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[Baja Bush Pilot]

?Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.?
Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949

?I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.?
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

?I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won?t last out the year.?
The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957

?But what ? is it good for??
Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.

?There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.?
Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

?This ?telephone? has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.?
Western Union internal memo, 1876.

?The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular??
David Sarnoff?s associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.

?The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a ?C,? the idea must be feasible.?
A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith?s paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.

?Who the hell wants to hear actors talk??
H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.

?I?m just glad it?ll be Clark Gable who?s falling on his face and not Gary Cooper.?
Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in ?Gone With The Wind.?

?A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make.?
Response to Debbi Fields? idea of starting Mrs. Fields? Cookies.

?We don?t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.?
Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

?Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.?
Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.

?If I had thought about it, I wouldn?t have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can?t do this.?
Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M ?Post-It? Notepads.

?So we went to Atari and said, ?Hey, we?ve got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we?ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we?ll come work for you.? And they said, ?No.? So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, ?Hey, we don?t need you. You haven?t got through college yet.??
Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and H-P interested in his and Steve Wozniak?s personal computer.

?Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools.?
1921 New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard?s revolutionary rocket work.

?You want to have consistent and uniform muscle development across all of your muscles? It can?t be done. It?s just a fact of life. You just have to accept inconsistent muscle development as an unalterable condition of weight training.?
Response to Arthur Jones, who solved the ?unsolvable? problem by inventing Nautilus.

?Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You?re crazy.?
Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.

?The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives.?
Admiral William Leahy, US Atomic Bomb Project.

?This fellow Charles Lindbergh will never make it. He?s doomed.?
Harry Guggenheim, millionaire aviation enthusiast.

?Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.?
Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.

?Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.?
Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.

?Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances.?
Dr. Lee De Forest, inventor of the vacuum tube and father of television.

?Louis Pastueur?s theory of germs is ridiculous fiction.?
Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872

?The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon.?
Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria, 1873

http://www.thoughtmechanics.com/2007/04/21/some-very-funny-and-totally-wrong-predictions-of-the-past/

[Solomon]

I reckon that it is worthwhile remembering the lesson of that list.

Many jobs are concerned with forecasting. Marketing depends on understanding the relationship between investment and results. Publishers receive typically many manuscripts each day and have to decide whether or not they will sell.

The success rate is low.

We seem innately devoid of the ability to forecast accurately.

Meteorology is an example of how prediction is scientifically impossible, the 'butterfly effect' sees to that. The most a we can do is offer is a forecast, based on limited data and extrapolation.

The good news is that individuals can largely determine their own future, in spite of the reluctance of others to go along with them.

There very many stories of people who succeeded because they refused to give up: authors who had to approach dozens of publishers before success, innovations which most experts turned down,  and so on.

In this thread - History Channel-Secret Societies - we are discussing the Bilderberg organisation. I once listened to a Bilderberg spokesman explain how they could not possibly control events simply because of the individual. Time and again, history turns on the action of a single person and this is unpredictable. I find this reassuring.

One of my favourite 'impossibilities' coming true concerns German rockets in WW2. The chief scientist for the British government told Churchill and others that no rocket could ever deliver a large payload. Shortly after, the V-rockets rained down on England.

Scientists often claim something is impossible because they have no data for it. This is illogical, but that does not stop them repeating the error.

When Britain had the BSE outbreak, scientists and government ministers assured us that it could not possibly transfer to people - there was no data for it. Then people became infected with the dreadful new variant of CJD. It is possible that right now, a mass of British people are infected. I knew all along that the scientists were wrong, for I knew of other animal diseases which had moved across species, against all scientific thought, and that 'unknown' does not mean 'impossible'.

I find it both amazing and sad that our leading minds work illogically when facing the unknown, even on matters of life and death.

I once saw ball lightening when at school. A few years ago, I was surprised to read that science rejected the notion of ball lightening. Since then, it has been reproduced in a laboratory, so it exists.

I know that some things are impossible. I also know that many impossibilities are labelled incorrectly. People are just very poor at making this judgment.

