Alternative Science & Technology Research Organisation

DISCLAIMER:  All information given in this newsletter is for educational purposes only.  No claims are made on or for the validity or correctness of the material provided.  ASTRO S.A. Incorporated accepts no responsibility for any mishaps or accidents incurred by any persons utilising this information.

Aug 2000   Newsletter

From "Radio & Hobbies" Aug 1961 EMERGENCY LIGHT POWERS RADIO Energised by the heat of a lamp flame, this new thermoelectric generator provides enough power to operate a transistor radio. The generator is envisaged as an alternative method of powering radios in emergencies which might arise from atomic war.

The 60 watt thermo electric generator (gas fired) purchased by Ken Kranz recently.

IMPROVING FUEL ECONOMY

(Part 1)

In the December 96 and January 97 editions of this newsletter, I wrote two articles summarising the principle of the operation of a fuel saving device that I have been successfully using. This device which I designed back in the early nineties has given me fuel consumption gains of up to 100% (under ideal weather and driving conditions) when used in conjunction with two other fuel saving ideas. Ken has asked me to revisit these articles, so here is the first one which gives an overview into how the system works.

When a vehicle is coasting, either downhill, up to traffic lights, or to a stop, the manifold vacuum is extremely high and so although the driver's foot is off the accelerator, this high vacuum is still sucking fuel into the engine. The principle behind the operation of this device, which I call the FCO or "Fuel Cut Off", is that under this condition, the fuel is "cut off" and so stopped from being sucked into the engine. This fuel is replaced by feeding in air, thus the engine purely becomes an air pump with a consequent saving in fuel. This idea is not new, with some EFI engines doing exactly this already so all I have done is devised a simple way to implement this on carburettored engines. The fuel is cut off by removing the supply voltage to the anti-dieseling solenoid (fitted to the carburetor of most vehicles which have an aluminium head) while the extra air is injected directly into the manifold via another solenoid.

The heart of the system is an electronic control box which detects manifold vacuum, engine RPM and when the brakes are applied. A MAP sensor from a Commodore is used in the circuitry to detect the vacuum at the inlet manifold and this can be used to switch other devices on or off at any engine operating point. The RPM is detected by counting the pulses directly off the points as it switches the coil. The second part of the system consists of 4 metres of 6mm copper tube wrapped around the exhaust manifold with an air bleed solenoid  and an air bleed jet feeding into it. The drawing below shows the mechanical layout of the system and while the water injection unit is shown, I am not using it as I have not found any real benefit from it at this stage.

The third and final modification required was to fit a carburetor enhancer as per George Wiseman. For those not familiar with this process, what George does is to feed back a small portion of the manifold vacuum into the space above the fuel in the float bowl of the carby. This allows a slight vaporisation effect to occur and also tends to hold the fuel back on overrun. Also, if your vehicle does not have an anti-dieseling solenoid, the fuel can be cut off by using an another carburetor enhancer circuit to provide extra vacuum on the float bowl to stop the fuel coming from it on overrun. This is shown in the drawing below. This technique does work but the results are not as good as those which can be achieved with a vehicle fitted with an anti-dieseling solenoid.

The stage at which each part of the system works is shown in the table below. From this table it should be obvious that the lighter the acceleration, the more effect the control circuit has on the amount of hot air injected into the engine. Because this hot air is being fed into the manifold directly below the carburettor, it has a vaporising effect on the fuel and so although there is more air going into the engine, in reality the fuel mixture actually becomes richer. The control unit will override any fuel cut off under 1200 RPM or if the brakes are applied, thus returning all functions of the engine back to normal. Also, because the unit is sensing the engine vacuum, it has the advantage that any on/off function can be taken from it's output under any engine condition, thus the control unit can be used for hydrogen/petrol combinations or any other experiment as well as it's current function.

Before I mention the fuel gains experienced with this system, I would like to clarify the difference between "real" figures and "perceived" figures when dealing with economy improvements. The figures that I have presented in this article are average figures gathered over many years and have been measured on a fuel computer with backup checks of using the number of Kms travelled on a full tank of fuel. I am very wary of claims made by people of 20% gain, etc. as this difference can be gained simply by tuning a badly tuned vehicle's engine correctly. Also figures bandied about from fuel computer readings under certain conditions also don't mean a thing as any standard vehicle can achieve readings of 50mpg on a flat road at 60kms/hr. The only true indication of improved fuel economy is an average over a long period of time.

I have experienced gains in fuel economy from a base 28 MPG with the standard fuel set-up, to an average of 43 MPG. This is a "real" figure being an average over several years, yes thats right, years! The bonus is that the most gain comes from city driving because of the stop and start nature of the traffic. This does vary on a day to day basis according to the ambient temperature however, with the system performing better on hot days. Once the temperature gets below 8 -10 degrees, extra hot air gains are reduced by 3 or 4 MPG, while with temperatures over 30 degrees I have recorded a maximum over a three day period of 56MPG. I have tried to equalise the performance of the system over different temperature ranges by feeding in more hot air through the air cleaner but this has not made any appreciable difference. Another possibility is to heat the fuel before it enters the carby but so far I have deliberately only applied heat to the mixture after the carby to prevent vaporisation and other problems within the carby itself.

