"The Gravitics Situation"
(Return to Index Page)
Gravity Rand Ltd.
December 1956
INTERAVIA
Volume XI - No. 5, 1956, pages 373-374
From the Anti-Gravity
Articles and References of INE
Copyrighted © by The Townsend Brown family. All rights reserved.
Theme of the science for 1956-1970: SERENDIPITY
Einstein's view: -
"It may not be an unattainable hope that some day a clearer knowledge of
the processes of gravitation may be reached; and the extreme generality and
detachment of the relativity theory may be illuminated by the particular
study of a precise mechanism".
GS page - 1 -
CONTENTS
I - Engineering note on present frontiers of knowledge
(p. 3)
II - Management note on the gravitics situation
(p. 10)
III - Glossary
(p. 17)
IV - References
(p. 20)
V - Appendix.
Thanks to the Gravity Research Foundation for Appendix II - VI
GS page -2-
I - Engineering note on present frontiers of knowledge
Gravitics is likely to follow a number of separate lines of development:
the best known short term proposition is Townsend Brown's electrostatic
propulsion by gravitators (details of which are to be found in the Appendix
I). An extreme extrapolation of Brown's later rigs appears to suggest a
Mach 3 interceptor type aircraft. Brown called this basically force and
motion, but it does not appear to be the road to a gravitational shield or
reflector. His is the brute force approach of concentrating high
electrostatic charges along the leading edge of the periphery of a disk
which yields propulsive effect. Brown originally maintained that his
gravitators operate independently of all frames of reference and it is
motion in the absolute sense - relative to the universe as a whole. There
is however no evidence to support this. In the absence of any such
evidence, it is perhaps more convenient to think of Brown's disks as
electrostatic propulsion which has its own niche in aviation. Electrostatic
disks can provide lift without speed over a flat surface. This could be an
important advance over all forms of airfoil which require induced flow; and
lift without air flow is a development that deserves to be followed up in
its own right, and one that for military purposes is already envisaged by
the users as applicable to all three services. This point has been
appreciated in the United States and a program in hand may now ensure that
development of large sized disks will be continued. This is backed by the
U.S. Government but it is something that will be pursued on a small scale.
This acceptance follows Brown's original suggestion embodied in Project
Winterhaven. Winterhaven recommended that a major effort be concentrated on
electrogravitics based on the principle of his disks. The U.S. Government
evaluated the disks wrongly, and misinterpreted the nature of the energy.
This incorrect report was filed as an official assessment, and it took some
three years to correct the
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earlier misconception. That brings developments up to the fairly recent
past. and by that time it was realized that no effort on the lines of
Winterhaven was practical, and that more modest aims should be substituted.
These were re-written around a new report which is apparently based on
newer thoughts and with some later patents not yet published which form the
basis of current U.S. policy. It is a matter of some controversy whether
this research could be accelerated by more money but the impression in
Gravity Rand is that the base of industry is perhaps more than adequately
wide. Already companies are specializing in evolution of particular
components of an electrogravitics disk. This implies that the science is in
the same state as the ICBM - namely that no new breakthroughs are needed,
only intensive development engineering. This may be an optimistic reading
of the situation: it is true that materials are now available for the
condensers giving higher k figures than were postulated in Winterhaven as
necessary, and all the ingredients necessary for the disks appear to be
available. But industry is still some way from having an adequate power
sources and possessing any practical experience of running such equipment.
The long term development of gravity shields, absorbers, and 'magic metals'
appears at the moment however to be a basically different problem, and work
on this is not being sponsored* so far as is known. The absorber or shield
could be intrinsically a weapon of a great power, the limits of which are
difficult to foresee. The power of the device to undermine the
electrostatic forces holding the atom together is a destructive by-product
of military significance. In unpublished work Gravity Rand has indicated
the possible effect of such a device for demolition. The likelihood of such
work being sponsored in small countries outside the U.S. is slight, since
there is general lack of money and resources and in all such countries
quick returns are essential.
