Historically , the first recorded patent for magnetic water treatment for scale prevention was by a Belgian company in 1945. When you realize what Belgium needed to accomplish to rebuild in 1945, it is easy to conceive of their sense of urgency to keep steam boilers from being destroyed by scale in a country without a surviving chemical industry. In the 1960’s Russia began using magnets for the same application in addition to wound and burn therapy use. In 1964 Charles Sanderson founded Superior Water Conditioners in Ft. Wayne, IN devoted to designing, testing and producing magnetic scale prevention units. His endeavor is probably the first in the US to employ this technology.
The start of this technology was difficult. First, the effects on the water were not totally understood, so sales depended on testimonials and the process referred to as a phenomenon. Secondly, as it is today, the hardness scale prevention industry was dependent on people and companies promoting salt-based ion exchange resins and unwilling or unable to grasp an alternate technology that eliminates chemicals, electricity, and wastewater to drain, and service life-shortening moving parts. The unknown is the impact brought on trade associations and lobbyists by salt, resin, and valve companies protecting their markets and investments.
Through the efforts of universities and their extensive laboratories, the performance of the magnetic water treatment for scale prevention has moved from being a phenomenon to understanding that the magnetic field creates a hardness crystal called Aragonite. It forms this because a tiny percentage of water is always dissociating – hydrogen (proton) leaving and forming H3O or hydronium – and the energy imparted to the water by the magnet causes the percentage of hydronium to increase dramatically. Water missing the hydrogen reacts differently with calcium bicarbonate (calcium hardness) than does water with full hydrogen in the size, shape, and texture of calcium carbonate crystals formed as evidenced in electron microscope photos. All crystals are void of charge so they won’t adhere to metals, however, the aragonite form is softer and is easily flushed through plumbing. No magic and no mystery.
The performance relative to scale prevention is directly proportional to magnetic field strength and speed of water through alternating magnetic fields. To this end, we are developing a series of HIGH-T magnetic chambers for our line of catalytic/magnetic nonchemical scale prevention devices — ESF, AQUAFER, MAXI-CURE–as well as new yet-to-be-released devices. The T stands for Tesla which is used as a unit of measurement in strong magnetic fields. When water speed and alternating magnetic fields are thought through, it becomes apparent that an induced electrical field is generated which in turn is the energy needed to remove some hydrogen from water molecules not totally unlike hydrolysis.
