Getting hot & bothered over the “12inch miracle tube”

Recently the Daily Mail sadly broke a commendable run in good science reporting by giving generous column space to Christopher Eccles and his “12inch miracle tube”. Produced from a makeshift lab on an industrial estate in Lancing, the device is equivalent to an immersion heater except that it manages to put out more energy than it puts in. Sharp-minded readers will have already realised that this makes it a perpetual motion device - the bane of sensible physicists everywhere. So how does it work?

So, roughly speaking, a mysterious reaction happens in the mysterious substance containing potash, which heats the water. The article claims this mixture is simply a catalyst to release energy from the potash. Sure, why not, they use potash in explosives, so it’s got to have some good heat energy locked up in it. Of course, burning potash is probably a lot more expensive than heating water by burning natural gas. Which is probably why the following inexplicable statement appears:

Researchers believe it taps into a previously unrecognised source of energy, stored at a sub-atomic level within the hydrogen atoms in water.

Eh? According to the diagram, the reaction doesn’t take place in the water, so the magic substance never even comes into contact with the water. It must be a revolutionary device indeed to unlock this “sub-atomic energy” in water just by heating it. And this is the crux - even if this device does work as stated, it’s not putting out more energy than is going in. The water leaves the device changed, with the sub-atomic energy converted into heat. This might not matter if you’re showering in it, but this is supposed to be a replacement to the standard immersion heater in your central heating system. As everyone knows, the water in radiators goes round and round, leaving the tank hot and returning to it cold. So what happens when the water in this system returns to the 12inch miracle tube? The sub-atomic energy has been released already! No second miracle heating for you.

So there you have it, a device that works via an unknown system, breaks the laws of physics, manages to free undiscovered sub-atomic energy in water simply by heating it, and can do this again and again.  You were doing so well, Daily Mail.

3 comments October 4th, 2007