Solomon

[Bart]

Here is a similar case that I have been following for some time, and it is indeed strange. It is said here that the effect has not been reproduced, in support of those who deem it fakery. That is an easy claim to make since the original equipment was confiscated by the govt. One never knows quite whom or what to believe. Showing one photo of an object which has a string seems rather biased since there are dozens of other photos showing extremely unatural effects (allegedly) produced by the original equipment.

- Bart

Hutchison effect

   The Hutchison effect is a name given to a collection of alleged natural phenomena that John Hutchison claims to have discovered in 1979. According to Hutchison, while trying to duplicate experiments done by Nikola Tesla, he discovered a number of strange phenomena, including:

levitation of heavy objects

fusion of dissimilar materials such as metal and wood

the anomalous heating of metals without burning adjacent material

the spontaneous fracturing of metals

changes in the crystalline structure and physical properties of metals.

disappearing metal samples

   All these phenomena are jointly grouped under the name Hutchison Effect (HE). Supporters like Mark Solis, his former webmaster, maintain that none can be the result of known physical phenomena, such as electromagnetism.

   Hutchison and his supporters surmise that these phenomena arise from zero-point energy or the Casimir effect. Hutchison also says that he invented over-unity batteries, which he calls Q Cells or Hiroshima cells and which, obtain energy from the vacuum using the Casimir effect.

Photograph depicting a butter knife embedded in a metal plate on Hutchison's website

Scientific opinion

   In a posting to the newsgroup sci.physics.research, Marc Millis, who formerly ran the now defunct Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Program for NASA, wrote:

   This "Hutchison Effect" has been claimed for years, without any independent verification - ever. In fact, its originator can't even replicate it on demand. This has been investigated more than once, been part of documentaries on the discovery channel, but still never seems to pass critical muster. This is in the category of folklore. In general, the "American Antigravity" web site caters to such folklore and its enthusiasts.
?Marc G. Millis

   Canadian inventor Mel Winfield says that it was solely through his theories that The Hutchison Effect came into being. He has published evidence including signed contracts, letters, and communications from John Hutchison himself on his website.[citation needed]

Military interest

   According to Hutchison, military scientists from the United States have been working with him because of the effect's military potential. In the documentary Free Energy: The Race to Zero Point, he states that military scientists were impressed with the effects, but were not able to replicate them on their own without assistance.

   Hutchinson later accused the military of co-ercing the Canadian government into seize his lab so that it could be passed it on to Lockheed Martin Skunkworks for research purposes. Journalist and author Nick Cook later wrote that this had been confirmed by a high-ranking friend of his in the Skunkworks. Boyd Bushman, retired Lockheed Martin senior engineer, later confirmed that this was true in an interview in Nick Cook's book The Hunt for Zero Point.

Media coverage

   The Hutchison effect has been featured in television programs aired on The Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, National Geographic Channel and Nippon Television. Hutchison and his effect have also been discussed in various fringe science newsletters and websites, such as American Antigravity, a fringe website devoted to commercial antigravity research and products, the UFO Resource Center, a website devoted to ufology,
Space Telescopes, a website which features a mixture of writings including such topics as the Hubble observatory and the Hutchison effect.

   World Mysteries, one of many websites which discuss a wide range of fringe, new age, and paranormal topics.

   At various times, Hutchison has maintained his own website; the most recent is www.hutchisoneffect.ca.

Charges of fakery

   A "levitating" toy UFO. A line, said by critics to be string supporting the model, can be seen at the top of the screen. The ionocraft (or ion-propelled aircraft) produces a similar electrohydrodynamic effect which using electrical energy.

   Hutchison previously sold (for about $150 each) videos illustrating his "effect", and has released some shorter video clips online.[9][10] Videos of his effect are now sold exclusively by Gryphon Productions. In response to comments regarding the apparent presence of a string supporting the model "UFO", Hutchison stated:

   "The string is not string but #32-gauge double polythermalized wire on a takeup up reel with 20 to 50000 volts DC. The main apparatus was turned on, causing the toy plastic UFO to fly all about in amazing gyrations. This was a pretest to gryphon films airing this fall for FOX TV. I did not need the extra high voltage 2000 time period so the toy levitated without a high voltage hook up during the filming for gryphon there was a string on the toy no high-voltage dc but interesting movements."

