 is a stack in which one of the phases is liquid and the other
phase is liquid or gaseous.
One of the electrodes is partly immersed in one of the phases, in
part in the other phase, and the second electrode is completely
immersed in one of the phases.
Example relating to FIG.2 -- Phase B is formed from an aqueous
solution of sodium hydroxide; phase A is formed of air and vapor of
B or benzene.
The electrodes are platinum, nickel or carbon.
The electromotive force directed out of A to B at room temperature,
is between 0.4, 0.8 volts.
Figure 3 shows a battery formed of a single liquid, wherein there
are two different electrodes.
Example relating to Figure 3. - The liquid is formed of water made a
good conductor of electricity by an alkali metal salt, for example
sodium carbonate, and the electrodes are formed either of two
different metals such as platinum and nickel, either a metal
electrode and another electrode carbon, or an electrode carbon and
another electrode also carbon, but of different quality -- for
example, a graphite electrode and the other of retort carbon,
or a carbon electrode and the other wood charcoal, etc..
The electrodes can be formed of a mass of powders contained in bags
or porous vessels, etc.
The electromotive force is between 0.4 and 0.8 volts.
In all preferred embodiments of the battery, the phases are in
chemical equilibrium; no reaction takes place between the phases in
contact, and there will not occur concentration of the phases, as is
the case during cell operation of known concentration.
No change interferes either in weight or nature of the electrodes.
The battery cools during its function, at ambient temperature, which
can be an environment of air, water, earth, etc., and receives from
the medium heat equivalent to the electrical energy developed.
In other batteries the external medium heat is equivalent to the
electrical energy produced, but during operation of those batteries
concentrations of the electrolyte around the electrodes tend to
equalize and the emf of these cells eventually vanishes; the
quantity of electricity supplied is limited.
In contrast, in the present battery, the concentrations of the phase
in contact with the electrodes remain invariable, and the quantity
of electricity is not limited.
This cell transforms environmental heat to electric energy; it
contradicts the second principle of thermodynamics.
M. Dogaru & M. Cazacu :
For A Continuous Working of the Vasilescu-Karpen's
Concentration Pile
