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Dr. Deborah Chung's Negative Resistor
Update 21 May, 2001: This experiment has now been replicated by J-L Naudin in France. See http://jnaudin.free.fr/cnr/cnrexp1.htm See comments about his experiments by J-L Naudin below*
Excerpted from "On Extracting Electromagnetic Energy from the Vacuum," IC-2000, by Tom Bearden. In a July 9, 1998 keynote address at the Fifth International Conference on Composites Engineering in Las Vegas, Dr. Deborah D. L. Chung, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at University at Buffalo (UB), reported that she had observed apparent negative resistance in interfaces between layers of carbon fibers in a composite material. Professor Chung holds the Niagara Mohawk Chair in Materials Research at UB and is internationally recognized for her work in smart materials and carbon composites. The negative resistance was observed in a direction perpendicular to the fiber layers. A paper describing the research was submitted by Chung to a peer-reviewed journal, and a patent application was filed by the University. Several negative articles appeared quickly in the popular scientific press. Conventional scientists were quickly quoted as proclaiming that negative resistance was against the laws of physics and thermodynamics. Others thought perhaps the UB researchers had made a little battery and were unaware of it. Professor Chung is the leading "smart materials" scientist in this country, and a scientist of international reputation. Her team tested the negative resistance effect thoroughly, for a year in the laboratory. There is no question at all about it being a true negative resistor. If there is a team in this country anywhere qualified to test a negative resistance effect in carbon materials, it is Professor Chung and her team at UB. On the website for the University of Buffalo, it was announced that the invention would be offered for commercial licensing. A Technical Data Package was available for major companies interested in licensing and signing the proper non-disclosure agreements. Shortly thereafter this was no longer true, the data package was no longer available, and there was an indefinite hold on licensing and commercialization. It is still on hold as of this writing. Here is the response from the University at Buffalo in answer to one query from a major U.S. company, offering to sign a confidentiality agreement in exchange for the proffered data package:
Of course this is not the way technology transfer normally works. It is believed that the University had and has several substantial U.S. government contracts. It is not clear where Chung's work was being performed on one of them or not. We leave it to the reader to make his or her own interpretation of the real meaning of that sudden dramatic shift at the University, and what may be behind the University's sudden withdrawal of Chung's negative resistor from commercial exploitation. It was originally announced that Professor Chung had submitted a formal paper to a leading journal. We shall see if "they" allow the paper to be published. If all else fails, "they" will simply arrange to have it classified "Top Secret" and Compartmentalized. If that happens, neither Chung nor the University will ever be able to say a word about its operation or construction details. If it just vanishes and no one ever hears from it again, it will not be the first negative resistor to go into "deep six" that way. Indeed, the effective suppression and the "fix" may already be in. At this point there is no way of knowing. So it remains to be seen whether Professor Chung's dramatic invention ever is allowed to be made public, or to make it to market. Certainly she is a brave and noble scientist, and we are rooting most enthusiastically for her success. Harshly Critical Articles Appeared Immediately No sooner had Chung made the conference announcement, than highly negative and critical articles appeared worldwide, the very next day, pooh-poohing the effort. One supporter personally wrote a detailed refutation in a letter to the editor of the Los Angeles Times which had published one of those highly disparaging critiques. The editor did not acknowledge the letter. So much for the "fair and impartial" news media. Now there's one for the environmental activists, if they can really get their act together. Why not swing all that power and clout they possess into action, demanding to know what has happened to Chung's negative resistor? After all, such a unit can easily be developed into systems that will power the world, once the control of the basic effect is worked out — which in this case has already been done by Chung and her team. If the Environmental Community really wishes to do something dramatic to initiate what could be a rapid solution to the hydrocarbon wastes pollution of the planet, this is their big chance. But they'll have to have some real guts and not just "chicken out" when ordered to back off from Chung's negative resistor by all sorts of powers. On this one they will have to be prepared to slug it out in the trenches, and it will be close quarters and bloody. They will also have to be prepared to risk their lives. Instead of helping the real enemies of the environment as they did in the Kyoto treaty, they will be in blunt, eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation with them. The velvet gloves will assuredly come off the mailed fists. Flash: As of June 17, 1999, Professor Chung's article has finally been approved for publication in a journal, and is now expected to be published in about two months. With a little luck, her magnificent work will make it through after all and not be suppressed. We'll watch closely. Shoukai Wang and D.D.L. Chung. (1999) "Apparent negative electrical resistance in carbon fiber composites," Composites, Part B, Vol. 30, 1999, p. 579-590. Apparent negative electrical resistance was observed, quantified, and controlled through composite engineering. Its mechanism involves electrons traveling in the unexpected direction relative to the applied voltage gradient, due to backflow across a composite interface. The observation was made in the through-thickness direction of a continuous carbon fiber epoxy-matrix two-lamina composite, such that the fibers in the adjacent laminae were not in the same direction; the curing pressure during composite fabrication was unusually high (1.4 Mpa). At a usual curing pressure (0.13 Mpa), the resistance was positive. At an intermediate curing pressure (0.33 Mpa), the apparent resistance was either positive or negative, depending on the current direction, due to non-uniformity in the thickness within a junction. The magnitude of the apparent negative resistance decreased with increasing temperature. Appropriate apparent negative and positive resistances in series, as provided by more than two laminae, allowed tailoring of the total apparent resistance. Apparent negative resistance was also observed in carbon fiber cement-matrix composites and in bare carbon fibers held together by pressure. Relevant applications are electrical, optical, structural and electrochemical. For your information, the original point contact transistor also often exhibited true negative resistance (current moving against the voltage). They changed fairly quickly away from the point contact, and so few of them seem to be made these days, although some are still available. But these have apparently been through the "reject" examination, and such "anomalous behavior" in one causes it to go into the reject bin. But it really did sometimes exhibit true negative resistance. J-L Naudin responds to queries about his replication experiments: From: JNaudin509@aol.comDate: Mon, 21 May 2001 14:46:30 EDT Subject: Re: Naudin replicates Chung's Negative Resistor I read your webpage. Have you measured the voltage across points A and C vs
The R1 resistor is placed in serie between the point C and the ground point of the function generator and the voltage is measured across R1. Today, I have replaced the oscilloscope by two digital multimeters : One multimeter is connected across the resistance R1 ( the positive pole at the point C and the negative pole at the point E ) and the other multimeter between the point B and D ( the positive pole at the point D and the negative pole at the point B ). The result is always the same than previously and the negative resistance value is also confirmed. After 3 days of running, the negative slope of the CNR v2.0 is always the same, and its value is very stable. I have planned to build a multi-layers CNR for increasing the negative resistance value so as to get more than 1 ohm. I am going to try to get some of that Torayca fiber and try it myself. Do
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Chung
et al. found that the
carbon fiber composite can be produced as either a negative
resistance or a positive resistance, by controlling the
production process.