?John Hutchison, quoted at the American Antigravity website

   Hutchison later admitted to being "creative" with the footage, citing pressure from the Discovery Channel to create material for the show and an inability to legally reproduce the original effect, according to Tim Ventura of American Antigravity.

   In 2005, Hutchison admitted that he hadn't actually reproduced his effect since approximately 1991. The earlier levitation footage from the 1980s is genuine, he says. But this footage has been characterized as looking like it was taken in a booth with an upside-down camera.[14] Hutchison continues to reject charges of fakery, and maintains that his "effect" has been demonstrated many times in the presence of scientists and, he says, members of the US Army Intelligence and Security Command.

   Hutchison states that he reproduced the effect in his Ash St., New Westminster apartment as recently as March 2006 for National Geographic, as well as for author Harold Berndt, whose film of the event can be found on the American Antigravity website, which covers Hutchison's assertions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutchison_effect

[Solomon]

Bart,

This 'von D?niken'-type story does not appear "strange" to me in a scientific, or technical sense, but more in the 'Burrows Cave' or 'Oak Island' sense.

That we have no reliable data for the science does not, in itself, disqualify this subject, for the reasons I gave in my earlier post. However, it is based on the word of a person who changes his story and admits faking his evidence.

Hutchison later admitted to being "creative" with the footage, citing pressure from the Discovery Channel to create material for the show and an inability to legally reproduce the original effect, according to Tim Ventura of American Antigravity.

For me, that's an end to it.

It is becoming increasingly easy to manipulate images to produce fake realism. I think we should expect fakery to become commonplace.

Now, thinking about Tesla, perhaps somebody can find an online reference to German experiments in WW2 with electromagnetism and flying disks. I would like to know the results of these and what, if anything, happened post-WW2 with this technology.

Solomon

[Bart]

Solomon;

   I am not so sure that Govt's go around confiscating experimental machinery if fakery is involved. I think they saw something that caused them to take such action, so for me the jury is still out. Chances are we will never know though.

   Here again we have accusations of Govt involvement with the German science of WWII, scientists transported to the US and other countries, and missing experimental data. The data is somewhere, and after 60 years, the chances of it showing up are about as likely as Hutchinson's experiments being duplicated. To me, this is a reflection on the negative side of secret Govt entities. Many accusations of advancements that would be beneficial to mankind being suppressed by these entities exist. I understand the need for such entities within their scope, but we seem to have a lot of overstepping of bounds by them in areas they truly have no business in. And there is no meaningful recourse to challenge them.

   Sixty years have gone by, you would think some advancement along those lines would have appeared by now. Why not? About all we have are fringe group discussions attesting to such claims, as far as I can tell. There could well be 'legitimate' reasons why not, but only under the heading of speculation.

- Bart

[Bart]

   This link is to a PDF file report by Nick Cook, Janes Defense Weeky Aviation Editor and investigative author. One of the devices known to have been tested or experimented with was the 'Nazi-Bell' device at the secret Wenceslas Mine facility in Poland. One physicist speculates that it was intended to create a powerful propulsion by an engineering application of Einstein's Unified Field Theory Equations (UFT), and may have been an attempt to weaponize the 'Bell's' dangerous side effects.

  From this data, it appears that the Nazi's were using a known scientific theory of Einstein's. No doubt many have made similar experiments since, but we see nothing of import today resulting from them.
 
http://www.americanantigravity.com/documents/Einstein-Antigravity.pdf

[Solomon]

Bart,

I was about to upload the same file...

The 'Nazi-Bell' device is the subject I was trying to remember. Thanks.

From what I read here, I do not accept that government confiscation took place. Maybe it did, but I would not conclude that from the evidence.

The German story looks genuine to me. It is a matter of public record how US, UK and Soviet forces took from Germany those scientists, data and technology they considered potentially important.

Each country responded to this material differently. The Soviets, for example, took rocketry far more seriously than did the USA, hence the Soviet lead right from the start.

