Steorn: Difference between revisions

<!--|foundation = {{start date and age|df=yes|2000}}<br />[[Dublin]], [[Ireland]]-->

| fate = [[Liquidation|Liquidated]]

|industry = Energy technology<ref name=autogenerated1>[http://orbo.com/ Orbo -– The Battery Is Dead – Orbo technology -– the battery is dead<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

|revenue = € 1€1,000 (2005)<ref name="steorn-financial-summary">{{cite web| date = 9 February 2006 | url = http://www.steorn.com/about/investor/ | title = Steorn Investor Relations | publisher = Steorn Ltd. | accessdateaccess-date = 11 September 2007}}</ref>

| homepage = [http://www.steorn.com www.steorn.com] (down) [https://web.archive.org/web/20150315234746/http://www.steorn.com/ Archive link as of March 2015]

'''Steorn Ltd''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|t|j|ɔr|n}}) was a small, private [[Research and development|technology development]] company based in [[Dublin]], [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]]. In August 2006, it announced that it had developed a technology to provide "free, clean, and constant energy" via an apparent [[perpetual motion machine]], something which is contrary to the law of [[conservation of energy]], a fundamental principle of physics.<ref name="theage" />

Steorn challenged the [[scientific community]] to investigate theirits claim<ref name="econ-ad" /> and, in December 2006, said that it had chosen a jury of scientists to do so.<ref name="jury-selection" /> In June 2009 the jury gave its unanimous verdict that Steorn had not demonstrated the production of energy.<ref name="irish-times-24062009" />

Steorn gave two public demonstrations of theirits technology. In the first demonstration, in July 2007 at the [[Kinetica Museum]] in London, the device failed to work.<ref name="BTJuly2007" /> The second demonstration, which ran from December 2009 to February 2010 at the [[Waterways Visitor Centre]] in Dublin, involved a motor powered by a battery and provided no independent evidence that excess energy was being generated.<ref name="ZDNews151209" /> It was dismissed by the press as an attempt to build a [[perpetual motion]] machine,<ref>{{cite webnews|last=Goldacre |first=Ben |url=httphttps://www.guardiantheguardian.co.ukcom/science/2007/jul/07/badscience.uknews |title=Perpetual motion goes into reverse|publishernewspaper=''[[The Guardian]]'' |date=7 July 2007|accessdateaccess-date=10 June 2013}}</ref> and a publicity stunt.<ref name="houston" />

In November 2016, the company laid off its staff, closed its facility, and prepared for [[liquidation]].<ref name=Whyte>{{cite news|first=Barry |last=Whyte |url=https://www.businesspost.ie/business/power-off-steorn-finally-energy-e23-million-funding-370313 |title=Power Off: Steorn finally out of energy after €23 million in funding |work=[[The Sunday Business Post]] |date=13 NovNovember 2016| accessdateaccess-date=13 NovNovember 2016}}</ref><ref name=Ferrier>{{cite web|first=Michael |last=Ferrier |url=http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2016/11/steorn-liquidates/ |title=Steorn Liquidates |website=dispatchesfromthefuture.com |date=13 NovNovember 2016| accessdateaccess-date=14 NovNovember 2016}}</ref> It was finally liquidated in May 2024.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Mulligan |first1=John |title=Irish Business Steorn finally goes supernova as company that promised ‘free energy’ completes liquidation process |url=https://www.independent.ie/business/irish/steorn-finally-goes-supernova-as-company-that-promised-free-energy-completes-liquidation-process/a202323699.html |access-date=14 May 2024 |publisher=Irish Independent |date=13 May 2024}}</ref>

| url = http://www.irishexaminer.com/irishexaminer/pages/story.aspx-qqqg=business-qqqm=business-qqqa=business-qqqid=11133-qqqx=1.asp

|archive-url archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20060821193017/http://www.irishexaminer.com/irishexaminer/pages/story.aspx-qqqg=business%3Dbusiness-qqqm=business%3Dbusiness-qqqa=business%3Dbusiness-qqqid=11133%3D11133-qqqx=1%3D1.asp

| title = Wanted: scientists to test free energy technology

| work = Irish Examiner

| date = 20 August 2006

| accessdateaccess-date = 14 November 2016}}</ref> Steorn later stated that the account given in this interview was intended to prevent a leak regarding their free energy technology.<ref name="steorn-crisis-management-interview">{{cite web

