Dr.Klaus J. Kronenberg has a long background in the field of magnetism.
He is a Doctor of Physics from the University of Cottingen, Germany.
He also earned a Doctor of Natural Sciences from the Technical University,
Clausthal, Germany, where he did his Thesis: “Aging and Stabilization
of Permanent Magnets“ He was connected with Deutsche Edelstahl
Werke, Krefeld Germany, where he worked on permanent Magnet-Precipitate
in Alnico 5 shown by Electron Microscopy. Upon arrival in the United
States, he worked for Indiana Steel Products Co., Valparasio, IN
on the Development of Crystal-Oriented Barium Ferrite. Then he went
on to General Dyamics, Pomona, CA, where he invented Permanent Magnet
Bearings. Among the many awards and recognitions he has received
are: Special Award from Alexander von Homboldt-Stiftkung, Bonn,
Germany and Guest Professorship from the Ruhr-University Bochum,
Germany [Study of Samarium Cobalt]. Recently, he served as an Associate
Professor at California State University, Pomona, CA. His Magnetic
Water Studies were done with Fluid Magnetics Corp., Dinuba, CA
Are the Waters of the East Different from the Waters of
the West?
Slowly, but steadily, physical treatments of water with magnetic
fields become known and accepted in the Western World. They have
been utilized since about 25 years in many countries of the Eastern
World, the USSR and Mainland China for instance. There, hundreds
of success- reports have been published, most of them admitting
the lack of a fully satisfying scientific explanation. These papers
describe - often in great detail - the observation of reduced formation
of hard lime scale, the elimination of old lime scale deposits,
accelerated plant growth, desalination of soils, improvement of
concrete, better cleaning, faster drying, better taste and smell
of drinking water, changes of freezing modes, beneficial effects
on patients with kidney stones, and minute changes in some physical
constants of the water, such as viscosity, IR absorption, surface
tension, to name just a few.
Many of these reports are authored by scientific teams of universities
or government agencies, describing years of experimentation and
subsequent routine applications in larger forms. Resulting savings
in the use of chemicals, of energy, and of equipment are substantial,
according to these reports.
But, contradicting these descriptions originating from Eastern
countries are a number of reports of tests and checks by teams working
in countries of the West. No change of the water was found by magnetic
treatment according to some of these reports. Some of these evaluations
concede to find some effects when long-time observations were made.
In a number of States within the USA magnetic water treatment has
officially been declared to be a hoax or its advertisement has been
outlawed to be fraudulent. How can such discrepancies of opinion
exist for tens of years in our small and supposedly communicative,
scientific world?
A number of reasons for different opinions are caused by a number
of obvious differences in the circumstances prevailing in the respective
countries, for instance:
* The peoples of the Western world insist to be able to understand
what they are doing or using. Theoretically unexplained processes
have the stigma of black magic or superstition.
* The West is used to and takes for granted the unrestricted availability
of chemicals for all purposes in reliable quality and purchasing
price which is not so in many countries of the East.
* The Russians do not have a particularly good reputation in matters
of research on water after the disaster of the claim by Deryagin
to have found the “Polywater“ in the 1960's (The history
of this scientific misfiring is well presented in FELIX FRANK'S
booklet Polywater, the MIT Press Cambridge, MA. 1981).
* The Free-Enterprise system permits anybody to take advantage of
potentially fast profits with wild claims about an important item,
such as water. Many partially informed or irresponsible sales-people
give the entire issue a bad name by false promises, such as “No
need for chemicals!“ The Correct statement would be: “Chemicals
become more effective in magnetically treated water, so that one
needs chemicals in reduced amounts.“
What is Magnetic Water Treatment? (As described by Russian papers)
A number of conditions are given in the Russian papers about the
details of their experiences; here are a few:
· The water to be treated has to move across magnetic fields
not stronger than 1000 to 2000 Oersted.
· For a certain flow-velocity the effect is a maximum.
· It usually works better for water of a lower temperature.
· Some small changes of the physical constants of the water
last only for a few minutes.
· The capability of the water to prevent formation of hard
lime scale may last for up to 2 days.
· Instead of forming hard lime scale (“Slake“)
clinging to the walls of the container, the calcium carbonate of
magnetically treated water forms a soft sludge (“Shlam“),
flowing with the water.