We do not know that the German experiments I referred to either could or did lead anywhere.

If the the US took them seriously, I don't see any technological benefit resulting. Looking at the application of US military might over the decades, up to Iraq today, I see nothing so special that it could only have come from an unknown branch of science, or technology. Star Wars came to a grinding halt and the US space program limps along, after multiple disasters and supported on Russian crutches.

No, I don't get even a whiff of scientific marvels. AI and robotics is stuck in a bog, with only the Japanese having some pleasant toys in that area. Britain had some neat tricks - VTOL aircraft and the Concorde, optical computing, the hovercraft, holography, the transputer and so on, but having helped transfer technology from the military to civil sector in the 1980s, I am quite sure that their development did not depend on WW2 secrets.

There are WW2 secrets, of course. As far as I am aware, they are of a politically-sensitive nature. Britain, at least, would much prefer to look the good knight and not have that image tarnished by some awkward and sometimes ugly truths.

Solomon

[Bart]

   There is much lament out there about investors not taking the idea seriously, and spending their money on rocket technology that works and has immediate benefits. But as you see from the second paragraph below, the facts more or less belie the above claim. I have to wonder if all the money invested so far had been pooled and used under one roof, so to speak, if the results would have been the same.

   Many still claim the concept of antigrav is viable and just over the horizon. The patent would seem to indicate that, but for me, I would need to see the patent itself to make some sort of further determination. Their link to it did not work, or I would have included it here.

   The believers in this antigrav thing claim that one of the goals is for the benefit to mankind. That is laudable in and of itself, but the reality is that were success to result from such research, the tune would change to the focus of investors recovering their money plus a profit, more or less endlessly squeezing every last dime out of everyone they possibly could. Such is the way of the world. If success comes, it won't be a free benefit for mankind, that is for certain.

- Bart

     Anti-gravity is considered crackpot science by mainstream academia, as evidenced by the recent hoopla over the first-ever anti-gravity patent that was issued by the U.S. Patent office earlier this month.  The flagship scientific journal, Nature, lead the assault in lambasting the USPTO, and the world followed suit in expressing their amusement over such a faux pas.

    Ironically, it was an individual with such a spirit in him, who has funded much of SARA's research on this subject thus far. After making $2 billion in the dot-com craze, Joe Firmage founded a company called International Space Science Organization, and doled out larges sums to a wide array of projects, including the academic work of Hal Puthoff.  (Ref1, ref2, ref3, site.) According to Ventura, Firmage's motto regarding anti-gravity technologies is, "I'm going to find them or build them." Unfortunately, Firmage has since run out of funds.

http://pesn.com/2005/11/16/9600203_New_Nazi_Bell/

[Solomon]

Antigravity, is, for me, one of two scientific impossibilities unless or until there is a fundamental breakthrough in our understanding of the subjects. The other is AI.

A lot of money and effort has been invested in looking for a gravity particle. I do not understand why, when it is by no means certain that such a thing does, or could, exist. I do not think so.


Gravitation is a phenomena. We see it all the time, everywhere: without it, we would not be standing on the Earth. There would be no Earth.

Gravity is the force which all massive objects are theorized to exert on each other to cause gravitation. What is it, exactly?

Graviton

I know a British scientist is searching for a gravity particle. I think he is wrong. I do not believe such a thing exists.

I have listened all my life to scientists discussing the nature of matter and generally what I have heard appears to me to be silly, a demonstration of mental limitation rather than a real scientific discussion. I understand matter to consist of energy. I do not believe that fundamental particles are in some way 'solid'.

Without understanding what gravity is, it will be somewhat difficult to make an antigravity device. Personally, I think it unlikely that gravity exists in any form. I think that we merely observe the effect of distortions in space time and we label this gravitation.

Solomon

[Bart]

Gravity is a word used to describe a phenomena we truly do not understand. I must agree with you on all points here.  Though wrong in most aspects of definition and function, it is the best we have at this time. Until such time as when and if machines are developed that can recognize and accurately describe the phenomena, there will be limited advancements with it. Like electricity, we have limited harnessing of it, but not complete understanding. Wave-particle duality as a definition of light function is another. Advancements in these areas come way too slow to suit me.

