Irish startup Steorn blew the hugely hyped demo of their new perpetual energy machine when “excessive heat from the lighting in the main display area” led them to abort the affair. However, the guys at LouderVoice somehow got access to Steorn’s “CEO” and “Machine” for this exclusive demo. Steorn is now at risk of becoming more ridiculous than Clown Co. Their own countrymen are openly mocking them. → Read More
Forget the battery problems plaguing electronics. Steorn, and Irish technology startup, has a better idea: free energy. They claim to have created a device, called the Orbo, that can generate electricity from the ambient atmosphere around it. This would be a perpetual motion machine, and would violate the standard laws of physics. Steorn wants to blow your mind, baby. The problem is, the machine’s yet to be proven to work. At a demo on Wednesday that was supposed to be the first public viewing of the machine at work, nothing happened. The machine had “technical difficulties”, and Steorn blamed the intense heat generated by the television lights for the problem. Yup. No word on when a rescheduled demonstration might occur, but I for one am waiting. I’m all about fringe sciences (I heart Bigfoot hunters), so I wish them the best of luck. Also, I hate my electric bill. When they can come up with a way to pull television signals out of the air, then I’m really interested. Free Energy? Erm, Not Yet, Says Steorn [The Guardian, with more on TechCrunch] → Read More
So much for the much hyped Steorn demo – after getting the world all jazzed up for a quick rewrite of the laws of physics the other day (they promised to break the fundamental law of conservation of energy by creating new energy from nothing), the public demo was cancelled. The reason, Steorn says, is that “excessive heat from the lighting in the main display area” caused technical difficulties and the demo had to be called off “until further notice.” I’m all for turning the world upside down and coming up with free sources of new energy that have zero downside (no emissions, no fossil fuels, no nothing). But you’ve got to actually come through with a product when promised. I’m deadpooling these guys, but give them credit for the sheer audacity of their stunt. We’ll revisit later. → Read More
Update: They blew it. No reason U.S. independence day should slow the news down in Europe. Look for the long awaited demo from London of Steorn’s new Orbo device today, which supposedly creates a steady stream of energy from magnetic fields: Orbo produces free, clean and constant energy – that is our claim. By free we mean that the energy produced is done so without recourse to external source. By clean we mean that during operation the technology produces no emissions. By constant we mean that with the exception of mechanical failure the technology will continue to operate indefinitely. The sum of these claims for our Orbo technology is a violation of the principle of conservation of energy, perhaps the most fundamental of scientific principles. The principle of the conservation of energy states that energy can neither be created or destroyed, it can only change form. Because of the revolutionary nature of our claim, not only to the world of science but to the world in general, Steorn issued a challenge to the scientific community in August 2006 to test our technology and report their findings. The process of validation that has resulted from this challenge is currently underway, with results expected by the end of 2007. The core technology is “based upon the principle of time variant magneto-mechanical interactions,” which of course is exactly how I would have approached the problem, too. Engadget has a picture of the device. A demo video is promised to be published momentarily. Keep an eye on this blog, which is basically tracking the company and the product. → Read More
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