* officially, that is
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Many people hold that little or no progress can be made until the link in
the Einstein unified field theory has been found. This is surely a somewhat
defeatist view, because although no all embracing explanation of the
relationship between the extraordinary variety of high energy particles
continually being uncovered is yet available much can be done to pin down
the general nature of anti-gravity devices.
There are several promising approaches one of them is the search for
negative mass, a second is to find a relationship between gravity and heat,
and a third is to find the link between gravitation and the coupled
particles. Taking the first of these: negative mass, the initial task is to
prove the existence of negative mass, and Appendix II outlines how it might
be done. This is Mozer's approach which is based on the Schroedinger time
independent equation with the center of mass motion removed. As the paper
shows, this requires some 100 bev - which is beyond the power of existing
particle accelerators: however the present Russian and American nuclear
programs envisage 50 bev bevatrons within a few years and at the present
rate of progress in the nuclear sciences it seems possible that the
existence of negamass will be proved by this method of a Bragg analysis of
the crystal structure - or disproved.
If negamass is established, the precise part played by the subnuclear
particles could be quickly determined. Working theories have been built up
to explain how negative masses would be repelled by positive masses and
pairs would accelerate gaining kinetic energy until they reach the speed of
light and then assume the role of the high energy particles. It has been
suggested by Ferrell that this might explain the role of neutrino, but this
seems unlikely without some explanation of the spin ascribed to the
neutrino. Yet the absence of rest mass or charge of the neutrino makes it
especially intriguing. Certainly, further study of the neutrino would be
relevant to gravitational problems. If, therefore, the aircraft industry
regards anti-gravity as part
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of its responsibilities it cannot escape the necessity of monitoring high
energy physics or the neutrino. There are two aircraft companies definitely
doing this; but little or no evidence that most of the others know even
what a neutrino is.
The relationship between electrical charges and gravitational forces
however will depend on the right deductions being drawn from excessively
small anomalies.* First clues to such small and hitherto unnoticed effects
will come by study of the unified field theory. such effects may be
observed in work on the gravithermals, and interacting effect of heat and
gravity. Here, at least, there is firmer evidence materials are capable of
temperature changes depending on gravity. This, as Beams says, (see
Appendix III) is due to results from the alignment of the atoms. Gravity
tensions applied across the ends of a tube filled with electrolyte can
produce heat or be used to furnish power. The logical extension of this is
an absorber of gravity in the form of a flat plate and the gravitative flux
acting on it (its atomic and molecular structure, its weight density and
form are not, at this stage, clear) would lead to an increase in heat of
the mass of its surface and subsurface particles.
The third approach is to aim at discovering a connection between nuclear
particles and the gravitational field. This also returns to the need for
interpreting macroscopic relativistic phenomena at one extreme in terms of
microscopic quantum mechanical phenomena at the other. Beaumont in
suggesting a solution recalls how early theory established rough and ready
assumptions of the characteristics of electron spin before the whole
science of the atomic orbital was worked out. These were based on
observation and they were used with some effect at a time when data was
needed. Similar assumptions of complex spin might be used to link the
microscopic to the macroscopic. At any rate, there are some loose ends in
complex spin to be tied up, and these could logically he sponsored with
some expectation of results by companies wondering how to make a
contribution.
* See Appendix VI
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If a real spin or rotation is applied to a planar geoid the gravitational
equipotentials can be made less convex, plane or concave. These have the
effect of adjusting the intensity of the gravitational field at will which
is a requirement for the gravity absorber. Beaumont seemed doubtful whether
external power would have to be applied to achieve this. but it seems
reasonable to suppose that power could be fed into the system to achieve a
beneficial adjustment to the gravitational field, and conventional
engineering methods could ensure that the weight of power input services
would be more than offset by weightlessness from the spin inducer. The
engineering details of this are naturally still in the realms of
conjecture; but, at least, it is something that could be worked out with
laboratory rigs; and, again, the starting point is to make more accurate
observations of small effects. The technique would be to accept any
anomalies in nature and from them to establish what would be needed to
induce a spin artificially.
