A meeting was held at the University of Southampton on Monday the 18th June 2007 attended by Professor Frank C Walsh, Roger Alexander, Dr Julian Wharton, Dr David Wooley, Martin Rowe and Stephen McCauley.

Martin Rowe introduced himself and Stephen, summarising our meeting and the reason for forming Pipeline Corrosion Prevention Ltd.

Roger Alexander introduced his background and how he became an expert in monitoring and the application of cathodic protection in the field.

Julian Wharlton briefly introduced himself. (and later took Roger Alexander, Martin Rowe and Stephen McCauley to see his laboratory at the university.

It was agreed that David Wooley should chair the meeting.

Professor Walsh told briefly of his background and knowledge of the work of Roger Alexander. He said that he knew Dr Robin Jacobs, Dr Vic Ashworth and others involved in the history of the technology surrounding the invention and field trials of the Alexander Cell. He had a wad of papers, the top one being a print out of work published on the internet by Roger Alexander and said that he had looked at the relevant web pages.

He made written notes on a flip chart, of four points of total agreement with the introduction given by Roger Alexander, one of which was a claim by Roger Alexander that the Alexander Cell is a corrosion cell and can be used in the way described.

The second was that the present method of monitoring cathodic protection is scientifically unsatisfactory.

The third was about the field use of the Cu/CuSO4 electrode. Professor Walsh was adamant that it is a 'reference electrode'. Roger Alexander challenged this by refering to the use of the electrode in DCVG surveys during which a voltage is measured between two identical electrodes. If each is a reference, then the result should always be zero. Roger Alexander said that it was impossible to use the Cu/CuSO4 electrode as a reference in the application of cathodic protection in the field unless the technology developed surrounding the Alexander Cell is implemented to correct the readings. Agreement was not reached on this point.

Professor Walsh then explained with diagrams how cathodic protection works. He explained the IR drop and that the position of the 'reference electrode' should be as close as possible to the pipeline. Roger Alexander showed how potential gradients were caused by cathodic protection current and explained that these were not eliminated by switching off the cathodic protection system. Professor Walsh agreed that there is a residual capacitance in the pipeline system.

Professor Walsh then drew the proposed positions of the 'reference electrode' again explaining the effects of the IR drop. He then introduced the subject of current measurement and said that the desired arrangement would be to measure the 'electron current' between two electrodes made of the same material as the pipeline. He stressed that it is important to recognise that electrons flow in the opposit direction to the current described by Faraday when he determined the ratio between metal loss and current flow. He drew the arrangement on the flip chart. Roger Alexander said "That is a drawing of the Alexander Cell" Professor Walsh replied "Yes".

Professor Walsh said that it would be preferable if a reference electrode was incorporated in the Alexander Cell and Roger Alexander said that this could easily be achieved as it had already been done during the many stages of design.

Roger Alexander then described the 'isopotential cell' and Professor Walsh gave the impression that he has seen the patents of Dr Prinz.

The above notes were written down immediately on arrival home by Roger Alexander on realising that no NDA had been signed and that there seemed to be no official minutes likely to arrise from the meeting.

Roger Alexander telephone both Martin Rowe and Stephen McCauley asking them to make notes of the meeting independently so that we had first hand eveidence that could be used in the event of a legal dispute.