Oscar C. BLOMGREN
Electrostatic
Cooling
There are three conventional ways to transfer heat: Conduction, Convection, and Radiation. Now there is a fourth way, Electrostatic Cooling (ESC), that has been discovered and patented by Oscar C. Blomgren (Sr. & Jr.) and others. Negative ion probes are placed near a heated object, which is grounded. When high voltage is applied, there is a dramatic drop in temperature. This extremely simple system reduces or eliminates the need for other methods, and it uses very low power and is very efficient. It also facilitates heating when applied in reverse!
"Cooling
by Electrostatic Spray"
Invention Intelligence
(1976)
Inter-Probe of North Chicago has patented an electrostatic cooling system that can cause red-hot metal to cool perceptibly. The system uses negative terminal probes placed near the heated object, the positive or ground terminal being attached to the nozzle of the burner. When high voltage is applied, a stream of ions flows from the probes towards the heated object and reduces its temperature.
The electrostatic cooling phenomena has not yet been fully understood. One speculation for this sudden high rate of heat transfer is that the resulting ion flow causes surface turbulence, which in turn breaks down the insulating surface layer between the heated object and the surrounding air. Another theory is that, since energy is required to extract electrons from the heated material, there should be cooling when thermions are emitted.
"High
Voltage Current Extinguishes Flame"
Popular Science Monthly
(March 1931)
Fire in a mine is always a deadly peril. Explosions and cave-ins may block the work of fire-fighting brigades equipped with ordinary apparatus. Therefore mine officials watched with unusual interest the experiments of Bernard Lewis, physical chemist at the Pittsburgh, PA station of the US Bureau of Mines, who recently demonstrated that he could put out a flame with electricity.
Lewis lit a gas flame in a glass tube. The he brought near it, from each side, a piece of wire gauze charged with high voltage electricity. The flame vibrated convulsively, dwindled, and went out. Burning carbon monoxide gas, and gaseous carbon-and-hydrogen compounds like the dreaded "fire-damp" of miners, were successfully extinguished.
The electrically-charged pieces of gauze, Lewis told Popular Science Monthly, literally tear the flame to pieces. When an inflammable gas burns, the hot flame throws off particles of negative electricity, leaving the products of combustion charged with positive electricity. His high voltage electric field draws negatively charged electrons to one electrode and positively charged particles to the other, breaking up the flame. Whether the same thing may be done outside the laboratory, and if so on how large a scale, remains to be seen.
"Electrostatic Cooling: Science Fact or Fiction?"
by Michael Riconosciuto
In an attempt to describe my technical work in the context of my criminal case I have met with a lot of criticism. At times the criticism has turned to outright ridicule. I have been accused of everything from making wild claims to not knowing my physics.
My work in heat transfer has many significant uses in military, industrial, and communications applications. A point that I had made to the science editor of Der Speigel magazine during a interview was that the F-111 plane built by General Dynamics was in service because of technology that I was attempting to describe as part of the basis for some of my work. The science editor and his researchers claimed that they had never heard of any of these concepts, and could not locate the references that I claimed existed.
Finally, in September of 1998 I received a partial copy of the Design News article on the wing pin cooling and the Popular Science article on electrostatic cooling that review the heat transfer technology that I had been attempting to describe.
What is significant in these articles is that:
(1) the electrical power used to cool the wing pin is an extremely low amount. So much so that there appears to be a Second Law violation;
(2) the determination that an "electric wind" is responsible for the instantaneous electrostatic cooling fails to account for the speed and the amount of the observed heat flow in the wing pin welding process and other demonstrations;
(3) the article on the wing pin understates the importance of the electrostatic cooling process in the production of the F-111 wing pins. The early versions of the F-111 were grounded because of a series of crashes attributed to the structural failure of conventional methods using clamp cooling bars and periodic shutdowns to cool the pins during the welding process.
General Dynamics had explored every possible manufacturing technique for fabricating the wing pins in an effort to save the F-111 project. In desperation, as a last resort, General Dynamics allowed the electrostatic cooling to be demonstrated on a actual wing pin. General Dynamic scientists, engineers, and executives were astounded by the structural tests on the sample wing pin.