- Bart

[Bart]

Old Ship Logs Unlock Secrets About Earth's Magnetic Field

By Sara Goudarzi - 11 May 2006

   Captain Cook'sPacific Ocean voyage logs have proven to be quite valuable, but not on eBay. 

   Old ship logs tell the tale of Earth's magnetic field and suggest that the current decline in strength may be a recent phenomenon and not necessarily a trend. 

   The Earth is like a magnet with two poles. Magnetic field lines travel between the North and South poles and are generated by the movement of molten iron in Earth's core.

   This magnetic field has weakened by 5 percent each century since 1840, when the first accurate measurements were made. But a new study looking at the magnetic field strength between 1590 and 1840 finds the field was relatively stable during that time. 

   The modeling of historical magnetic data started in the early 1980s by study team member David Gubbins, a researcher from University of Leeds in the United Kingdom.

   Gubbins and colleagues started with readily available data like those in the logs of famed English sailor and explorer, James Cook. 

   "[We then] progressed to searching archives in Europe, including finding 50,000 'lost' 18th century measurements in the East India Company Archives in London," Gubbins told LiveScience. 

   Using the old sailing ships' logbooks, which recorded magnetic field directions useful in reconstructing field strength, and combining it with a global model of directions, they produced 250 years worth of measurement data. 

   This recent finding suggests that the current decline in field strength comes from growing and migrating patches of reverse magnetic flux in the southern hemisphere. 

   The Earth's magnetic field has reversed many times. This happens because magnetic poles can move around and trade places. Scientists do not know when the next flip will occur.

   The findings of this study are detailed in the May 12 issue of the journal Science.

A Natural Compass: Rock Cracks Point North
When North Becomes South: New Clues to Earth's Magnetic Flip-flops
North Pole Moving to Siberia


http://www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/060511_magnetic_logs.html

[Bart]

Below are some excerpts of an overview type on related and other interesting topics connected with Tesla. Noted here is a century that has passed, and it boggles my mind that so little of his work has been advanced or expanded upon in that time. But then, people of Tesla's caliber and genius come along only rarely.

Bart

INTERNATIONAL TESLA SOCIETY IN REVIEW:

People, Politics, and Technology

(c)2002 by Michael Riversong

   1984 was the 100th anniversary of Nikola Tesla's arrival in America. To mark that, the first Tesla Symposium was organized and produced by a small, dedicated group of scientists and community leaders in Colorado Springs. This began fourteen years of progress in advanced technology research that could possibly impact our planet for the next thousand years. The International Tesla Society went bankrupt late in 1998 due to internal political struggles. Many of its assets were sold off, but the videos, documents, and personal experiences developed through its activities will prove valuable for years to come.

...


FREE ENERGY

   One common pursuit of many researchers is the idea that energy can be derived from presently unknown sources. This is often referred to as "free energy" or "over unity". While perpetual motion or getting more out of a motor than is put in may not actually be possible, there are likely to be unknown forms of energy available which can be efficiently converted into useful power.

   Unfortunately, this particular area is too easily contaminated by fraud. Several presenters appeared to be quite fraudulent. Most obvious was the fellow who used plenty of religious jargon in his presentations, brought a modified car (with interesting chrome tubing on top of an ordinary engine) which never actually ran -- it always needed "just one more part." Another gave a great show, with a truck full of attractive models, but only sold the potential of investing in his company. To our knowledge, he still has not actually shipped a product, four years after his last presentation at a Tesla Society event.

   A few motors were demonstrated which might eventually be developed into workable technologies. One was called the "NMachine", built by the late Bruce dePalma. Like many motors of this type, it was based on the idea that magnetic fields could be made to resonate in such a way that each turn of the motor produces a sort of kick which makes it produce power on its own.

TESLA COILS

   Each Symposium included several presentations on this particular invention of Tesla's. Often, fantastic shows were mounted, when the dramatic sparks from large coils lit up romms and even the outdoors.