· Reliable observations of the effects of the magnetic treatment
require several weeks. Many attempts of faster results have not
always been conclusive.
· The magnetically treated water is able to dissolve formerly
deposited lime scale.
· Soil can be desalinated.
· Harvests are significantly improved in quantity and quality.
Our own Experiments and Observations
Prospects.
Confronted with the challenging discrepancy between 400+ computer
references of papers from the East and a score of opposing, critical
surveys from Western countries, we probed into the matter experimentally.
We had the facilities of the California State Polytechnic University,
Pomona, at our disposal, where the author has been teaching Physics
for 10 years, and acoustics just at this time. The author had been
working in materials research for most of his professional life,
permanent magnetism and crystallography being his specialities.
He was familiar with the many unsolved puzzles of water by his early
works as a physics student in Cottingen, Germany.
Why is there lime scale?
The formation of hard lime scale at the container walls by the CaCO3
content of water is a consequence of the scarcity of nucleation
centers in ordinary water. When the concentration of the CaCO3 exceeds
the solubility, the solidification can begin only at appropriate
starting points most of the time at foreign matter. If no foreign
matter is present in the form of particles in the liquid, solidification
can start only at the walls of the container. Ordinary water tends
to surround any foreign particulate with complexes of 100 to 200
water molecules each. The water molecules agglomerate around every
foreign particle in ordinary water. They form cages around them
which makes them ineffective as nuclei. Then, the container walls
are the only non-water substances available. The resulting crystals
are of the dendritic mode. They are characterized by few starting
points attached firmly to the wall and extended systems of crystals
clinging to one another and to the wall around the starting point.
The dendritic crystallization mode is the initiation of the formation
of hard lime scale which, if further solidification of the mineral
occurs, grows layer over layer on the first set of dendrites.
Early detection of lime scale.
Microscopic observation of the beginning of crystallization in the
form of dendrites reveals the tendency for scale formation immediately.
We placed drops of water on glass slides and permitted the water
to evaporate under observation with magnifications from 50 to 400
times. The microscope was equipped with polarizer and analyzer in
order to improve the contrast for the optically active CaCO3 crystals.
We compared drops of ordinary water as it came from the tap with
drops of the same water after it had passed through magnetic fields;
the drops were evaporating side by side on the same glass slide
under identical conditions.
Magnetic effects?
Untreated slides
The area formerly covered with the water is now covered with a lattice
of thin dendritic crystals, the rim of the drop is studded with
a number of thick, strongly light-polarizing dendritic crystals
which had grown each from one point at the glass on the periphery
of the drop. These crystals were firmly attached to the glass of
the slide; they fractured if one attempted to dislocate them with
a microscopic needle. This entire drop periphery contained 124 such
prominent crystal systems.
Magnetically treated slides
The entire drop circumference contained 41 such crystals. So: The
number of these crystals which had grown on the glass was reduced
by about two thirds by the magnetic treatment of this water. The
effectivity of the treatment with respect to reduction of such glass-attached
crystals was therefore 67%. Assuming that these crystals are the
start of scale formation, the magnetic treatment would have had
an effectivity of 67%.
An economical quantitative method.
This simple method of comparing the microscopic crystal count without
and with the magnetic treatment permits within hours a quantitative
estimate of the effectivity of the treatment with regard to scale
reduction. The counting is greatly facilitated by the fact that
in a circular water drop on a glass slide, almost the entire mineral
matter solidifies at the outer circumference of the drop. This was
found to be caused by a convection within every circular drop of
evaporating water. This convection is caused by the evaporation
cooling at the surface of the drop; it transports the heavier substances
within the drop radially from the center to the outer perimeter
of the drop where they become concentrated and solidified. Furthermore,
after counting all crystals of the entire perimeter of many drops
it was found that the distribution of the crystals along the perimeter
is even enough that the crystal count within a section of only 1/12
of the entire drop is usually representative for the entire drop.
With this straight forward and economical working scheme we investigated
the effectivity of magnetic fields for various flow velocities,
for various numbers of magnets, for different pole arrangements
and for different waters.
First findings.