(4) The Popular Science article does not go into any detail on the capability of the electrostatic cooling process to thermally stabilize high power laser components.
The PS article only makes a vague reference to "infrared optics". Neither of these articles make any mention of the capability of electrostatic cooling to control heat in "all" types of explosives, or the control of heat in electrical power fuses. Electrostatic cooling has enabled a whole new class of tactical explosive systems and high energy electric power systems.
The claims made for electrostatic cooling appear to be lifted from the pages of a science fiction story. I am using the F-111 project as a concrete, real world example of the capabilities of electrostatic cooling since the project would have more than likely been scrapped had it not been for the application of electrostatic cooling to the wing pin welding process.
Similar dramatic successes have been realized in the MIRACL, COIL, TEXS, and ETC weapons programs. None of these programs could be a workable reality without the application of proprietary electrostatic cooling techniques. The practical application of the underlying thermodynamic concepts of electrostatic cooling to ergodicity and entropy in high performance data communications systems has only recently become apparent to the computer industry.
The thermodynamic concepts behind electrostatic cooling have a impact on the "transport properties" of the message entropy of data signals over large networks.
The analysis and understanding of the electrostatic cooling effect was accomplished by starting with a series of obvious experimental measurements in order to lead to the complex mathematical physics principles that were anything but obvious.
The initial analysis of the numbers for the operation of the wing pin welding process (less the 20 watts power to the electrostatic probes) would lead one to suspect a violation of the second law of thermodynamics is being claimed here. The control of such a large amount of thermal energy in and around the weld zone and throughout the bulk of the wing pin, with less than 20 watts of electrical power, is a very fantastic claim. However, it is no less fantastic than the postulated explanation given by Dr. Kibler, the senior scientist for General Dynamics, attributing this phenomenal rate of heat transfer to a "electric wind".
Some experiments were conducted using a Schlieren optical system and an infrared thermograph. A Schlieren optical system is capable of detecting regions or streaks in a transparent medium that have density and a refractive index differing from that of the bulk of the surrounding medium. This enables pressure and/or temperature gradients to be detected by photographing a beam of light propagating transversely through the medium. The Schlieren optical system displayed the thermal boundary layer present at the surface of the heated wing pin.
The Infrared thermograph displayed the overall thermal profile of the wing pin during the entire welding process. Application of the low power electrostatic field was clearly seen to instantaneously break up the thermal boundary layer that was present over the heated wing pin surface area.
The wing pin could be made to attain a new thermal equilibrium anywhere in a temperature range of a few degrees lower than initial conditions to over 500 degrees F lower, just outside the weld zone throughout the surrounding area. This new equilibrium was attained in a matter of mere seconds throughout the entire bulk of the wing pin.
The application of external chill bars and/or an "electric wind" is a surface phenomenon. Careful experimental analysis of the boundary layer thermal transfer effect confirmed that heat transfer was indeed substantially enhanced when the electrostatic field disrupted the boundary layer. The boundary layer was found to act as an effective thermal impedance to both radiative and convective thermal transfer from the surface of the wing pin.
The disruption of the thermal boundary layer by the electrostatic field yielded approximately a 4:1 increase in the rate of thermal transfer from the surface of the wing pin. I conducted an experiment on a batch of wing pins welded with chill bars. In this series of experiments I applied a film of electronic grade heat transfer compound to the wing pin surface/chill bar interface. This had the effect of inhibiting the thermal impedance presented by the thermal boundary layer.
The results in this series of experiments were nearly a 4:1 increase in total thermal transfer from the surface of the wing pin to the chill bars during the welding process. This comparable to the rate increase in surface heat flow found when the wing pins were welded in the presence of the electrostatic field, but without the bulk cooling effect and nearly instantaneous thermal re-equilibration properties of electrostatic cooling.
There was a major DOD/DARPA interest in the capability to athermalize the materials in high power laser optical components. This is the reason that most of my proof of principle research was conducted with laser grade optical materials.