| accessdateaccess-date = 26 October 2006}}</ref>

| accessdateaccess-date = 16 October 2006}} {{Dead link|date=September 2010|bot=H3llBot}}</ref> the investments totalling €3 million.<ref name="IEpost060521" /> In 2006, Steorn secured €8.1 million in loans from a range of investors in order to continue theirits research, and these funds were also converted into shares.<ref name="SunTrib10082008">

| first = John

| last = Downes

| url = http://www.tribune.ie/article/2008/aug/10/free-energy-firm-generated-8m-in-funding/

| title = 'Free energy' firm generated €8m in funding

| work = [[Sunday Tribune]]

| date = 10 August 2008

In June 2016, the company informed shareholders that it had failed to meet expectations, that company founder Shaun (Seán) McCarthy was being replaced as CEO, and that operating costs were nearly €1 million per year.<ref name=Whyte /><ref name=Ferrier /> After investments totaling nearly €23 million over a ten -year period, in November 2016 the company shut down and laid off its staff, due to a lack of additional funding to continue operations.<ref name=Whyte /><ref name=Ferrier />

In August 2006, Steorn placed an advertisement in ''[[The Economist]]'' saying that theyit had developed a technology that produced "free, clean and constant energy".<ref name="econ-ad">{{cite web

| accessdateaccess-date = 21 January 2009}}</ref> Called Orbo, the technology was said to violate [[conservation of energy]] but had allegedly been validated by eight independent scientists.<ref name="GdnUK-Aug25">{{Cite news

| accessdateaccess-date=24 May 2010

| last=Boggan}}</ref> NoneSteorn claimed none of these scientists would talk to the media, and Steorn suggested that this was because they did not want to become embroiled in a controversy.<ref name="GdnUK-Aug25" />

No specific details of the workings of the claimed technology were made public. McCarthy stated in a 2006 [[Radio Telefís Éireann|RTÉ]] radio interview, "What we have developed is a way to construct [[magnetic field]]s so that when you travel round the magnetic fields, starting and stopping at the same position, you have gained energy".<ref name="yahh">

| url = httphttps://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060818/bs_afp/irelandscienceenergy

| archiveurlarchive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060903183705/http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060818/bs_afp/irelandscienceenergy

| archivedatearchive-date = 3 September 2006}}</ref> In 2011, Steorn's website was updated to suggest that the Orbo is based on magnetic fields which vary over time. Barry Williams of the [[Australian Skeptics]] has pointed out that Steorn is "not the first company to claim they have suddenly discovered the miraculous property of magnetism that allows you to get free energy"<ref name="theage" /> while [[Martin Fleischmann]] says that it is not credible that positioning of magnetic fields could create energy.<ref name="GdnUK-Aug25" />

|accessdateaccess-date=9 July 2007}}</ref> During this meeting, McCarthy referred to the law of [[conservation of energy]] as scientific [[dogma]].<ref name="EAsh" /> However, conservation of energy is a fundamental principle of physics,<ref name="theage">

{{Citecite news

| publishernewspaper = The Age

| accessdateaccess-date = 20 August 2006

| accessdateaccess-date = 25 June 2009}}</ref> Eric Berger, writing on the ''[[Houston Chronicle]]'' website, commented: "Steorn is a former e-business company that saw its market vanish during the [[Dot-com bubble|dot.com]] bust. It stands to reason that Steorn has retooled as a Web marketing company and is using the "free energy" promotion as a platform to show future clients how it can leverage print advertising and a slick Web site to promote their products and ideas".<ref name="houston">

| publisher = ''Houston Chronicle'' blogs

| accessdateaccess-date = 21 August 2006}}</ref> Thomas Ricker at ''[[Engadget]]'' suggested that Steorn's free-energy claim was a ruse to improve [[brand recognition]] and to help them sell [[Hall probe]]s,<ref>{{cite web

| url = httphttps://www.engadget.com/2009/06/25/steorn-gives-up-on-free-energy-starts-charging-for-usb-powered/

| accessdateaccess-date = 25 June 2009}}</ref> while Josh Catone, features editor for ''[[Mashable]]'', believes that it was merely an elaborate hoax.<ref name="mashable">

