[Aeronaut]

I just looked up Gyrotron and Peniotron, the recommended “High Tech Transformer” /decelerator in the patent. I don’t understand how a peniotron can be useful. The power is much lower than a gyrotron and it requires high speed switching and sensing equipment that would add to the complexity and expense.

CPI’s gyrotron page, and Wiki’s maser pages, suggest that its uses are for plasma heating and particle acceleration. Huh? At least I have some phone numbers. Apparently anybody who would be looking for this type of part already understands it is how the wiki and sales pages approach the reader.

If I understand it correctly, our brief pulses of “electricity” (no circuit return path) needs to be terminated and converted into several mm wavelength pulses of (hopefully) 5 MW total power. Then something like a pad transformer steps it down to useful levels and number of phases. Is this correct? Thanx.

[Aeronaut]

I believe you’re both right. Marketing to people in general, marketing to businesses who could benefit by being early adopters, and marketing to government at all levels should be an ongoing intertwined continuum. Somewhere along the way will come the critical mass- the tipping point- where everybody thinks they have to be on board the bandwagon.

This is in the context of a self-funding sales organization with local, state, regional, and national offices. Their tasks include developing relationships with the elected officials and their staffers, who know precisely what needs to be done and where the power is in that area, but lack the funding and can’t raise taxes. The initial monetization would not come from FF, but by gathering, filtering, and publishing information online, which is already a multi-billion dollar industry.

Tightly coupled with that is selling Search Engine Optimization services, which comes down to writing and publishing.

I agree wholeheartedly that we don’t want the people who brought us ITER and the NIF funding FF. Thats for career government physicists, not us.

[Aeronaut]

The patent is posted on the homepage’s right column. You’ll have to look for it, but all of the details are in there, since it is an awarded patent.

[Aeronaut]

yeah, I’d forgotten about all the red tape.

[Aeronaut]

Doesn’t sound like you’re posting to an opt-in list, Rezwhan, and that sets you up for spam filters making your message invisible.

Building links to FF by commenting on appropriate blog posts is one of several methods to raise search engine visibility so the search engines act as billboards, sending us traffic. This has the added advantage of the visitors thinking they found it, as opposed to you chasing them like an old-fashioned (and unwelcome) used car salesperson.

Other free to nearly free, highly effective methods include article marketing and press releases.

[Aeronaut]

I read the patent this morning, taking notes on the drawings page (had to cheat and use Photoshop6 to put all drawings but figure 12 on one sheet).

In these drawings you’ll find a pair of “3d” drawings of the eight cathode model, with and without the optional coil.

None of the drawings I’ve seen there or anywhere else shows the vacuum vessel, or even hints at it using cutaway or various opacities like a Popular Mechanics cover treats the skin of an airplane.

Next up is going to be the shielding wall, cap banks, transformer yard, x-ray converter, and particle to electricity converter. The easiest way to do this would be with photos of almost any quality or lack thereof.

My recommendation is to make the images easy for PM’s editors to “appropriate” to sell magazines, bagging FF priceless exposure and credibility. The kind that can’t be bought.

[Aeronaut]

belbear42 wrote: What about this one:

Focus Fusion: Make Watts, not Rads

Cool. How about Wanna Start Something? FocusFusion.org: Make Watts, not Rads

[Aeronaut]

Now I’ve been to myspace.

The most important change I’d make would be to start where my readers are- broke, and tease them into reading more, like Aaron did with the Homepage blog. All prospects’ favorite station is WIIFM (What’s In It For ME?).

If MySpace is still mostly broke teenagers, you may do better by “selling” them the action of joining a mailing list for more information, bookmarking your page on Digg, StumbleUpon, etc., which can bring in traffic from other sites and the search engines.

For marketing and search engine visibility crash courses from a reputable person, visit Josh Spaulding’s site http://ez-onlinemoney.com/blog . You’ll need to subscribe to his free email list to get the 3 free books that contain all you actually need to know about online marketing other than copy writing. He also has several mini tutorials on his homepage, http://ez-onlinemoney.com . I’m a member of Josh’s email list and his paid coaching forum, Coaching With Josh, so I can tell you from first hand experience that Josh is one of the very rare good guys in the Internet Marketing world.

Hope this helps. If not, just ask.

[Aeronaut]

You’re absolutely right about the industrial add-ons gobbling up the budget, Rematog. Still, I’d halfway like to put one in my garage and power about a 1 mile radius. (Low population density around here).

