Finland Antigravity Experiment Replicated
From: Troy Dawson (td@twics.com)
Newsgroups: sci.physics.research
Subject: Tampere Replication -- How to
Date: Saturday, January 11, 1997 5:34 AM
[Moderator's Note: as directed by the author, please follow up by
e-mail until this experiment is made public. The author of the article
has informed me that his intent was primarily to make it known how
easily reproduced this experiment is, presumably in the hope of
wide spread replication. Hopefully papers describing these replication
attempts will be forthcoming for our future discussion. -WGA]
A researcher in Ohio has attempted to replicate Podkletnov's
gravity modification superconductor results.
The Setup
1) 1" YBCO superconducting disc.
2) Magnetic field generator (producing a 600 gauss/60Hz EM field).
3) Pan-and-beam balance:
Beam: bamboo, coming to a point on one end (24.6cm long,
weight 1.8647g)
Pan: a cardboard rectangle (15.8cm x 10.0cm x 0.131mm) is suspended
from the balance with 28.1cm of cotton string.
A polystyrene "pan" (7.2cm x 8.7cm x 1.78 mm) is attached with paper
masking tape to the cardboard rectangle.
The pan assembly (w/ string, cardboard, tape) weighs 1.6502g.
The balance is suspended from the end of a 5' wood beam by ~30cm
of monofilament fishing line (8lb. test) attached to the balance's
center of mass (5.5cm from the pan end).
The other end of the crossbeam is firmly anchored by a heavy
steel tripod (normally used for holding photographic lights).
4) Thermal and EM isolation is hopefully provided by a glass plate
(15cm x 30cm, 0.7cm thick) with a brass screen attachment.
This plate-and-brass-screen assembly is held about ~4.5cm below the
pan by a '3-finger' ring stand clamp.
5) A straightsided, 6" diameter, 10" deep dewar with 3 - 4" of
liquid nitrogen is used to cool the sc below its Tc, and is
removed from the experiment area before the trial.
Experiment Procedure
1) The YBCO superconductor is placed in a liquid nitrogen bath and
allowed to come to liq N temp (as indicated when the boiling of
the liq N ceases). The sc will remain below its 90C Tc for the
duration of the trial (less than 20sec).
2) The disc is then removed from the bath & placed on a strong NdFeB
magnet to induce a supercurrent. The Meissner effect is counteracted
by a wooden stick. The sc disc has a cotton string attached to it to
assist handling.
3) The HTSC and wooden stick assembly is placed on the EM field
generator, about 33cm below the glass/screen isolation plate.
The HTSC is ~40cm *directly* below the pan.
4) The AC field generator is then cycled for ~ 5sec with 0.75sec
equal-time on/off pulses.
Experiment Findings
- While AC current was flowing though the AC field generator, the
balance pointer was deflected 2.1mm downward.
- When the AC field generator was pulsed with no superconductor
present, there was no measurable pointer deflection.
Experimenter's Comments
- The additional pan weight required to *raise* the balance pointer
2.1mm was later found to be 0.0891g (~5% of the pan's weight).
- The idea was that the 'column' of modified gravity (as described by
Podkletnov) HAS to hit the pan somewhere ...as the HTC is only 1"
diameter and the pan is larger.
- Only one experimental setup was constructed, with several trials.
The experimenter welcomes further replication attempts & comments.
==
Please direct questions & comments to e-mail, as further
discussion on s.p.r seems unwarranted as of yet.