The relationship between effectivity and flow velocity had in almost
all cases a maximum for one velocity. The plot of the values had
the shapes of resonance curves. Variations of the distances between
the magnets confirmed the relation between the flow velocity and
the sequence of the fields crossed by the water, as indicated by
the two curves.
Magnetic arrangement.
Hundreds of field arrangements have been tested with a number of
different water types. Maximum effectivity was achieved with arrangements
where the fields originated from simple, ring-shaped permanent magnets
of barium ferrite of a medium grade. The arrangement was granted
a US Patent in 1981. By “tuning“ such a device to a
certain water velocity the effectivity of such a device could be
brought close to 100% with 8 ring-magnets. Water which contains
a large amount of admixtures shows additional effects if it passes
repeatedly through a magnetic device. The admixed algicides, bactericides,
and softening chemicals produce an extended dendritic crystallization
over the entire area of the evaporated drop.
The formerly hidden foreign particle becomes available to the over
concentrated calcium carbonate, so that the dissolved calcium carbonate
diffuses to this particle equally from all sides simultaneously.
So, the typical circular disk shape of a seeded crystal appears.
If the effectivity of the magnetic treatment was high, no calcium
carbonate needs to wait to diffuse to the container wall in order
to solidify. Therefore reduction of the hard scale formation can
be understood as an internal seeding effect in the magnetically
treated water.
Entropy/Energy
Skeptics might doubt this process to be possible because the former
mixture of liquid water and liquid calcium carbonate is being turned
into liquid water and separated, solid calcium carbonate. This unmixing
means a lowering of the entropy of the system. Any entropy lowering
requires the expense of energy which cannot come from the permanent
magnets. The needed energy can only be delivered by the kinetic
energy of the flowing water. For this reason, no effect can be expected
if the water does not move.
Can this process also accomplish the often doubted claim of removal
of formerly deposited hard lime scale?
Having no restriction for the solidification of the calcium carbonate
the liquid water is soon depleted of dissolved calcium carbonate.
Having some of the large cage-clusters in pieces the depleted water
is particularly active (reduced viscosity and surface tension).
If the water streams passed calcium deposits, it replenishes its
calcium carbonate content by dissolving stationary solid calcium
carbonate. It may be mentioned here, that in many cases of rather
thick deposits, the dissolving does not precede piecemeal from the
outer layer, as the customary acid washes do. The magnetically treated
water rather weakens the bond between the wall and the calcium carbonate,
so that the scale breaks off in rather large pieces from the walls
on which they had grown. This dissolving process may take several
days or even weeks. But under advantageous circumstances only hours
may be required to loosen old, hard deposits and render them removable.
Can water have a memory?
According to many reports of success, the water retains its capability
of reducing scale for up to 2 days. Critical comments try to make
this fact appear to be absurd by calling it a “memory“
of the water for its “magnetic experience.“ We realize
that the treated water has its specific scale reducing capability
as long as its calcium carbonate is in the solid form of the inert
micro crystals.
We have investigated these crystals with high magnification for
many different waters and varied treatments. Using the interference
colors of the polarized light the thickness of the disk-shaped crystals
can be estimated to be from 0.1p. to 2.4p. (About 4 times the wavelength
of red light).
Transformation in the solid state.
With hundreds of evaporated drops of different waters under continuous
observation before and after various treatments, it is one of the
most astounding findings that these dry, seemingly immobile crystals,
sitting on the glass slides, keep changing their mode for weeks
in their solid state.
Most significant is the transformation of the disk-shaped circular
crystal platelets. After about 20 hours they develop holes in their
centers and some of their matter turns into thin needles bundled
up at the location of the disk. The disk-shape is a meta-stable
crystal form of calcium carbonate; it transforms into the more stable
form of acicular crystals within days. These needle-shaped crystals
then dissolve also, most of them last only 2 or 3 days. That is
the reason for the fact that the scale-reducing properties of the
treated water last for 2 days only.
For more research.
Many questions remain for more investigations. The influence of
temperature has not been investigated as yet. It can only be assumed
to be of essence according to Russian reports. Also, the type of
the water from different sources seems to be of importance. Some
mountain spring waters require particularly well adjusted magnet
sequences in order to be effective. According to findings by geologists
about the type of mountain water coming from narrow spaces of defect
structures within mineral deposits, such water may have formed only
few complexes of a specific size. Therefore the required resonance
is a narrow one and therefore difficult to achieve.