I know that roughly 1 meter of water will shield against nuetrons- can it turn x-rays into useful heat and bring that part of the energy output conversion back where DIYers just might be able to build one ?[chuckle].

I finished the theory notes about an hour ago, btw. Got some more chores before I can check the claims and math in any detail, but now I do understand at least the current and magnetic aspects.

The whole theory section of the patent kept bringing Pentode (Ok-Octode or Dectode) vacuum tubes to mind.

[Aeronaut]

So why all the hand-wringing on page 1, Rematog?

To the Board: This thread has exposed at least one serious flaw on https://focusfusion.org , left column, Transition link, then the Heat and Thermal Pollution link in the article body, where FF is described essentially as needing no cooling system.

I spent the last few days reading the Home page as if I knew nothing about fusion, followed most of the links, and printed out the unique, descriptive articles. I also printed out the entire patent text and drawings, and will finish reading it today, hopefully. This comes from the advice to figure out how to build one in your garage. First, understand, Then sketch and ask questions.

My marketing strategy is to pitch it as a 5 to 9MW/hr energy source, depending on the nature of the application, so the heat doesn’t surprise anybody down the road. This thread has moved FF from the Utopian realm to the Engineering Challenges realm, which greatly enhances its credibility, in my opinion. Thanx for the heads up, Rematog.

[Aeronaut]

About the cooling, we’ve been discussing this in the https://focusfusion.org/index.php/forums/viewthread/283/

In a nutshell, FF runs 50% efficient, which means that the 5MW electrical output is roughly matched by another 5MW of thermal energy to find a use for. This means that for some applications it could be pitched as a 9 or 10MW reactor.

[Aeronaut]

I almost forgot to mention the low-tech piston steam engines of the 1800s for developing countries with ready access to water. Temperatures, pressures, and machining tolerances were much lower back when steam really took off over 100 years ago.

[Aeronaut]

Rematog, I can see that it’s going to require a 4 year degree for me to discuss this intelligently in numbers. My initial target problem for FF to solve was powering ships, trains, industry, and large buildings. When its small and light enough, it could power semi trucks for even larger carbon emissions reductions. This thread has forced me to learn a lot about steam plants to minimize or eliminate your industry being stuck with incompletely depreciated capital assets, which could remelt Wall Street.

Besides, America’s energy appetite is 60 to 80% electric, depending on who’s numbers you use. I’d like to see that exceed 95% within 10 years to help control liquid fuel costs by reducing demand for foreign oil.

What I meant by leverage can be extended to using FF’s electrical output to power your monstrous motors, lights, and everything else that reduces your net power output. Another 3 to 5 MW of heating capacity does not have to make 1st stage operating steam directly, since I understand you have reheated steam entering at least 1 of your 21 stages.

To my untrained eye, 2 energy conversions in particular caught my eye- burning coal to heat air to heat steam tubes to heat water into steam is the first one. Any pre-heating is going to reduce your fuel consumption and EPA exposure. The second is that you’re running a condenser instead of reheating that purified feed water. Granted that water is easier to heat with helium than steam, but being on the Gulf, my guess is your condensers have a lot of scheduled downtime due to corrosion.

In summary, I’ve been trying to adapt FF to your plant as an auxiliary energy source, rather than the economically threatening scenario of new steam equipment or the dogmatically threatening scenario of replacing coal with fusion.

[Aeronaut]

So we’re back to selling to factories, hospitals, and high-rises to use most of the 10MW. As a designer and promoter wannabe, I’m not comfortable with just giving away nearly 50% of the energy gain. That kind of sloppy accounting sets us up for a global warming sucker punch that’s guaranteed to go viral, getting us labeled right down there with cold fusion.

Now I have enough numbers and theory to do some spreadsheeting to see what I can do with 800, 600, and 400 degree F exiting helium, and what flow rates would be required for 17M BTU/hr. And yes, I am looking for an elegant, cost-effective solution that theoretically any small fab shop owner could do in his spare time.

Thank you all for putting up with my basic questions.

[Aeronaut]

You big, Rematog. Even lil brother is 220 MW. If they don’t really want to save ~200M$/yr, while reducing their exposure to the EPA, Rick Wagner may still be looking for work…

Seriously, though, even a 300′ furnace/boiler has to be zoned so it can be periodically inspected without shutting the whole site down. Therefore, a business case could be built around replacing small pieces in say, a five to ten year plan as everybody gets comfortable with the idea.

No stranded assets, improved response to peak loads, steadily reduced EPA exposure, and (hopefully) stable or declining net fuel costs.

[Author]

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