   Tesla coils are used a lot in certain kinds of radio transmitters, and most people have seen the little decorative electric globes which can be placed on desks and pedestals. It does appear that these point the way to other possible technologies, and this was sometimes hinted at during presentations. Besides the obvious sparks coming out the top of the coil, there are other electromagnetic fields always generated by a Tesla coil which may eventually prove useful.

   Toby Grotz, Robert Golka, and Jack Couture made great advances in Tesla coil design and operation in the late 1980's. Some of their work is summarized in the Proceedings volumes.

   William Wysock was at most of the events, with his large Tesla coils. He builds these in California for the entertainment industry, and he was very good at both operating the show coils and explaining how they work.

MEDICAL ADVANCES

   Tesla invented a small version of his coil for medical uses. This little apparatus, known as the Violet Ray, has the power to heat tissues inside the body. It was popular during the 1920's, but fell out of usage after that time. Several people brought both antique and new models to the Symposia.

   Hal Huggins gave his view of dental technology several times. He found that conventional dental methods often leave mercury in the mouth, which can, over many years, actually poison the body. His straightforward presentations gave several alternatives.

   A frequent presenter was Dr. Glen Rein, a biologist. He did a number of experiments concerning the effects of various energy fields on cells. From his work, we learned that it is possible to create both positive and negative effects using small amounts of precisely calibrated electricity. He also discovered that some types of energy which are not recognized by conventional physics will have measureable effects on living beings. He validated that water can hold information in some manner, which in turn is solid scientific proof that homeopathy can work.

   It became clear to several researchers and society staff members that the same kind of energy used in some research devices would have the potential to create direct mental effects. From 1994 on, the core staff members discouraged research along these lines, as an ethical principle.

MAGNETISM

   Peter Kulish and a few other presenters developed new uses for magnetism. Most of these were claimed to increase gas mileage or assist in water purification.

TESLA TURBINE

   Sometime around 1905, Tesla had developed a type of mechanical turbine which was very efficient. Its simple design was based on principles of resonance. This had two useful properties not seen in other turbines used today. Any kind of liquid, with any kind of varying density or contaminants, could flow through easily. An amplification of force in the liquid flow could be obtained. At the turn of the century, materials were not available which could stand up to the forces built up inside the turbine, and the invention was abandoned.

   Now, many metal alloys and plastics are strong enough to hold up under the high stresses developed within Tesla turbines. Two companies demonstrated impressive working models at Extraordinary Science conferences in 1991 and 1993. One of these companies, Discflo, built a model out of plastic which was donated to the Tesla Society museum and worked until the day the museum was closed. It did a very good job of moving water with numerous plastic beads through a recirculating system -something which most conventional turbines cannot do.

   Another Tesla turbine device was built by a small company in Texas. It created a type of relatively cool steam which could easily put out fires using much less water than ordinarily needed. Unfortunately this company went out of business in 1996.

CHEMISTRY

   It became apparent, starting around 1988, that many fundamental assumptions concerning chemistry are probably incomplete. This created some links between Tesla researchers and followers of Walter Russell, an artist who in the 1920s had reconstructed the Periodic Table of the Elements as a spiral. By doing this, he predicted the possible existence of transuranic elements, along with a few simple elements which have yet to be fully validated.

   Joe Champion, David Hudson, and George Wiseman gave presentations along these lines. While the works of Champion and Hudson seem inconclusive at best, Wiseman did create a working model of a welding apparatus which he claimed operated on "Brown's Gas" (first discovered and applied by Bulgarian-American inventor Yul Brown). He specifically stated, and many other researchers agreed, that this gas is most likely one of those simple elements predicted by Russell.

NEW ENGINE DEVELOPMENTS

   Toby Grotz pioneered a system for increasing gas mileage by adding water vapor to gas in the carburetor of a van engine before the Tesla Society was formed. He abandoned this project because of rust developing in the engine.

   Dr. Roger Billings has a long-standing reputation as one of the most prolific developers of hydrogen powered engines. In 1991 and 1992 he showed working hydrogen cars, and his pioneering work with fuel cells. Billings said that it would be very easy to set up hydrogen fueling facilities at conventional gas stations, by tapping into natural gas lines.

