Like many people, I suspect, my first encounter with Thomas Townsend Brown was a rather breathless chapter of "The Philadelphia Experiment" by Charles Berlitz. As a result, this has led to much rubbish being spouted about the Biefeld-Brown effect and its supposed connection to gravity.
A number of experimenters, from the US Army to hobbyists, via NASA have attempted to bottom out the claims that it would operate in vacuum. None have yet shown any thrust in vacuum, strongly indicating that gravity plays no part in it. It appears to be an ion momentum effect, at least at the voltages commonly used today (typically <30kv).
This is not to say that it may not have its uses; it is inherently stealthy and doesn't require stored fuel, although its power-to-weight ratio is (currently) pretty poor. I think that it would probably be useful in low-Earth-orbit manoeuvring thrusters, and indeed NASA are already trying to sell the concept.
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2 comments:
First, "The Philadelphia Experiment" was written by Wm. Moore with a forward by Berlitz. The manner in which Townsend Brown is included in the text suggests that Moore was, wittingly or unwittingly, part of a disinformation campaign which has been formed around Brown since 1950.
Second, the failure of the "lifters" to produce thrust in a vacuum does NOT disprove the electro-gravitic coupling implied in the Biefeld Brown effect. The Lifters are based in a corollary to BBE called "ElectroHydroDynamics," or EHD; Brown himself never claimed an "antigravity" effect for EHD.
EHD employs a "fluid" dielectric, such as air. The electro-gravitic effect is displayed when SOLID dielectrics are employed. There are accounts of successful tests in a vacuum from the 1950s, but no experiments to replicate those results have been conducted since.
More at http:/ttbrown.com
Thanks,
--PS
I just checked the Amazon listing for it, and they are listed as co-authors with equal credit. I always felt that the TTB chapter was shoehorned in for no good reason.
I would certainly like to see replications of the solid dielectric experiments (wanted to do my own at university back in the 80s but it was ruled out). It is telling, though, that the greatest impulses occurred during the corona events, i.e. times when metal ions would have been liberated for propulsion.
I doubt if any replication would be enough to satisfy the true believers, though.
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