One of the advantages of this system is it's simplicity, with the vehicle being able to be put back to standard operation in about 30 seconds! All that is required is to turn off a tap, unplug one electrical lead and plug it back into another one. Another advantage is that because the fuel mixture has less liquid fuel entering the cylinders, the combustion process is more efficient, evidenced by a measured drop in exhaust temperature. After a recent calamity with a Joe cell experiment, I had to take the head off the engine and found that there was no carbon build up or burnt valves, not bad for an engine that has done over 300,000Kms.

Well, that is part one of this article. It has been presented purely to share my experiences of experimenting with fuel saving techniques and to show that it is possible to gain much better fuel mileage than with a standard vehicle. Next month I shall present the electronics to show in more detail how the control unit works.

   ………………..Bruce

JOE CELL REPORT

I would like to report some observations about a differently constructed Joe cell and put forward my own theory drawn from these observations. I must emphasise that this is my own theory and is not to be taken as fact.

• Rotation of the field in a cell: To those of you who are wondering what a “rotating field” actually looks like, the surface of a cell with voltage applied to it is covered with a mass of tiny white bubbles. These bubbles break in lines radiating from the centre forming what appears to be black lines similar in appearance to a cart wheel. As the field rotates, so does the sequence of these lines of breaking bubbles giving the appearance of a rotating spoked wheel. Joe always talks of the field spinning to the “left” or anticlockwise. This occurs in all his cells that are constructed totally of stainless steel. While testing a cell constructed by someone else, I noticed that the field was rotating the opposite way, ie. in a clockwise direction. This cell was constructed from plastic sewer pipe with a 100mm stainless tube connected to positive and a 50mm carbon rod centre electrode connected to negative.
  
• Engine oiling system: It is my understanding that with a properly functioning Joe cell, there will be no oil fumes eminating from the engine, in fact we have been told that a smoky engine will actually stop smoking. Joe stated in the “Blue Bucket” video that his early cell made from sewer pipe actually caused the engine in his Leyland P76 to smoke or as he put it “pollute badly”. He then went to the all stainless construction and had no more pollution problems. The above mentioned carbon rod cell when fitted to my vehicle caused extreme oil smoke to appear from the exhaust, whereas the other cells I have played with have never caused this problem. (The full story was reported in an earlier edition of this newsletter)
  
• Health aspects: A properly functioning all stainless cell is said to have positive health benefits although information on this aspect of the cell’s function is at best patchy. Reports from an experimenter who had the above carbon rod cell running his vehicle were that when the cell was operating, passengers in the vehicle felt strange and unwell. In fact they could tell when the cell cut in by how they felt.
  

In Chapter 3 of Alex Schiffer’s book “Experimenters Guide to the Joe Cell” he gives information on positive and negative polarities of orgone energy. To sum up, what we have is a cell that rotates in a clockwise direction, expels oil from the engine and causes perceived negative health aspects, each of these effects being opposite to what is expected from a correctly functioning Joe Cell. Although it will still run a vehicle engine, it seems that the carbon rod cell is somehow operating in the wrong polarity. Thus I would suggest that this is not the way to go and indeed considering we do not really know what we are really playing with it could even be dangerous to one’s health. For this reason I have decided not to pursue further tests with this type of cell. I would be very interested to here from other people regarding direction of rotation of their cell and any other effects. Contact can be made via this newsletter or the ASTRO web site.

…………..Bruce.

How Hot Is It In Hell?

A thermodynamics professor had written a take home exam for his graduate students. It had one question: "Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)? Support your answer with a proof."

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools off when it expands and heats up when it is compressed) or some variant.

One student, however, wrote the following: "First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So, we need to know the rate that souls are moving into Hell and the rate they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Some of these religion state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there are more than one of these religions and since most people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all people and all souls go to Hell. With birth and deathrates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Second, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand as souls are added..

This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.

2. Of course, if Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over..

So which is it? If we accept the postulate given to me by Miss Theresa Banyan during my freshman year that, "It will be a cold night in Hell before I sleep with you." and take into account the fact that I still have not succeeded with her, then #2 cannot be true, and so Hell must be exothermic..

The student got the only A.

Note: The above letter was e-mailed to me by a friend.
Ken Kranz.

The meeting was opened at 8.00pm by Rodger, who welcomed everyone. He then announced that the ASTRO AGM was to commence and declared all positions vacant. Robert N then took over as temporary Chairman and conducted the AGM.

The outcome was as follows:-

• Chairman…Rodger T ….re-elected.
  
• Vice Chair and Webb Master….Ken K
  
• Secretary…Athol T
  
• Treasurer…Michael P re-elected
  
• Auditor…Brian D…re-elected
  
• Minutes Secretary…PeterP
  
• Audio and Video Librarian…Devashaon T
  
• Book Librarian…Victor B
  
• Facilitator…Andrew
  

Robert then handed the Chair back over to Rodger who congratulated all of the elected office holders and welcomed everyone to the July 2000 ASTRO general meeting.