   One of the best engine modifications demonstrated at society events was the GEET system developed by Paul Pantone of Utah. At this time, the system is commercially available through a distribution network that Pantone has developed. It markedly reduces fuel consumption. At the time of the final Tesla Symposium in 1998, the system was available on Coleman generator motors and on the common Chevy 357 block.

NUCLEAR ENERGY

   Nuclear power plants are designed only to boil water. This is a very expensive and dangerous process. Paul Brown developed a way to extract electricity directly from nuclear decay, in a cheap and safe manner. One of the products of nuclear decay is called a "beta particle", which is actually a simple free electron. Paul had the idea that these particles can actually create a flow of electricity in a new type of power cell. As of late 1998, work on this system was progressing and several working models had been built.

VORTEXIAN MECHANICS

   Another branch of advanced research originated in Germany during the 1920's. Viktor Schauberger discovered that it was possible to build various technologies based on the fact that vortexes have special properties in nature. Walter Baumgartiner presented the basic theories several times, and showed how light can be generated from specially constructed water flow assemblies.

   In Europe, several devices have been constructed using these principles. I went on an individual research trip to Europe in January 1992 in order to find some of these. A few notes from the trip are included in my book "Design Ecology", and further notes are available elsewhere on this site.

THEORIES

   Overall, the Tesla Society staffers and volunteers tried to stay away from purely theoretical presentations after 1988. However, a number of these were made anyway. Some of these contained extensive mathematical work which few attendees were able to understand. Others got in because the presenters claimed to have built devices, but no staffers or volunteers could verify whether or not these were working as stated. Dennis Lee and Joseph Newman were among the many presenters in this category. Here are a few theoretical ideas which seem significant, and may eventually result in actual engineering.

   Huge flaws were often pointed out in conventional electromagnetic theory. Many presenters said that the usual mathematical equations which are the foundation of current understanding of electromagnetism are incomplete. Most intriguing is the idea that electromagnetic waves do not move through a vacuum -- but there are no vacuums anywhere in the Universe anyway. Instead, all space is filled with a medium called "ether", which is what electromagnetic waves (such as light, radio, and X-rays) disturb when they travel. Many early theories had included this concept, but it had been largely abandoned after Tesla's research was interrupted in 1911. I have developed some further theoretical work along these lines, contained in the electronic document "Fundamentals of Harmonic Chemistry."

   Gravity is driven by shape. Trying to understand gravity by using conventional electromagnetic theories will not work. This points the way to developing gravity control using constructions in specific shapes. In general, pyramids create stable fields, and geodesic structures can create movable fields. A good reference on this is the book "Shape Power" by Dan Davidson, who made several presentations at Tesla Society events.

   Magnetism is an effect of electromagnetic flow. But the existence of this force has deeper implications. Several phenomena connected with this force have been observed by a few researchers but not adequately cataloged. Presentations by Alexis Guy Obolonsky, Paramahansa Tewari, PT Pappas, and others brought out some of these phenomena, which have real potential for engineered applications.

T   here is something called "Zero-Point Energy" (ZPE). What it is exactly, is not yet known. There seems to be a possibility of engineering this into new power devices. Moray King, George Hathaway, and a few others explored this area in many presentations over the years.

CURRENT SITUATION

   Thanks to the work of the many Tesla Society presenters, researchers, vendors, and staffers, information on new possibilities for medicine, power generation, and transportation is widely available. Two spin-offs of the Tesla Society have emerged, which continue to provide information and networking points.

   The International Tesla Institute is headed by former society president J.W. McGinnis in Colorado Springs. His organization puts on small inventor's expositions on occasion, and provides a small catalog.

   Exotic Research is headed by former society vice-president and editor Steve Elswick in Arizona. The Exotic Research journal remains in publication at this time, a web site is maintained, and an extensive catalog of materials is provided.

   Several Internet mailing lists based on Tesla research are operating. The list is a direct descendant of the Tesla Society list, and has around 200 members worldwide. This list includes many former society members. Discussions on the list range over a wide field of topics.