Much Ado About Bismuth

Time and again, in the course of my researches on the interweb and elsewhere, the element bismuth crops up in connection with one aspect or another of antigravity. Bismuth is an unusual metal, being a poor conductor (verging on a semiconductor), the most diamagnetic, having the highest Hall effect and second-lowest thermal conductivity. In addition, its liquid phase is denser than its solid phase.

Significantly, it is also immediately above (and, we could reasonably infer, possesses similar properties to) Element 115 (a.k.a. Ununpentium, a.k.a. Eka-Bismuth) in the periodic table. Element 115 may have some very stable isotopes, being smack in the middle of the theoretical nucleonic "island of stability", and has of course also featured in the Area 51 tales of Bob Lazar, apparently playing a role in gravity control.

If bismuth is similar to element 115, then it could lend more credence to the gravity studies of Charles F. Brush and the patents of Henry Wallace, both of which involve the use of bismuth. It has even been investigated by respectable university departments (sponsored by Project Greenglow, as it happens).

In the case of the Wallace patents, bismuth is rotated in a magnetic field, in a manner reminiscent of Podkletnov's experiments with superconductors.

To quote from the excellent Electrogravitics Reference List of Robert Stirniman:

Dr. Charles Brush, in a series of reports in the PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY around 1922 found, in some well-thought-out experiments, that weight was not only proportional to mass, but was affected by the atomic structure of the substances. For example, he found that for a given unit of
mass and shape, BISMUTH falls faster than zinc or aluminum.

Bismuth is also a major constituent of "Art's Parts", mysterious fragments of unknown origin presented to radio host Art Bell in 1996. Some reports suggested that they levitated under high voltages (though many materials would!). It appears, however, that they are most likely interestingly-shaped bits of industrial waste.

All this talk of unusual effects resulting from spinning strongly diamagnetic or superconducting material may indicate a connection to torsion physics, but it's difficult to reach any firm conclusions because of the controversy in the torsion physics field and the difficulty in defining exactly what torsion is.

Whatever Happened To...Marcus Hollingshead?

In late 2002, Marcus Hollingshead seemed to be promising a great new device, derived apparently from his efforts to create a mechanical model of the Earth's magnetic field. This device appeared to accidentally generate antigravitational effects. Some more background can be found here.

Initially those who communicated with him had a good feeling about it - he seemed a genuine person in emails and on the phone, produced pages of detailed technical specs, and promised (somewhat) public demonstrations. Personally I felt, as I think did he, a sort of bond through similar upbringings (both being half-Usanian and half-Ukanian) Alas, nothing came of all the fuss (unless the MIB know different, of course!) and Marcus himself variously claimed it was a hoax or had gone into secret development (solid state versions were mentioned). In any event, nothing has been heard from him, to my knowledge, since this 2004 interview.

The jury remains out as to whether he was genuine and has been "got at" by The Powers That Be, or if it was all just a hoax that went too far. Personally, my sympathies are for his wife, who seems to have borne the brunt of fielding an awful lot of phone calls.

If you know different...or even if you *are* Marcus and want a right of reply...please get in touch!

Initial Thoughts on Lifters

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.

Podkletnov's paper *was* accepted, and here's the proof

I'm including a scan of the first page of the page proof of Evgeny Podkletnov's paper as it would have appeared in Journal of Physics D in 1996 had it not been withdrawn as a result of the infamous UK Sunday Telegraph article of Sept 1st, 1996, for the purposes of referencing for the Wikipedia article about him.

Here 'tis, as supplied by the Ministry of Defence, apparently:

Whatever Happened To...F. E. Alzofon? (part 1 of an ongoing series)

The name of this engineer from Boeing should be well known in the antigravity community, but Alzofon's paper indicating how such effects might be achieved through contemporary technology ("Anti-gravity with present technology - Implementation and theoretical foundation", ALZOFON, F. E. (Boeing Aerospace Co., Seattle, WA) AIAA-1981-1608 SAE, and ASME, Joint Propulsion Conference, 17th, Colorado Springs, CO, July 27-29, 1981) seems to have disappeared without much comment into the mists of time. The first page may be found here - but I've yet to see any evidence that anyone has ever tried to test it.

Going Up....?

Welcome to the European Antigravity outpost, named in homage of the excellent American Antigravity site run by Tim Ventura. I do not intend to compete with it but rather to complement it by providing a perspective from Old Europe.

In time, I hope to publicise the efforts of the lesser-known contributors to the field of breakthrough propulsion as well as keeping tabs on the better-known efforts and progress (if any). I also hope to (as far as possible) disperse the fog of mis- and dis-information surrounding activities in this field.