Dear Kevin,

 You missed the whole point.  The energy is not "waiting in the wires" at all.  Instead, once the source dipole is formed between the generator or battery terminals, the end charges of this dipole (effectively, the charges in the terminals) continuously receive EM energy from the vacuum by absorbing virtual photons from the vacuum.  Imagine a photon that does not persist very long at all, but is so fleeting that it cannot individually be seen.  However, if it gets absorbed by the dipole, it adds a tiny little bit of energy.  Enough of them being absorbed this way, adds enough energy to be "seen", so now there is "real EM energy" there in excess on that absorbing charge.  When the energy steadily adding to the dipole (being absorbed by it) gets to that "observable" state, it is then radiated from the terminals on outside the generator as real, flowing EM energy, filling the space surrounding those wires from the external circuit that are connected to the generator terminals.

 That's how the energy is absorbed from the vacuum by the source dipole and  TRANSMITTED from the terminals by that source dipole, and why the transmitted energy flows  on down through space outside the attached wires.  The surface charges in the wires (and their fields) then "intercept" this passing energy (something like sticking your hand out the open window of an automobile and deflecting some air flow into the car) and divert some of it into the wires to power all the electrons that are free to move.

 For this purpose, forget "zero point energy".  Just consider the vacuum to be a seething "gas" of these fleeting virtual photons.  The thing that "does that adding up" of lots and lots of absorbed virtual photons, into "big" or observable photons, is the "broken symmetry" of the source dipole.  For this purpose, all that "broken symmetry of a source dipole" means is that it will do this process.

 Or, for a visualization tool, imagine the spinning of the charges on the ends of the source dipole as little "spinning wheels".  Imagine the tiny little "virtual" photons as similar to little short fibers of cotton lint being fed to those little "spinning wheels", which spin the fibers into much, much longer "lengths of thread" which now are "real thread".  And so the "output" of the spinning wheel process is "real thread" spun from "lots of little fibers".

 That should do it for you, hopefully.

 Tom Bearden

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Subject: Batteries and vacuum energy
Date: Fri, 23 Nov 2001 17:18:58 +0100

Dear Tom,
 
I can see for myself that I haven't really understood the principle of extracting zero point energy because I cannot really explain it to someone else. I've been reading your papers but it's not getting in my mind.
 
I like the example of the battery to illustrate where I am stuck. I have come so far to understand that a battery does not generate anything. It creates the dipole by separating charges within it. The potential energy is just waiting in the wires (ie the electrons). So the energy is there. It's just as you say => the circuits are badly designed and therefore destroy the dipole.
 
Then my question is: Where is the zero point energy in all this? The energy was already in the wires.
 
When you talk about "tapping" energy from the active vacuum, what do you really mean and how does this apply to a battery? I also read a lot about "virtual photones". What do you mean with this
 
I really appreciate your work and time spend to your correspondence,
 
Kindly yours,
 
Kevin.