* * *
It has been argued that the scientific community faces a seemingly
impossible task in attempting to alter gravity when the force is set up by
a body as large as this planet and that to change it might demand a
comparable force of similar planetary dimensions. It was scarcely
surprising therefore that experience had shown that while it has been
possible to observe the effects of gravity it resisted any form of control
or manipulation. But the time is fast approaching when for the first time
it will be within the capability of engineers with bevatrons to work
directly with particles that it, is increasingly accepted, contribute to
the source of gravitation; and whilst that in itself may not lead to an
absorber of gravity, it will at least throw some light on the sources of
the power.
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Another task is solution* of outstanding equations to convert gravitational
phenomena to nuclear energy. The problem, still not yet solved may support
the Bondi-Hoyle theory that expansion of the universe represents energy
continually annihilated instead of being carried to the boundaries of the
universe. This energy loss manifests itself in the behaviour of the hyperon
and K-particles which would, or might, form the link between the microcosm
and macrocosm. Indeed Deser and Arnowitt propose that the new particles are
a direct link between gravitationally produced energy and nuclear energy.
If this were so it would be the place to begin in the search for practical
methods of gravity manipulation. It would be realistic to assume that the
K-particles are such a link. Then a possible approach might be to disregard
objections which cannot be explained at this juncture until further unified
field links are established. As in the case of the spin and orbital
theories, which were naive in the beginning, the technique might have to
accept the apparent forces and make theory fit observation until more is
known.
* * *
Some people feel that the chances of finding such a unified field theory to
link gravity and electrodynamics are high; yet think that the finding of a
gravity shield is slight because of the size of the energy source, and
because the chances of seeing unnoticed effects seem slender. Others feel
the opposite and believe that a link between nuclear energy and
gravitational energy may precede the link between the Einstein general
relativistic and Quantum Theory disciplines. Some hope that both
discoveries may come together; while a few believe that a partial
explanation of both may come about the same time,, which will afford
sufficient knowledge of gravitational fields to perfect an interim type of
absorber using field links that are available.
* See Appendix IV
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This latter seems the more likely since it is already beginning to happen.
There is not likely to be any sudden full explanation of the microcosm and
macrocosm; but one strand after another joining them will be fashioned, as
progress is made towards quantizing the Einstein theory.
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II - Management note on the Gravitics Situation
The present anti-gravity situation as one of watching and waiting by the
large aircraft prime contractors for lofting inventions or technological
breakthroughs. Clarence Birdseye in one of his last utterances thought that
an insulator might be discovered by accident by someone working on a quite
different problem; and in 500 years gravity insulators would be
commonplace. One might go further than Birdseye and say that principles of
the insulator would, by then, be fundamental to human affairs; it would be
as basic to the society as the difference today between the weight of one
metal and another. But at the same time it would be wrong to infer from
Birdseye's remark that a sudden isolated discovery will be the key to the
science. The hardware will come at a time when the industry is ready and
waiting for it. It will arrive after a long period of getting accustomed to
thinking in terms of weightlessness, and naturally it will appear after the
feasibility of achieving it in one form or another has been established in
theory.*
The aim of companies at this stage must therefore surely be to monitor the
areas of progress in the world of high energy physics which seem likely to
lead to establishment of the foundations of anti-gravity. This means
keeping a watchful eye on electrogravitics, magnetogravitics gravitics
isotopes; and electrostatics in various forms for propulsion or levitation.
This is not at the present stage a very expensive business, and
* But this does not mean that harnessed forces will be necessarily fully
understood at the outset.
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investment in laboratory man-hours is necessary only when a certain line of
reasoning which may look promising comes to a dead-end for lack of
experimental data, or only when it might be worth running some laboratory
tests to bridge a chasm between one part of a theory and another or in
connecting two or more theories together. If this is right, anti-gravity is
in a state similar to nuclear propulsion after the NEPA findings, yet
before the ANP project got under way. It will be remembered that was the
period when the Atomic Energy Commission sponsored odd things here and
there that needed doing. But it would be misleading to imply that hardware
progress on electrostatic disks is presently so far along as nuclear
propulsion was in that state represented by ANP. True the NEPA men came to
the conclusion that a nuclear-propelled aircraft of a kind could be built,
but it would be only a curiosity. Even at the time of the Lexington and
Whitman reports it was still some way from fruition: the aircraft would
have been more than a curiosity but not competitive enough to be seriously
considered.