One of the first thoughts that struck me when experimenting with the wing pin welding process was that the bulk thermal transport effects appeared to violate Joule's law of heat flow. This prompted me to obtain a large slab of IR-TRAN-2 laser glass. For experimental purposes I had numerous thermocouples imbedded throughout the bulk of the glass slab. I placed this slab of glass on the surface of a laboratory type hot plate. The heating top of this hot plate was only one inch thick.
I had it drilled out to place numerous thermocouples throughout its' bulk. I also took the heating coil element from a kitchen type hot plate and mounted it in a custom case. This case had provisions for the use of both contact thermocouples and a view port on the underside for the thermograph. Both of the hot plates were powered through an isolation transformer, and the temperature regulated by a Variac.
A series of experiments were conducted with different electrode configurations and grounding arrangements. It was determined experimentally that by "appropriate modulation" of the high voltage field that the electrostatic heat transfer effect could be enhanced by several orders of magnitude. The voltage and current inputs to the hot plate and the voltage and current supplied to the electrostatic cooling probes were monitored during all the experiments.
The uniformity of the bulk cooling effect was immediately confirmed by repeated experimental demonstrations.
Measurements of radiated and convected heat flow away from the glass slab did not come anywhere near accounting for the BTU loss required for the temperature drop of the slab. The total heat dissipation actually measured in the experimental set-ups could not be immediately reconciled with the Second Law of thermodynamics, Joule's Law and Fourier's theorems on heat flow, and the Conservation laws of physics.
Additional theoretical work had to be performed.
Admiral Al Renkin (Retired), and myself demonstrated this heat transfer phenomenon to scientists from the various national laboratories. As amazed as they were, none of the scientists or engineers could accurately characterize the underlying physics of the experimentally observed phenomenon in our demonstrations. At this point the Office of Naval Research proposed that the experimental set-up be changed.
Oscar Blomgren Jr. had succeeded in cooling spots on the filament of a long display case type lightbulb. I was asked if it were possible to cool the entire length of the filament simultaneously, to the same degree as the sections of the filament had been. The answer was yes.
Then ONR wanted to see the numbers on probe energy versus the electrical energy input and thermal and convective heat flow around the filament.
Vacuum and inert gas backfilled lightbulbs were used for this set of experiments. The experimental results were immediately classified and all hell broke out around our project. I suddenly had immense resources in money and personnel made available to our project through DARPA, ONR, and USAF PRAM Project Office.
This R&D continued for 3 years until it was disrupted by the murder of Paul Morasca. When I realized that Paul Morasca was terminated by the US Government, I folded up the project at Hercules, Cabazon, and Sonoma Engineering.
The research data and equipment from the entire project went into storage. I have effectively been on the run since I shelved the project in 1984.
My work on this project started with a heat transfer phenomenon that had been accidentally discovered by Oscar Blomgren Jr. I succeeded in completely reconciling the observed experimental results with the apparent violations of the laws of physics. The work that I completed can be summarized as mathematical modeling and numerical simulation with application of the boundary value problems of thermodynamics based on second order partial differential equations derived from elliptic functions. The mathematical principles and physical laws that cover this work are as follows:
(1) the laws of thermodynamics;
(2) the boundary value problems: 1st) the Dirichlet problem, 2nd) the Neumann problem, 3rd) Ronbin's problem;
(3) the equations of mathematical physics;
(4) Maxwell's relations in thermodynamics. The Maxwell relations in thermodynamics are based on Maxwell's cross-partial derivatives and lead to the Helmholtz function and the Gibbs function.
My work succeeded in clarifying the physics of the observed heat transfer effects demonstrated by the use of electrostatic cooling. The discoveries that I made have been classified and improperly expropriated by agencies of the US government.