| accessdateaccess-date = 21 July 2009}}</ref>

In its advertisement in ''The Economist'', Steorn challenged scientists to form an independent jury to test theirits technology and publish the results.<ref name="SNewsJan07">{{cite web

| publisherwork = Guardian Unlimited

| accessdateaccess-date = 20 August 2006

| archiveurlarchive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070221052040/http://www.steorn.net/news/releases/?id=911

| worknewspaper = [[The Irish Times]]

| accessdateaccess-date = 5 July 2007}}</ref> The public demonstration was delayed and then cancelled because of technical difficulties. Steorn initially said that the problems had been caused by excessive heat from the lighting.<ref name="BTJuly2007" /><ref name="SNewsJuly">

| workjournal = Physics World

A second demonstration ran between 15 December 2009 and February 2010 at the [[Waterways Visitor Centre]] in Dublin, and was [[Streaming media|streamed]] via Steorn's website.<ref name="ZD141209">{{cite webnews

| publisherwork = ZDNet

| publisherwork = ZDNet

On 1 April 2010 Steorn opened an online development community, called the Steorn Knowledge Development Base (SKDB), which theyit said would explain theirits technology. Access was available only under licence on payment of a fee.<ref name="IEpost100606">{{cite web

| accessdateaccess-date = 8 June 2010}}</ref>

In May 2015, Steorn put an "Orbo PowerCube" on display behind the bar of a pub in Dublin. The PowerCube was a small box which the pub website claimed contained a "perpetual motion motor" which required no external power source. The cube was shown charging a [[mobile phone]]. Steorn claimed to be performing some "basic field trials" in undisclosed locations.<ref>{{cite webnews | url=http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/self-charging-battery-causes-a-stir-in-dublin-pub-test-1.2211622 | title=Self-charging battery causes a stir in Dublin pub test | publishernewspaper=Irish Times | date=14 May 2015 | accessdateaccess-date=17 June 2015 | author=Boran, Marie}}</ref>

Beginning in December 2015, Steorn began accepting orders for two products, including a phone charger,<ref>{{cite news | url=http://boingboing.net/2015/12/08/free-energy-for-sale-steorn.html| title=Free energy for sale: Steorn's impossible Orbo hits the market | work=boingboing.net | date=8 December 2015| accessdateaccess-date=22 March 2016 | first=Michael|last=Ferrier}}</ref><ref name="it16">{{cite news | url=http://www.irishtimes.com/business/fact-or-fiction-irish-firm-invents-everlasting-battery-1.2506832| title=Fact or fiction: Irish firm invents everlasting battery | work=Irish Times | date=25 January 2016 | accessdateaccess-date=22 March 2016 | first=Mark|last=Hilliard}}</ref> through email only. The announcement was posted only to a Facebook page titled "Orbo" and a Steorn YouTube channel.<ref name="McCarthy">{{cite web|last=McCarthy |first=Shaun |url=https://www.facebook.com/thebatteryisdead/videos/vb.217496297671/10153385384347672 |title=Orbo Webinar 2|publisher=''Steorn'' |date=1 December 2015|accessdateaccess-date=1 December 2015}}</ref> In early December, McCarthy said that he was waiting for the first shipment of the two products, the Orbo Phone and the Orbo Cube, from a manufacturer in China.<ref>{{Cite web|title = In the Docklands, a Company Relaunches Claims of Perpetual Motion Machine|url = http://dublininquirer.com/2015/12/09/in-the-docklands-a-company-relaunches-perpetual-motion/|website = Dublin Inquirer|accessdateaccess-date = 9 December 2015-12-09|first = Paul|last = McNulty}}{{Dead link|date=June 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=no }}</ref> Steorn described the Orbo Cube as a showcase for the technology rather than a mass-market product, with the Cube retailing at €1,200.<ref name="it16"/>

{{portalPortal|Companies}}

<!--This article uses the Cite.php citation mechanism. If you would like more information on how to add references to this article, please see httphttps://web.archive.org/web/20060218012648/http://meta.wikimedia.org:80/wiki/Cite/Cite.php -->

{{Reflist|2}}

[[Category:CompaniesTechnology companies of the Republic of Ireland]]

[[Category:2000Irish establishmentscompanies established in Ireland2000]]