Rodger…The first thing discussed was the non-return of out-standing club videos. There were 16 missing videos, with 5 having been taken without being signed out. There were five people named as having long outstanding non-returned videos. Anyone knowing these people was asked to contact them and have these tapes returned.

• Marcus Smith
  
• George Lee
  
• Elle Summers
  
• Allan Kelley
  
• Michael Driscoll
  

Library loans are to be limited to "Paid" members only, with two videos only per month. Other methods of control such as a ten dollar deposit per video and identification by name badges were discussed. The concept of the badges was then formally proposed by Roger, seconded by Ken and voted affirmatively. Members will get their name badges when they pay their $3.00 subs at the door when they enter. Members were also advised to each bring along some supper, to be shared.

Ken…discussed the new colour Webb page along with the new colour picture library .

Athol…handed around the attendance book for everyone to sign and put their addresses in.

Guest Speakers    Ron Ehrat…to talk on PIC ( Programmable Integrated Circuits) Electronics for inventors, along with Peter Rosenthorpe (from The PIC Microprocessor Club) Who is to talk  and demonstrate the making of printed circuit boards.
Ron…handed around a selection of integrated circuit chips and proceeded to explain the basics and then the benefits in using programmable integrated circuits.
They can:-

• Be reprogrammed about 1000 times.
  
• Use very low power, typically 2 micro amperes.
  
• Are quite inexpensive…around $13.00.
  

They can be used for:-

• Repetition
  
• Timing applications.
  
• If then Else logic statements.
  
• Starting things at specific times.
  

How do PIC's apply to alternative energy:-

• They time, switch things on and off, count.
  
• Measure things like gravity, temperature, voltage , current, power etc.
  
• They perform logical functions.
  

What is so different between PIC's and other micro processor controllers.

• Pics are easy to change
  
• Micro controllers are much harder to change. They are usually bigger  and much more complicated.
  

A robot using a PIC controller was demonstrated and an invitation was extended to any interested parties to learn more through the PIC Microprocessor Controller's Club. Ring Ron on PH.  83712060  … reasonable hours.
This ended the first part for the evening.

Uli…stated that if one changed the sacrificial anode at the top of their electric hot water heaters after three years, then they would last for many years instead of the five years or so.

Dino…had received a book on crystallised views of water, which had been purchased for the ASTRO Library. This was handed around and had some remarkable photos inside.
Devashaon…explained that some of the photos showed music restructured water.

Dino…spoke on his experiences in drinking about 3 litres of -300ma. redox water a day.
He had been monitoring the pH of his urine. The results started at 6 and went to 6.4 after 20 days. The redox readings went from approximately -35 to -40ma to now average -80ma. Apparently if one's urine is under a pH of 6 the body is not well and can not take up minerals. He said that "Microhydrin" stabilises the Ph. He has one litre of water in the morning with apple juice and then waits a ½ hour before eating. He said that his experimenting has shown that drinking -ve charged water is beneficial, and in line with comments made in the "Dead Doctors don't Lie " tape.

AndrewS…related that he had gone to Meningie and installed two "ECOVORTEK" water conditioners to aquaculture tanks that were in trouble. The conditioners had stabilised the pH in both tanks and this was evident in much healthier tanks and more active fish.

Ashley…played a video segment from #58 Video…BSRF…Borderlands Science …on "Di-electric " component of electricity. This manifests itself as a blue white light as is seen in the "Artic Lights" at times. This is a combination of magnetism and electricity producing what is called di-electricity. This was a very fascinating and perhaps old way of looking at the relationships of electricity and magnetic forces. This di-electric facet of electricity seems to have either been forgotten or, as some have intimated, suppressed, as it gets into the realm of Tesla and Moray.

AndrewS…spoke on a discovery, where he viewed tap water under an Ultra Violet light. There was no fluorescent effect. He then vortexed the water and checked it again under the U/V light, where it then gave off a strong fluorescence.

Guest Speaker Part Two
Ron …held up and spoke on a PIC controlled "Solar Optimiser" that varied the impedance of the solar panel to effectively charge the batteries under differing
Light intensities.

Peter Rosenthorpe… gave a demonstration on the manufacture of printed circuit boards. The old method versus the new method using laser printer and photo resistive overlays was discussed.

Damien…spoke on the Drunlevo Melchesedic " Flowers of Life Workshop" and the two associated books which are available from " Cosmic pages"
He described how he had spent a year in Switzerland with a company developing water conditioners. They are sold under the name of "OJAS Living Water Generators"
The household version has two metal rods filled with energised and specially treated quartz sand. It is mounted onto the inlet copper water pipe.. and thus energises the water as it flows through.

Rodger…mentioned the last 'Peter Bennett" organic gardening course. This is the last of 26 years of his courses. Phone 8379 7999

Rodger …closed an eventful evening by thanking our Guest Speakers and inviting everyone to supper.

The next meeting is on Friday 11^th August at 8.00pm

Until Then
PeterP