Perreault-Bruce: central claims
No source gap for the text of either document: both were read in full (patent via OCR checked against page images). Note however that neither document reports measurements, so every claim below is stated by the inventor with no data [read].
- Alpha particles above the energy threshold the patent calls 6.06 MeV (this equals |Q|, the reaction energy; the actual lab-frame threshold is about 6.40 MeV, as the arbiter adopted) (from radon and its short-lived daughters such as Po-212/214/216, or Rn-220) hitting germanium, silicon or lead sulfide cause an "alpha fusion reaction" that releases high-energy secondary electrons [read: US7800286 pp.4-5].
- A sealed vessel, evacuated to about 1/10 atmosphere of residual air, in which an emanating radioactive material supplies the radon [read: US7800286 p.5], with a negatively charged germanium/silicon/PbS corona wire and a palladium or activated-carbon collector delivers direct-current power at much higher current per unit density than earlier nuclear batteries (said to give about a millionth of a watt) [read: US7800286 pp.4-6]. No power figure is given.
- Once primed with a high voltage (1000 V or more), the device is "self-generating" through thermal positive feedback in the cathode; the patent text still prefers a continuously applied electronic voltage source, and gives no net-energy accounting [read: US7800286 pp.5-6].
- A mercury or other vapour-filled variant converts high-voltage RF or AC to DC even without radioactive material [read: US7800286 p.6].
- A multi-stage chain of indirectly heated, radioactive-bearing semiconductive-cathode valves fed from an antenna and earth ("radiant energy") multiplies electron emission "exponentially" stage by stage and can power lamps, as T. H. Moray's germanium-stone valve did [read: Atomic-Decay leaflet pp.1-2]. This rests on a 1954 recollection drawing by Carl Betz and on Moray family accounts; the leaflet gives no data.
- The printed nuclear equations support the device: Ge-72 + alpha giving Se-75 and a neutron, then a chain ending in stable Se-77 (prose) [read: US7800286 p.4]. The printed chain is not internally consistent on isotopes, and no reaction energies or rates are given.