Steorn's Orbo "free-energy" machine demonstrated!

Here we go, after months of doubt over claims of a magnetic machine promising "infinite clean energy," Steorn will be putting their wares on display for public scrutiny in London. A physics defying perpetual machine, if you will. Starting tomorrow, rumor has it that the Kinetica museum will host the Orbo device for a ten day long public demonstration of the technology. We're expecting a formal announcement at 6pm 11pm London (1pm 6pm New York). iPhone shmiPhone, this is going to be good.

Update 1: Still nothing from Steorn yet, but Irish RTE News has also "confirmed" the impending announcement. Moreover, a "very simplified version" of the technology will be viewable by streaming media over the Intertubes. So get ready kids, they say you'll be able to watch janky video of a prototype "lifting a weight" from four different angles starting at 6pm London Eastern Time. Otherwise, you can view the device live at Kinetica from Thursday 5 July to Friday 13 July.

Update 2: First picture of the mystical device! [Thanks, Jordy]

Update 3: CEO Sean McCarthy tells SilconRepublic how it works. Namely, the time variance in magnetic fields allows the Orbo platform to "consistently produce power, going against the law of conservation of energy which states that energy cannot be created or destroyed." He goes on to say "It's too good to be true but it is true. It will have such an impact on everything we do. The only analogy I can give is if you had absolute proof that God wasn't real." Whoa. Link to demonstration site now added below.

Update 4: Well, 6pm London time has come and gone. However, Steorn's site now says that the video will go live at 6pm "Eastern Time." Apparently, their demo is aimed at the US. A fossil-fuel Independence Day? Riiiiight.

Update 5: Jeebus, what a non-event. Even though they wield supreme control over the laws of physics, Steorn had to cancel tonight's event "due to technical difficulties." We'd laugh if it wasn't so pathetically tragic. The live stream is now rescheduled ambiguously to the 5th July. Now move along folks, there's nothing to see here.

[Thanks, Obi N. and Jonathan G.]

Read -- Kinetica museum (not announced yet)
Read -- rumored announcement
Read -- world's first "free energy" live demo (just not live yet -- hey is Orbo powering the London Eye!)

[AC @ Jul 4th 2007 5:11AM]

Awesome :) If it actually works, i hope they don't just get bought out by an oil company.

[Martin @ Jul 4th 2007 5:16AM]

...and conveniently 'forgotten about'.

[Fety @ Jul 4th 2007 6:09AM]

yeah, or even poisoned like Stanley Meyer. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_fuel_cell

[Xavier Gill @ Jul 4th 2007 7:45AM]

It's a bit strange that its at Kinetica, for our American friends (happy birthday btw!) Kinetica is basically just a small (two rooms) art gallery, its not exactly the Science Museum. Steorn's claims are almost definitely bullshit, but we might aswell see what they've got to say.

[Brien Mizell @ Jul 4th 2007 11:58AM]

I just want to know if it will charge my iPhone!

[bombastinator @ Jul 4th 2007 2:43PM]

Why on earth would a scientific experiment take place in an art gallery?

In this day and age successful fine art is mostly about fame and hype. Witness that guy who takes photos of thousands of naked people. The photos mostly suck btw, but he's making pretty good cash.

The guy will no doubt reveal his hoax and make some sort of stirring statement about dwindling energy resources.

This whole thing is nothing but an ad folks. You've been viral marketed by an artist.

[Chuckles McGee @ Jul 4th 2007 3:08PM]

I'm very excited because either:
1.(extremely likely) it's all some silly hoax and we get to laugh at how stupid "perpetual-motion" devices are, since it doesn't take a genius to show that the thing isn't violating natural laws.
2.(extremely improbable)The team has somehow disproven hundreds of years of thermodynamics research and our energy problems are over. We stop emitting greenhouse gases, never worry about our oil supply, and all join hands as our hippie-bretheren imagined and sing "Kuhmbaya".

[matt @ Jul 6th 2007 1:29PM]

It's probably taking place at an art gallery because no respectable museum of natural science would host a "free energy" machine. it would be like screening a porn at Cannes.

[Cpt.Scarecrow @ Jul 4th 2007 5:20AM]

If it really works, shouldn't there be some patents for it? How come no one has found them?

I'm really curious if this will work. But I'll probably still cry hoax if the device is hooked to my electronics and powers everything...

[t1m1 @ Jul 4th 2007 5:55AM]

Steorn said there are no patents because they were refused to patent a technology which violates a physical law.

[Kavee @ Jul 4th 2007 7:49AM]

Well, there are many dozens of patents on US, Europe and other parts of the world relating to permanent magnet motors, which theorises perpetual motion. If you broaden search on free energy, there are much more patents granted. Nicholas Tesla, Gabriel Kron, Edwin Gray, John Bedarni, Thomas Bearden are few among those.

