The Gravitics Situation |
Chapter 1 |
Gravitics is likely to follow a number of seperate lines of development; the best known short term proposition is Townsend Brown's electrostatic propulsion by gravitators (details of which are found in Appendix 1). 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 origionally maintained that his gravitators operated 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. Govenment, but it is something that will be persued on a small scale. The acceptance follows Brown's origional 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 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 optomistic reading of the situation: it is true that materials are now available for the condensors 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 source, and possessing any practical experience of running such equipment.
The long term development of gravity shields, absorbers, and `magic metals' appear at the moment, however, to be a basically different problem, and work on this is not being sponsored ([footnote] officially, that is); so far as is known. The absorber or shield could be intrinsically a weapon of great power, the limits of which are difficult to forsee. 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 likelyhood of such work being sponsored in small countries outside the U.S. is slight, since there is a general lack of money and resources and, in all such countries, quick returns are essential.
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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 antigravity devices.
There are several promosing 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 2 outlines how it might be done. This is Mozer's approach which is based on the Schrödinger 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 progress envisages 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 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 high energy particles. It has been suggested by Ferrell that this might explain the role of the 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 futher study of the neutrino would be relevant to gravitational problems. If therefore the aircraft industry regards antigravity as part of its responsibilities it cannot escape the necessity of monitoring high energy physics of 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 ([footnote] see Appendix 6). 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 gravithermels, and interacting effects 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 3), 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.
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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 microscopic 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 to complex spin to be tied up and these could logically be sponsored with some expectation of results by companies wondering how to make a contribution.
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 is 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 spin 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.
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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 more light on the sources of the power.
Another task is the 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 hyperon and K-particles which would, or might, form the link between the microcosm and macrocosm. Indeed Desser 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.
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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. This latter seems 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.
Next: Chapter 2 - Management Note on the Gravitics Situation