It is not in doubt that work on anti-gravity is in the realm of the longer
term future. One of the tests of virility of an industry is the extent to
which it is so self confident of its position that it can afford to sponsor
R&D which cannot promise a quick return. A closing of minds to anything
except lines of development that will provide a quick return is a sign of
either a strait-laced economy or of a pure lack of prescience, (or both).
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Another consideration that will play its part in managerial decision is
that major turning points in anti-gravity work are likely to prove far
removed from the tools of the aircraft engineer. A key instrument for
example that may determine the existence of negamass and establish
posimass-negamass interaction is the super bevatron. It needs some 100 bev
gammas on hydrogen to perform a Bragg analysis of the elementary particle
structure by selective reflection to prove the existence of negamass. This
value is double as much the new Russian bevatron under construction and it
is 15 times as powerful as the highest particle accelerations in the
Berkeley bevatron so far attained. Many people think that nothing much can
be done until negamass has been observed. If industry were to adopt this
approach it would have a long wait and a quick answer at the end. But the
negamass-posimass theory can be further developed; and, in anticipation of
its existence, means of using it in a gravitationally neutralized body
could be worked out. This, moreover, is certainly not the only possible
approach: a breakthrough may well come in the interaction between
gravitative action and heat theory at the moment suggests that if gravity
could produce heat the effect is limited at the moment to a narrow range.*
But the significant thing would be establishment of a principle.
History may repeat itself thirty years ago, and even as recently as the
German attempts to produce nuclear energy in the war, nobody would have
guessed that power would be unlocked by an accident at the high end of the
atomic table. All prophecies of atomic energy were concerned with how
quickly means of fusion could be applied at the low end. In anti-gravity
work, and this
* See Appendix V
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goes back to Birdseye, it may be an unrelated accident that will be the
means of getting into the gravitational age. It is a prime responsibility
of management to be aware of possible ways of using theory to accelerate
such a process. In other words serendipity.
It is a common thought in industry to look upon the nuclear experience as a
precedent for gravity, and to argue that gravitics will similarly depend on
the use of giant tools, beyond the capabilities of the air industry and
that companies will edge into the gravitational age on the coat-tails of
the Government as industry has done, or is doing, in nuclear physics. But
this over looks the point that the two sciences are likely to be different
in their investment. Itwill not need a place like Hanford or Savannah River
to produce a gravity shield or insulator once the knowhow has been
established. As a piece of conceptual engineering the project is probably
likely to be much more like a repetition of the turbine engine. It will be
simple in its essence, but the detailed componentry will become
progressively more complex to interpret in the form of a stable flying
platform and even more intricate when it comes to applying the underlying
principles to a flexibility of operating altitude ranging from low present
flight speeds at one extreme to flight in a vacuum at the other. This
latter will be the extreme test of its powers. Again the principle itself
will function equally in a vacuum - Townsend Brown's saucers could move in
a vacuum readily enough - but the supporting parts must also work in a
vacuum. In practice, they tend to give trouble, just as gas turbine bits
and pieces start giving trouble in proportion to the altitude gained in
flight.
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But one has to see this rise in complexity with performance and with
altitude attainment in perspective: eventually the most advanced capability
may be attained with the most extremely simple configurations. As is usual
however in physics developments the shortest line of progress is a
geodesic, which may in turn lead the propulsion trade into many roundabout
paths as being the shortest distance between aims and achievement.