[Josh Trutt @ Jul 4th 2007 2:17PM]

I think there are patents for it, and people have seen them. The folks at Magnetic Power, Inc (www.mpi.com) are developing solid-state devices based on the same technology (but seem to understand it much better-- you won't hear anyone at MPI saying that it "defies the law of conservation of energy"), and they have apparently reviewed some of Steorn's materials. I know they have spoken with Steorn and reverse-engineered their device based on photos. They believe it will work; they also belive their own devices will be far more powerful, but until they see Steorn's in action they can't say for sure. I'm heading out to visit MPI's laboratory tomorrow, so... hopefully this will be the dawn of a new energy age!

[orikmon @ Jul 23rd 2007 5:28PM]

WELL i'm set in my sole 4 it. this will mean anti-gravity, all will never be as it was. I think

[tekdroid @ Jul 4th 2007 5:23AM]

at last, I can power my personal flight machine. Those battery packs were getting ridiculous.

[Richard Berkin @ Jul 4th 2007 5:27AM]

Hmm... Challenging the laws of the universe seems like a bad idea. Fifth Dimension of Zor, here we come.

[Yojimbo @ Jul 4th 2007 1:16PM]

The laws of magnetism are the LEAST understood of any physical property this it is safe to assume that there are still things we don't understand. No one can ever "break" laws but they can only prove that current laws are merely wrong or need changing.

[simxp @ Jul 4th 2007 10:12PM]

The laws of magnetism may well be among the least onderstood; the laws of thermodynamics emphatically aren't.

There's a nice thing about the laws of thermodynamics: they hold everywhere, and that includes across all fields of Physics. It's actually a very useful tool: have a new field of Physics you don't know how to get results from? Apply conservation of energy. It always works. You can't get out more net mass-energy from a process than you started with. You can't reverse entropy. Ever.

[dmx @ Jul 4th 2007 10:01PM]

Laws of magnetism least understood?

Man what a frusturating comment. Dude. Magnetisms well understood. Its been well understood for a long time. Now if you said "The interactions of Gravity and quantum physics" or even "Aspects of the strong or weak interactions" (which alas are actually well understood), we'd be going somewhere.

So thats it. This thing runs on magnets? Whats the facility to replace the magnets when they wear out. We do know that much about magnets. They wear out.

[JShanks @ Jul 8th 2007 11:43PM]

Do any of you know what thermodynamics refers to? Break it down. Second, we understand electromagnetics very well. When I say we, I mean people who have actually studied it. Like engineers and physicists. Unless this guy has come up with some new alloy, this thing will be a load of crap.

[JShanks @ Jul 5th 2007 1:04PM]

Do any of you know what thermodynamics refers to? Break it down. Second, we understand electromagnetics very well. When I say we, I mean people who have actually studied it. Like engineers and physicists. Unless this guy has come up with some new alloy, this thing will be a load of crap.

[Reuven @ Jul 4th 2007 5:40AM]

Lisa! In this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!!!

[Luke @ Jul 4th 2007 9:43AM]

Hey, that episode was on last night! Lol

[Mark @ Jul 4th 2007 5:41AM]

Free energy.. hmm.. sounds a little too good to be true... but if this is true, where do I sign up?

[Thomas Ricker @ Jul 4th 2007 5:44AM]

Hmm, this is interesting. A google of the museum site for steorn unveils this link

http://www.kinetica-museum.org/new_site/event_seminar_main.php?id=35

Although dated 12/12/06, I don't recall this being presented in the past. The website is not very robust, this could just be the backdated announcement we'll see later today.

"Sean McCarthy, CEO of revolutionary Irish technology company, Steorn, will be presenting Steorn's new technology that produces free, clean and constant energy. This provides a significant range of benefits, from the convenience of never having to refuel your car or recharge your mobile phone, to a genuine solution to the need for zero emission energy production. Steorn's technology appears to violate the "Principle of the Conservation of Energy", considered by many to be the most fundamental principle in our current understanding of the Universe.

http://www.steorn.net"


Thomas

[Curious @ Jul 4th 2007 5:52AM]

Thomas,

There was a short presentation of the technology at the end of last year, no demo device, just a talk and some videos.

There was some discussion on the Steorn forum about it.

http://www.steorn.com/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=30901&page=1#Item_0

As for the demo - well it lasts 10 days, so... bring it on.

[Gil @ Jul 4th 2007 5:45AM]

We're going to get full Engadget coverage of this right?

[PJK @ Jul 4th 2007 7:14AM]

Question: Is that out of genuine curiosity or because your a Steorn shill out to drum up as much publicity for this marketing event as possible?

[Gil @ Jul 4th 2007 7:22AM]

Do you even think? If it is fake then Steorn will fall even harder if the event is covered.

[PJK @ Jul 4th 2007 10:00AM]

Yea, its far more likely that they've rewritten the physics books. The possibility of them being idiots who are misguided enough to believe that any publicity is better than none is for more remote.

[DakStaka @ Jul 4th 2007 6:02AM]

Not far from work... I'll take a look thursday when it reopens.

[Filip @ Jul 4th 2007 6:03AM]

If this will actually wors, then there's two options:
1. a total "failure" during the presentation (oil companies will pay for that)
2. WWIII

Can you see another option?

