What Wikipedia didn't tell you about Kanzius?

Of the "burning water" discovery of John Kanzius, Wikipedia writes: The details of the process are still unreleased while Kanzius applies for a patent.

In fact, Kanzius filed numerous (publicly available) patent applications on his rf machine and its uses. They are not doing well at the Patent Office. Wikipedia didn't mention either that relevant information is available or that the patent applications are not doing well. [After the death of Kanzius, one US patent did issue on a use in cancer treatment.]

Wikipedia did say of "burning water":

Kanzius has proposed that the flame is produced by burning of hydrogen and oxygen, released from the water by radio waves "forcing together" the "normally separated" hydrogen and oxygen in the water, a process he calls "reunification."[19] In water (H2O), hydrogen is covalently bonded to oxygen, and thus the process must "reunite" pairs of hydrogen atoms and pairs of oxygen atoms, releasing dihydrogen (H2) and dioxygen (O2). The energy from the radio waves is absorbed by the water and splits the water into hydrogen and oxygen which then react together to reform the water and re-release the energy and form a flame. In other words, the process turns radio energy into chemical energy, which then turns to heat and light energy, but does not "take energy from water". Rather energy is put into the water in order to break it up into its components, which now may combust. The water torch, a form of oxyhydrogen torch, is an earlier example of the process of breaking down water and then recombining oxygen and hydrogen to release heat and light energy.
The red flame and non explosive form of burning[20] suggest that other chemicals are involved in the fire, and if the claims are true, may be the chlorine released from the melted salt (NaCl).
Nevertheless, this discovery may be a clean way to break down water into its elements and perhaps a cheaper way than electrolysis which in most forms produces toxic output from chemical reactions with the electrodes, or otherwise is produced with platinum electrodes, which are very expensive. It is difficult to compare the processes, when no chemical, physical or numeric details are actually known, except the claims that RF heats up the water, breaks it down into its elements and that it then combusts.

[This text is a Sikahema waiting to happen.]

See also:

http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2009/03/kanzius-ip-concerns-patent-applications.html

http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2008/08/some-kanzius-patent-applications.html

**Of Wikipedia, Peter Vogel writes:

To make things more interesting Wikipedia expressly disclaims the validity of it content. Yet millions of people around the world rely on Wikipedia as authority, when the articles are just a collaborative encyclopedia that may be changed or edited at any moment. As the Internet evolves clearly the sharing of information in wikis will continue to affect the future of information available.

**On Wikipedia and journalism, from fark -->

Incidentally, one of the more surprising things I discovered while researching the articles for this book is that a number of them exactly mirrored a Wikipedia entry on the same subject. I didn't find any exact copies of Wikipedia in the articles in this book, but the structure often was the same and used the same citations in the same places. If I had to guess, I'd say that half of all the "original" articles covered in this book are Wikipedia entry rewrites. If not more. It certainly makes me wonder about the rest of the articles I didn't research. Wikipedia accuracy concerns aside, that's just not cool. Or perhaps that's how the Wikipedia articles were generated in the first place. Due to the obscurity of certain details in some of the articles, and the fact that none of those details showed up in a Google search on the same subject, I am more inclined to believe reporters borrow heavily from Wikipedia, and not the other way around.

**Of Wikipedia and patent examiners, from anticipatethis:

The Patent Librarian has an interesting post this week on the increasing number of Wikipedia citations during patent prosecution, by both applicants and examiners (despite the ban by the USPTO). Specifically, the Patent Librarian has stated:

Back in September 2006, the USPTO ordered examiners to stop using Wikipedia as a source of information for determining the patentability of inventions. However, examiners and applicants continue to cite it. The number of patents issued in 2008 that cited Wikipedia articles nearly doubled to 477.