But aviation business is understandably interested in knowing precisely how
to recognize early discoveries of significance and this Gravity Rand report
is intended to try and outline some of the more promising lines. One
suggestion frequently made is that propulsion and levitation may be only
the last - though most important - of a series of others, some of which
will have varying degrees of gravitic element in their constitution. It may
be that the first practical application will be in the greater freedom of
communications offered by the change in wave technique that it implies. A
second application is to use the wave technique for anti-submarine
detection, either airborne or seaborne. This would combine the width of
horizon in search radar with the underwater precision of Magnetic Airborne
Detection, and indeed it may have the range of scatter transmissions.
Chance discoveries in the development of this equipment may lead to the
formulation of new laws which would define the relationship of gravity in
terms of usable propulsion symbols. Exactly how this would happen nobody
yet knows and what industry and government can do at this stage is to
explore all the possible applications simultaneously, putting pressure
where results seem to warrant it.
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In a paper of this kind it is not easy to discuss the details of the wave
technique in communications, and the following are some of theories,
briefly stated which require no mathematical training to understand, which
it would be worth management keeping an eye on. In particular, watch should
be made of quantitative tests on lofting, and beneficiation of material.
Even quite small beneficiation ratios are likely to be significant. There
are some lofting claims being made of 20% and more, and the validity of
these will have to be weighed carefully. Needless to say much higher ratios
than this will have to be attained. New high-k techniques and extreme-k
materials are significant. High speeds in electrostatic propulsion of small
discs will be worth keeping track of (by high speed one means hundreds of
m.p.h.) and some of these results are beginning to filter through for
general evaluation. Weight mass anomalies, new oil-cooled cables,
interesting megavolt gimmicks, novel forms of electrostatic augmentation
with, hydrocarbon and non-hydrocarbon fuels are indicative, new patents
under the broadest headings of force and motion may have value, new
electrostatic generator inventions could tip the scales and unusual ways of
turning condensers inside-out, new angular propulsion ideas for barycentric
control; and generally certain types of saucer configuration are valuable
pointers to ways minds are working.
Then there is the personnel reaction to such developments. Managements are
in the hands of their technical men, and they should beware of technical
teams who are dogmatic at this state. To assert electrogravitics is
nonsense; is as unreal as to say it is practically extant. Management
should be careful of men in their employ with a closed mind - or even
partially closed mind - on the subject.
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This is a dangerous age: when not only is anything possible, but it is
possible quickly. A wise Frenchman once said you have only to live long
enough to see everything 'and the reverse of everything;' and that is true
in dealing with very advanced high energy physics of this kind.
Scientists are not politicians: they can reverse themselves once with
acclaim - twice even with impunity. They may have to do so in the long road
to attainment of this virtually perfect air vehicle. It is so easy to get
bogged down with problems of the present; and whilst policy has to be made
essentially with the present in mind - and in aviation a conservative
policy always pays - it is management's task and duty to itself to look as
far ahead as the best of its technicians in assessing the posture of the
industry.
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GLOSSARY
Gravithermals: alloys which may be heated or cooled by gravity waves.
(Lover's definition)
Thermisters: materials capable of being influenced by gravity.
Electrads: materials capable of being influenced by gravity.
Gravitator: a plurality of cell units connected in series: negative and
positive electrodes with an interposed insulating member (Townsend Brown's
definition).
Lofting: the action of levitation where gravity's force is more than
overcome by electrostatic or other propulsion.
Beneficiation: the treatment of an alloy or substance to leave it with an
improved mass-weight ratio.
Counterbary: this, apparently, is another name for lofting.
Barycentric control: the environment for regulation of lofting processes
in a vehicle.
Modulation: the contribution to lofting conferred on a vehicle by,
treatment of the substance of its construction as distinct from that added
to it by outside forces. Lofting is a synthesis of intrinsic and extrinsic
agencies.
Absorber; insulator: these terms - there is no formal distinction
between them as yet - are based on an analogy with electromagnetism. This
is a questionable assumption since the similarity between electromagnetic
and gravitational fields is valid only in some respects such as both having
electric and magnetic elements. But the difference in coupling strengths,
noted by many experimenters, is fundamental to the science. Gravity
moreover may turn out to be the only non-quantized field in nature, which
would make it, basically, unique. The borrowing
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of terms from the field of electromagnetism is therefore only a temporary
convenience. Lack of Cartesian representation makes this a baffling science
for many people.
