From: ames!FNALD.FNAL.GOV!DROEGE
Subject: A Little More Data
Reply-To: ames!FNALD.FNAL.GOV!DROEGE
Organization: Sci.physics.fusion/Mail Gateway
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 18:41:53 GMT

We are running a pseudo Ying experiment - this is the present status.

Dr. Nelson Ying called this morning and I now have a better idea about what I 
can talk about.  There is a specific drawing which shows the configuration of 
Ying's experiment.  In fairness to Ying, I will not say how the present 
configuration compares to the Ying set up.  This way I will give away as 
little as possible of his design.  

We have added a Co60 source to the "old" Takahashi experiment.  Sources are 
pretty well protected these days.  While I could easily check out a source at 
Fermilab (if I sat through enough video tapes and took enough tests) I would 
be fired if I took it off site.  I really think they would actually do it.  
It shows the pickle science has gotten into by accepting government support.  

There is also a radium dial watch sitting on top of the cell.  I wish it were 
not there, but to remove it I would have to open the calorimeter, and this 
would compromise the calibration.  

Fortunately I have a friend at a university who has boxes full of old stuff.  
The source he brought is stamped 0.5 micro-curie.  No telling how old it is.  
Could easily be 30 years old.  If so, it would be down to 0.008 micro-curie.  
When put right against the gieger counter window, it barely brings it up to 
0.1 rem per hour.  I believe the source Ying is using is much more intense, 
but I won't know until I get it.  He can obviously create a more favorable 
geometry than I have.  The UPS driver came and left this morning without 
bringing a source, so no change is possible until monday. 

As stated previously, I dremmel tooled my way through the outer shell of the 
calorimeter so that I can put the source up against the outside of the dewar.  
This puts it about 10 cm from the cathode.  Between the source and the cathode 
are two approximately 0.020 stainless steel dewar walls, 1/16" of copper, 5/8" 
of aluminum, 0.030" of polypropylene, and 2 cm of D2O saturated with LiOD.  
There is a 2" foam plug which is put in behind the source position whether it 
is there or not.  Even if the plug is left out, the change in heat leak would 
be only of order 100 micro-watts per degree C.  Room temperature is constant 
to better than 1 C.  I do not see much possibility that source in - source out 
does anything to change the calorimeter balance - other than through the 
effect of the source radiation.

Pt  Gamma   Duration   Duration   Accumulated  Estimated   Average 
#   Status  Seconds    Hours      Net Joules   Error-J     Power - watts

1   On      17760        4.9        532.8        49       0.0300  +/- 0.0027
2   Off     48060       13.4       1268.8        50       0.0264  +/- 0.0010
3   On      87300       24.3       2715.0       100       0.0311  +/- 0.0011
4   Off     77220       21.5       1621.6        50       0.0210  +/- 0.0006
5   On      82740       23.0       3607.5        50       0.0436  +/- 0.0006
6   Off     79980       22.2       2709.7        50       0.0339  +/- 0.0010
7   On      83640       23.2       3284.3        50       0.0393  +/- 0.0010
8   Off     57300       15.9       1201.0        50       0.0210  +/- 0.0010

Note that since the last posting, point 6 has completed its on time.  

No good way to tell for sure, but it looks like there might be a small time 
lag related to source on-off.  This data is all taken while running the 
Takahashi saw tooth current profile.  The period is 15 minutes, and the 
current ramps up to 400 ma per sq cm from a low of 60 ma per sq cm.  The ramp 
gives a power integral that looks like a rectified sine wave.  We always do 
things i.e., take a data point or change the source position, at the slowly 
changing top of the integral data.  The energy (accumulated net joules) is a 
continuous sum of the total energy - time interval product.  The total energy 
is the power in - the power out.  The power in measurement is the algebraic 
sum of all the E*I of all the leads coming in to the calorimeter.  The power 
out it the refrigerator current times the refrigerator scale factor determined 
from calibration experiments.  Calibration experiments are much quieter than 
this data.  

With point 8 we will reduce the time interval to 12 hours in an attempt to get
more data.  

Many thanks to Robert Eachus for his data analysis.  How about it skeptics, 
what would be convincing?  I think it would be a lot of fun to run a double 
blind experiment over the network.  I already have a few volunteers to work, 
but I really would like to hear from the skeptics, who suddenly seem to be 
quiet?  Hello?  Hello?.  Skeptics, are you there?  I want to give you jobs to 
do, like compare the power measurement stream with the source in - source out 
sequence.  If we can line up a set of volunteers, I do not even need to know 
when the source is in and out, and do not have to touch the data disk.  I am 
still a Dieter Britz type agnostic.  

Tom Droege