[supermeerkat @ Jul 4th 2007 6:08AM]

How about humanity entering into a new and enlightened era. With a clean and unlimited energy source there'd be no more pollution and pillaging of the planet's resources. Oh how wonderful that would be!

But of course it won't happen.

[Daryl Herbert @ Jul 4th 2007 6:09AM]

Wasn't this the start to the plot of Quake I?

A scientist invents a free energy device, which then opens up a portal that demons come spilling out of . . .

Oops, I forgot. Quake I didn't have a plot. But if it did, this could totally be it.

[Shamus @ Jul 4th 2007 6:56AM]

That would be something, so to speak :) instead of enjoying free energy we would be slaying endless armies of daemons, bwhaha!

[theberries @ Jul 4th 2007 1:06PM]

No, that was halflife. Quake engine though :P

[Toaster @ Jul 4th 2007 11:05PM]

Half life doesn't use the Quake engine, it uses the Source Engine (the first one.) They originally planned on using the quake engine but then changed plans, back in..1998 or so.

[rockus @ Jul 5th 2007 12:40PM]

Halflife uses a heavily modified version of the Quake II engine. Source did not exist then.

[Alan @ Jul 5th 2007 3:18AM]

No, Half-life 1 used a modified Quake Engine. The Source Engine was Half-Life 2.

Wiki of Half Life 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life

Wiki of Quake Engine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quake_engine

Wiki of Source Engine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_engine

[kungfumaniac @ Jul 4th 2007 6:24AM]

Shenanigans.

$5 bucks says this is all a marketing ploy.

[java_drinker @ Jul 4th 2007 6:36AM]

Agreed... my money says it's going to be a stunt for a strange flavor of Coke or perhaps a car from Ford. Advertising has jaded me for life.

[Ralph @ Jul 4th 2007 6:30AM]

More info here: http://www.steorn.net/orbo/technology/
"Orbo is based upon the principle of time variant magneto-mechanical interactions. The core output from our Orbo technology is mechanical. This mechanical energy can be converted into electrical energy using standard generator technology either by integrating such technology directly with Orbo or by connecting the mechanical output from Orbo to the generation technology. The efficiency of such mechanical/electrical conversions is highly dependent on the components used and is also a function of size."

[Peter @ Jul 4th 2007 6:43AM]

Why the 10 day limit? Battery life? If it's really a "free energy" machine, there should be no problem leaving it on exhibit for several months.

Of course it's always possible that a secretive Irish inventor *has* created a device that runs off an inexhaustible free energy source, but I seriously doubt it.

[tchiseen @ Jul 4th 2007 7:38AM]

"Why the 10 day limit? Battery life? If it's really a "free energy" machine, there should be no problem leaving it on exhibit for several months."

If it were really a 'free energy' or perpetual motion device, it would never stop.

If, as posted above "Orbo is based upon the principle of time variant magneto-mechanical interactions" it is in fact NOT a perpetual motion machine, it is simply another type of power generator, similar to all generators, coal, nuclear, etc, it needs to be " converted into electrical energy using standard generator technology ".

Their spin has made their 'orbo' sound like it defies the laws of physics, most likely to confuse the lay man. Also, their not getting a patent act is likely the same kind of pr stunt.

What I think is likely is that they've created (or dreamed of creating) a device to harness a renewable 'magneto' resource. This device would likely be very inefficient and probably would produce very little if any usable energy (much as other renewable energy resources in their infancy i.e. solar, wind).

[spam_from_engadget @ Jul 4th 2007 7:50AM]

> it's always possible that a secretive Irish inventor *has*
> created a device that runs off an inexhaustible free energy
> source

No, it isn't.

[murray @ Jul 5th 2007 7:31PM]

@tchiseen: it doesn't sound like you've been following this from the start. Their claims are blatant: "the energy produced is done so without recourse to external source".

They claim to *create* energy. By definition if you are creating energy, the process cannot be inefficient. It's already more than 100% efficient.

I'm a skeptic too... but at least go and read their literature before you make assumptions.

[PJK @ Jul 4th 2007 6:46AM]

Its pure 100% bullshit, guaranteed. Steorn started up as a marketing company.

[Gil @ Jul 4th 2007 6:59AM]

Wow you can't even wait less than 24 hours? Does it make you feel like a big alpha male to say "guaranteed"?
Oh it's guaranteed by an anonymous poster on the internet. I'm going to sleep better tonight knowing that.

Tomorrow is not that far away people

[noazark @ Jul 4th 2007 1:49PM]

didn't the wright brothers start out with as bike builders? to this day i wouldn't trust a bike builder with my 172. however, its been done before.

[PJK @ Jul 4th 2007 7:07AM]

Hey Gil, You've been working for Steorn how long? I'm not an alpha male but I guarantee you they haven't broken the law of conservation of energy.

[Smills @ Jul 4th 2007 7:18AM]

You are almost certainly right. However, lets not rule out that this takes energy from either the earth's magnetic field or ambient temperature or gravity etc... There are many ways this could work and still not break the laws of thermodynamics.