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| The Scientist, the Madman, the Thief and Their Lightbulb: The Search for Free Energy | 
enlarge | Author: Keith Tutt Creator: Arthur C. Clarke Publisher: Pocket Books Category: Book
List Price: $11.88 Buy New: $9.29 You Save: $2.59 (22%)
New (9) Used (7) from $9.27
Avg. Customer Rating: 2 reviews Sales Rank: 756597
Media: Paperback Pages: 368 Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7 Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 0743449762 Dewey Decimal Number: 509 EAN: 9780743449762 ASIN: 0743449762
Publication Date: January 6, 2003 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Condition: Brand New. Expected US delivery in 7-10 business days
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Product Description This work reveals the work of inventors and scientists who are developing ways to produce the electricity we need for the 21st century. It also looks at the psychology of invention and the claims that some inventors trick investors out of their savings. The book explores the revolutionary work of inventors and scientists who have struggled to develop clean and "fuel-less" new ways to produce the electricity we need for the 21st century and beyond. If the technologies could be developed commercially, they would offer almost costless energy, which would mean the end of the oil economy and freely available electricity throughout the developed and underdeveloped world This book contains elements of a dramatic conspiracy thriller in which greed, mendacity, murder, suicide, suppression, betrayal, jealousy, madness and misunderstood genius all play their full parts. It also investigates the complex psychology of invention and reserves a chapter for those inventors who are either self-deluded mavericks or charlatans who aim to trick gullible investors out of their savings Most importantly, there are technologies here that explore ways that may be able to solve the planet's most serious problems.
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| Customer Reviews:
Balanced Yet Encouraging Overview of The Quest For Free Energy May 4, 2006 8 out of 8 found this review helpful
This intriguing book is a useful and balanced introduction to the field of Free Energy, with detailed discussions of several potentially successful inventions, from a 1901 patent awarded to Nikola Tesla through T. Henry Moray's work in the 1920s and '30s to Jim Griggs' Hydrosonic Pump in the 1980s and '90s. The author examines the politics behind the public debacle of Cold Fusion (it may still work), and the scientific principles behind what may seem to the layman like some mythical perpetual motion machine. Along the way he debunks a host of false claims. The first chapter is an excellent starting point for anybody who wishes to learn about Tesla, the genius who brought electricity into your home.
Tutt is fair-handed and has obviously done his homework, having personally investigated Paul Baumann's Thesta-Distatica in a religious community in Switzerland. He repeatedly addresses the questions about the veracity of his subject just before they arise in the mind of the reader. For example, many of the inventors who tried for decades to get confirmation or funding for their devices never saw penny one for their efforts, in contrast to the usually successful short-lived "take the money and run" practices of transparent shysters (who are covered in Chapter 11).
Tutt quotes extensively from statements sworn by scientists and bureaucrats who have tested the inventions in question, and reports the failures, too. In Chapter 12 he discusses the urgent need for new energy sources and also admits the difficulties in accepting and implementing new technology.
Conspiracy theories are addressed, too, and the fact is that many of the inventors featured have been mysteriously harrassed, threatened or worse. Possibly a greater threat to the viability of these devices is the difficulty of getting funding to develop a technology which is difficult to understand and not supposed to work. We've been able to electrify the world, but promising yet underexamined anomalies in electromagnetic theory have been around since Faraday's homopolar generator in 1832 (Chapter 4). Once another Maxwell comes around to explain those anomalies in equation form, it may all make sense.
The point of the book is to encourage interest in the idea of "Free" Energy without becoming a mystical or mathematical muddle, and it succeeds in an enjoyable way. It's like a mystery novel, but about actual work being done which just might change the world.
History of the search for free-energy: October 31, 2005 7 out of 7 found this review helpful
FROM THE PUBLISHER "Imagine a world freed from the damaging demands of the oil economy; a world powered by 'fuel-less' energy; a world where all countries - rich and poor - have freely available electricity. Too good to be true? Or simply too good to be allowed? For over a hundred years, a maverick group of inventors and scientists have struggled to develop technologies which may end our addiction to fossil fuels. Their extraordinary and controversial discoveries now offer the potential to defuse the global climate crisis and yet they face opposition - both from the oil-dominated energy market and from the scientific establishment." Drawing on extensive and revealing research, this is the story of the mavericks, geniuses and madmen who have set out on a path paved with good intentions, and yet who have often arrived soaked with the bad blood of betrayal and conspiracy. Filled with colourful characters - mad, sane and brilliant - The Scientist, the Madman, the Thief and their Lightbulb has all the elements of a dramatic conspiracy thriller in which greed, suicide, murder, jealousy and misunderstood genius all play their full parts.
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