More on "free energy" company

The Guardian reports that Steorn, the Dublin-based company that claims to have a gizmo that generates more useful energy than it consumes, took out a full-page ad in the Economist inviting scientists to examine the technology.

There is a test rig with wheels and cogs and four magnets meticulously aligned so as to create the maximum tension between their fields and one other magnet fixed to a point opposite. A motor rotates the wheel bearing the magnets and a computer takes 28,000 measurements a second. The magnets, naturally, act upon one another. And when it is all over, the computer tells us that almost three times the amount of energy has come out of the system as went in. In fact, this piece of equipment is 285% efficient.

In Steorn's theory, fixed magnets could act upon a moving magnet in such a way as to make it a virtual perpetual motion generator. In an electrical appliance – a computer, kettle, mobile phone or toy – that would provide all the power for its lifetime. Of course, free-energy cars, power plants and water-pumping systems could follow. A better world indeed.

Link (Thanks, Adrian Champion!)