Michael Riconosciuto is a federal prisoner, being held on a multitude of apparently trumped up charges intended to suppress him. He was involved in the PROMIS software scandal and other secret governmental projects that have brought him to this sad pass. His address is:
Michael Riconosciuto
21309-086 Box 4000
U.S. Medical Center
Springfield, MO
65801-4000
Joseph Ellsworth <joe@xdobs.com>
Nov 15, 2006 2:28 AM
Results of my First Electrostatic Cooling Test
I tried the basic approach mentioned in the welding patent which was to attach only the positive high voltage electrode. This was mostly because my ionizer only has a positive output. It is a 7kV constant DC voltage which is effectively what the circuit accomplishes with the diodes aver the coil. My device is capable of running on 9V to 14V I was running it on 9V which means it was generating about +4KV.
My control bar set was two bars of aluminum 1/2" thick X 12" long X 1.5" wide. Each one weighs about 1 pound. They where heated in an oven to 160F and then placed on an insulated nylon surface. The temperature probes where taped to the surface of the electrode. The +HV source was taped to on bar while the other was untreated. The charge level was sufficient to give noticeable not particularly painful shocks when any part of the bar was touched. Ambient was 65F @ 43% RH.
I took several measurements over a time series but exactly 1 hour after they where removed from oven the bar with the electrode had cooled to 71.3 while the control bar was only at 100.1. Both started at 160F so there is definitely a cooling effect going on but it is not as extreme as shown in the patents.
I left both bars in place for another hour and at the end of that hour both bars had cooled to ambient and the temperatures had stabilized. I suspect that the bar with the High voltage would not go below ambient even if left connected for several hours.
My next test series will use the high voltage source running at 13V input which should increase the available voltage and increase the cooling ratio. The one after that will be to ground one end and put high voltage into the other end. If I have time I will hook up an oscillator to turn on the high voltage source for 1/10 second and off for 9/10 of second to see how it affects the results.
Note: If I can find a strong negative voltage source I will use it to generate a stream of negative ions directed over the surface of positively charged bar. I suspect that this will give dramatically better performance since it would give us a larger number of ions impacting the surface.
ESC Patents
USP # 3,224,497
( PDF Format )
Method & Apparatus for Lowering the Temperature of a Heated Body
Oscar Blomgren, et al.
21 December 1965
Abstract --- This invention relates in general to a
method and apparatus for controlling energy level in matter, and
more particularly to a method and apparatus capable of lowering
the temperature of an electrically or flame heated body. Still
more particularly, the present invention involves the use of a
high voltage, low amperage, direct current source directed
towards heated matter for controlling its temperature and energy
level.
Cooling Apparatus & Method for Heat Exchangers
Oscar Blomgren, et al.
25 March 1975
Abstract --- To improve the coefficient of heat transfer
between trhe surfaces and the heat exchange media of heat
exchangers, such as automobile radiators, steam condensers, and
steam boilers. Conductive probes or conductors are energized
with a low power, low current high DC potential and spaced from
the surfaces a distance slightly greater than the distance at
which arcing occurs while the surfaces are grounded to generate
an electrostatic field.
Energy Transfer Apparatus
Oscar Blomgen, et al.
22 March 1983
Abstact --- Apparatus and method for efficiently transferring energy through a medium between a source and a target which in one form includes a rigid frame supporting a plurality of electrically conductive probe strips having probe tips or points spaced therealong and a plurality of conencted grid wires or rods in spaced relation to the probe tips or points and electrically insulated therefrom. The grid wires are arranged in at least a pair configuration with respect to each of the probe strips. The probe points are disposed in facing relation toward the target and each grid wire pair is equally disposed in relation to the axis of the probe strip that it serves. A high voltage low amperage direct current source is connected to the probe strips. In another form the apparatus includes a single probe tip or point in combination with a pair of electrically connected grid wires.
Enhanced
Electrostatic
Cooling
Apparatus
James Beal, et al.
Abstract --- Electrostatic cooling apparatus with a
needle emitter insulated along the shank thereof except for a
sharp needle tip. The insulated needle emitter is supported
along the axis of a funnel tube so as to augment the velocity of
the ionic wid generated by the needle emeitter. The needle
emitter is axially adjusted within the funnel tube to tune the
resonant cavity formed by the needle emitter and funnel tube to
just below the space charge oscillation frequency.
( James B. Beal : P.O. Box 2112, Wimberley, Texas 78676-7012; Ph. (512) 847-3076 )