Negamass: proposed mass that inherently has a negative charge.
Posimass: mass the observed quantity - positively charged.
Shield: a device which not only opposes gravity (such as an absorber) but
also furnishes an essential path along which or through which, gravity can
act. Thus whereas absorbers reflectors and insulators can provide a
gravitationally neutralized body, a shield would enable a vehicle or sphere
to 'fall away' in proportion to the quantity of shielding material.
Screening: gravity screening was implied by Lanczos. It is the result
of any combination of electric or magnetic fields in which one or both
elements are not subject to varying permeability in matter.
Reflector: a device consisting of material capable of generating
buoyant forces which balance the force of attraction. The denser the
material, the greater the buoyancy force. When the density of the material
equals the density of the medium the result will be gravitationally
neutralized. A greater density of material assumes a lofting role.
Electrogravitics: the application of modulating influences in an
electrostatic propulsion system.
Magnetogravitics: the influence of electromagnetic and meson fields
in a reflector.
Bosun fields: these are defined as gravitational electromagnetic, ¼ and r
meson fields (Metric tensor).
Fermion fields: these are electrons neutrinos muons nucleons and
V-particles (Spinors).
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Gravitator cellular body: two or more gravitator cells connected in
series within a body (Townsend Brown's definition).
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REFERENCES
Mackenzie, Physical Review. 2. pp 321-43.
Eotvos, Pekar and Fekete Annalen der Physik. 68. (1922) pp. 11-16.
Heyl, Paul R. Scientific Monthly, 47, (1938) p. 115.
Austin, Thwing, Physical Review, 5, (1897) pp. 494-500.
Shaw, Nature (April 8,1922), p. 462, Proc. Roy. Soc., 102 (Oct. 6, 1922),
p. 46.
Brush, Physical Review, 31, p. 1113 (A).
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Majorana, Attidella Reale Academie die Lincei, 28, (1919) pp. 160, 221,
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288.
Schneiderov, Science, (May 7, 1943), 97 sup. p. 10.
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Lanczos, Science, 74, (Dec 4, 1931), sup. p. 10.
Eddington, Report on the Relativity Theory of Gravitation, (1920), Fleetway
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W.D. Fowler et al, Phys, Rev. 93, 861, (1954).
R.L. Arnowitt and S. Deser, Phys. Rev. 92, 1061, (1953).
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(1954).
N. Schein D.M. Haskin and R.G. Glasser, Phys. Rev. 95, 855, (1954).
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Laboratory Report, (1954).
H. Bondi and T. Gold, Mon. Not. R. Astr. Soc., 108, 252, (1948).
F. Hoyle, Mon. Not. R. Astr. Soc., 108, 372, (1948).
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Essay on Gravity, 1953.
C. H. Bondi, Cosmology, Cambridge University Press, 1952.
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F.A.E. Pirani and A. Schild, Physical Review 79, 986 (1950).
Bergman, Penfield, Penfield, Schiller and Zatzkis, Physical Review, 80, 81
(1950).
B.S. DeWitt, Physical Review 85, 653 (1952).
See, for example, D. Bohm, Quantum Theory, New York, Prentice-Hall, Inc.
(1951) Chapter 22.
B.S. DeWitt, Physical Review. 90, 357 (1953), and thesis (Harvard, 1950).
A. Pais, Proceedings of the Lorentz Kamerlingh Onnes Conference, Leyden,
June 1953.
For the treatment of spinors in a unified field theory see W. Pauli,
Annalen der Physik, 18, 337 (1933). See also B.S. DeWitt and C.M. DeWitt,
Physical Review, 87, 116 (1952).
The Quantum Mechanical Electromagnetic Approach to Gravity F.L. Carter
Essay on Gravity 1953.
On Negative mass in the Theory of Gravitation Prof. J.M. Luttinger Essay on
Gravity 1951.
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