Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud by Robert L. Park

Author:Robert L. Park [Park, Robert L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2010-03-05T13:14:00+00:00

GARABED GIRAGOSSIAN'S DAY IN CONGRESS

In the autumn of 1917, an Armenian immigrant, Garabed Giragossian, announced that he had discovered a machine that produced more energy than it took to run it. Like Joe Newman, Giragossian had no scientific training but was endowed with boundless selfconfidence and energy. Moreover, he had his own circle of technologically unsophisticated admirers who fed the press glowing testimonials. The press did for Garabed Giragossian what CBS television would do for Joe Newman: they played up the story of a self-educated immigrant genius whose invention confounded the pompous experts who had declared it couldn't be done-and all Garabed wanted was to be certain it would be developed by his adopted homeland. It was the American story, and the public loved it.

Giragossian also had his day before the U.S. Senate. He declined to reveal the details of just how his machine worked, but he proposed that the president of the United States personally appoint a team of top engineers and scientists to examine it. A number of physicists wrote to Congress, warning that the Giragossian claim violated the laws of thermodynamics. But Congress overwhelmingly passed a special act calling for a presidential commission to look into Giragossian's discovery. After all, if Giragossian was right, imagine what it would mean for the nation and the world? It was again Pascal's wager and the lure of free energy.

President Woodrow Wilson himself, as Giragossian had proposed, appointed the distinguished team of scientists and engineers. Such high-level involvement fueled unrestrained press speculation about what the project might mean in terms of free electricity and factories without smokestacks. The public awaited the commission's report with high expectations.

It didn't take long. A demonstration was arranged. What the commission was shown was a flywheel, differing only in size from the flywheels that propel children's toy cars across a room. To get Giragossian's huge flywheel started, a muscular assistant operated a mechanical crank. Once it was started, however, the flywheel, which was mounted on bearings to reduce friction, was driven by a small electric motor. The distinguished commission watched as the flywheel slowly came up to its maximum speed. Then, using a dynamometer, Giragossian measured the energy required to bring the flywheel to a stop. The result, a beaming Giragossian proudly announced, was two hundred times as much energy as the electric motor supplied.

There was a shocked silence. They had been assembled for this? Giragossian had confused power and energy. He simply had not understood that energy, supplied by the muscles of his assistant and the electric motor, was being stored in the flywheel as it was brought up to speed over a period of minutes. When he abruptly brought the flywheel to a stop, all of the stored energy was expended in an instant.

The entire nation seemed embarrassed by the episode. There was no question of fraud; Giragossian was clearly sincere. It is ingrained in the American character to believe that a simple, virtuous man can accomplish things that are beyond the reach of closed-minded, so-called experts.

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