The effectivity of the magnetic treatment may also be influenced
by certain mineral contents of the water - such as silicates - which
appear to interfere with the magnetic treatment.
Freshly fallen rainwater did not show much effect from the magnetic
treatment. It has been found to contain as many seeded disc-shaped
crystals as water after the magnetic treatment! It is believed that
the raindrops passing on their way down through the electric fields
of the clouds may undergo a sort of natural treatment with electric
fields.
The actual physical changes of the water.
Another wide open field of questions remains to be investigated;
that are the short-lived effects of magnetic fields on the physical
constants of the water. These effects are so minute that their measurements
are beset with uncertainties. Yet their effects for the usefulness
of the water are often of great importance, as for instance the
surface tension which determines many parameters of the water quality.
A number of experiences are reported from many sides, and some of
our own observations with respect to these changes in the physical
structure of liquid water will be mentioned in the next section.
Learning more about liquid water.
Assuming that the interactions between magnetic fields and moving
water are of the nature which are here proposed, the study of magnetic
water treatment opens new avenues for the study of the structure
of liquid water. So far, no systematic study has been attempted
of this issue. Nobody doubts the overwhelming importance of the
use of water for virtually every human endeavour, yet there is no
correlation which could oversee all the many separate researches
into water by the various users. (In the 6 volumes of his comprehensive
treatise “WATER,“ Felix Franks decries this fact and
has tried in his lifetime to change this lack of concerted effort.)
The magnetic water treatment issue might be one way to make the
few known facts of the physical structure of water more generally
available. One important step in this respect is that the general
public learns that there are fundamental problems with the physical
structure of water.
At this time, even the more sophisticated users and investigators
of water think most of the time only in chemical terms of the water.
Almost without exception, “testing of water“ is considered
a chemical analysis. Understanding the nature of the magnetic treatment
of water as to be only a phase-change of some components of the
water, it is evident that any chemical analysis of the water before
and after the treatment cannot possibly show a change. The magnetic
treatment does not actually add or remove anything from the water.
A standard chemical analysis brings all the substances into an all
over dissolved state, thusly undoing the effects of the magnetic
treatment. Many negative test results have been published because
of this exclusively chemical thinking.
Again, it has to be said that many of these misconceptions have
their origin in the misrepresentation of the method by insufficiently
trained sales personnel. They try to compare the effects of the
magnetic devices with softening chemicals or ion exchangers. So,
the water users are disappointed and consider the entire issue a
swindle.
What are the Consequences for Future Water Usage For Industries?
Simple magnetic treatment units with their best effectivity at a
fixed water flow rate serve with advantage in such installations
which require a constant flow rate. The size of the treatment unit
can be selected to fit the exact requirement of the machinery.
Very small units may serve in drip irrigation at every separate
outlet with one gallon/hour flow rate, or a larger unit may be used
for the entire irrigation system. Ice machines, solar panel, steam
cleaners may have a precisely fitted magnetic unit permanently built
in. Without it they would plug up within a few weeks of use and
would have then to be washed out with acid to remove the accumulated
hard lime scale. The built-in magnetic units keep these machines
running for many months without an acid wash
In the case of steam cleaners, an additional benefit results from
the lessened surface tension of the magnetically treated water.
Oral, unpublished reports of increased cleaning power of detergents
confirm the microscopically found change of the water-detergent
mixture. Instead of the drop circumference which is usually well
defined by the surface tension, the treated water wets the glass
surface much better improving the activity of the added detergent.
Another potential application of magnetic water treatment has been
looked into for the oil industry. The fossil water which comes up
with the oil is extremely heavy with minerals. Its separation from
the oil and subsequent replacement under ground can be facilitated
by magnetic treatment.
Some preliminary investigation (non-published) was successful for
one narrow range of flow rate. The massive dendritic crystal growth
has been replaced with a multitude of small, rectangular crystals.
Much further investigation is needed to reap the potential benefits
from magnetic water treatment for a number of problems of the oil
industry. As for instance a better separation of the oil from the
water.
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