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Levity with Lifters PSYCHIC VIBRATIONS ROBERT SHEAFFER IV; Levity with Lifters laims of anti-gravity keep pop- the testing surface." So says the Lifter effect, especially now that NASA and ping up all the time—it seems FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) sec- otJicr well-respected scientific authori- Cthat nothing will keep them tion on American Antigravity's Yahoo ties have experimented with it." (If you down. Robert L. Park exposed certain discussion group. purchase a physics textbook that does large aerospace companies' flirtation Now, lots of devices contain electrical describe this supposed "effect," I recom- with the so-called "Podkletnov gravity capacitors, but nobody expects to see mend that you return it as defective.) shield" (SI November/December 2002, them rising into the air. Ah, but you are However, it is indisputable that the p. 7), which has unfortunately not yet forgetting about the "Biefeld-Brown "lifters" really are rising into the air. The resulted in a gravity-shielded airliner. But according to a growing number of enthusiasts, "lifters" can use electric The lifters do indeed fly, charges to cancel gravity—and they give detailed instructions so that you can using the little-known build one of them in your own home! phenomenon of ion wind. (See http://groups.yahoo.coni/group/ americanantigravity/files/How-To- Documents/.) The leading promoter of "lifter tech- effect," named for its supposed discover- so-called "lifter effect" can be repeated nology" is the appropriately named ers Alfred Biefeld and T Townsend on demand, and does not conceal itself American Antigravity (www.american Brown, who founded the once-influen- from scrutiny by skeptics or hide from antigravity.com). The Web site is filled tial UFO group NICAP. (If you want to cameras and videos, as do most alleged with pictures of actual "lifters" in flight. know more about Brown and his exper- "unknown phenomena." So an explana- A "lifter" is a simple triangular device iments, there's a whole chapter about tion of some kind is clearly warranted. made of lightweight balsawood contain- him in The Philadelphia Experiment: Actually, the explanation is not diffi- ing wires and aluminum foil that are Project Invisibility by William L Moore cult to find: the lifters do indeed fly, charged with high voltage, acting as an and Charles Berlitz.) According to the using the little-known phenomenon of electric capacitor. "The Lifter utilizes FAQ, "The Biefeld-Brown effect has ion wind. Highly electrically charged the aluminum-foil skirt as the nega- been described as a net-directional plates will bleed some of their charge tively-charged capacitive plate, which motive force exerted on a capacitor into nearby air molecules, causing them has a very large surface area on which to when a high-voltage charge is applied. to become ionized. As these ions rush store charge compared to the corona- . The Biefeld-Brown effect has tradi- toward the nearby oppositely charged wire. The difference in size between tionally been neglected in physics text- plate, the)' run into other molecules in tJicsc two capacitive surfaces means that books because it was not well under- their path, setting up a wind effect. If the net-directional motive force should stood and many researchers and physi- push from the larger plate towards die cists weren't even sure if it existed. Robert Sheaffers World Wide Web page for smaller plate—in the case of the Lifter, Newer text-books may well contain UFOs and other skeptical subjects is at pushing the apparatus upward, and off information on the Biefeld-Brown www.debunker.com. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER March/April 2003 31 the device is light enough and its electric something turned out to be nothing crash, such as die date. Still, Kaufmann charge is sufficiently strong, it will rise more than evidence of a furrow in the spoke convincingly, had documents to into the air for the same reason that a ground, which might have been caused support his tale, and seemed to supply so helicopter rises from the downward by an alien crash—or a burrowing ani- many credible facts about the "crash" diat wind created by its rotating blades. mal. But the "smoking gun" was actually UFOlogists found it impossible to ignore However, the "lifter" will remain aloft nothing more than researcher David his account. The pro-Roswell researcher only so long as it has enough charge to Rudiak's earlier claim to be able to read Kevin Randle wrote, "It seemed diat every keep the ion wind blowing—and it about "victims" of a saucer crash in a time we began to doubt, or ask difficult must be connected by wires to a bulky blurry news photo of General Ramey questions, Kaufmann would provide power source that remains on the holding a memo while reciting die sup- anodier a litde bit of documentation ground! Break the ion wind, and the posed Roswell "cover story" about a bal- along with broad hints diat he had much "Biefeld-Brown effect" vanishes. Even loon (see www. roswellproof. homestead, more. He said, repeatedly, when the time NASA's "Breakthrough Propulsion com). In the most shameless example of came, he had the documents to prove Physics" group, whose mission seems to TV hucksterism since Geraldo Rivera's what he said. ... Kaufmann died in be a quest for the science fiction Holy prime-time excavation of what he called February, 2001, without ever been proved Grail of "warp drives," includes "lifters" "Al Capone's vault" uncovered precisely [sic] a liar and a fraud." and other "electrogravitic" anti-gravity nothing, The Roswell Crash ended by The proof, however, was not long in devices on its Web site under "common ostentatiously carrying bags of dirt under coming. After Kaufmann's death, errors" (www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/bpp/ heavy armed guard to be placed in a CUFOS Scientific Director Dr. Mark ComnErr.html): "Even in a vacuum, bank vault, because nobody had proven Rodigher and two of his colleagues met diere can still be enough ion motion or that they did not contain microscopic with Kaufmann's widow to attempt to corona discharge to cause counter extraterrestrial artifacts. secure whatever additional documenta- forces. If the devices were operating by The other, more famous UFO- tion he might have had concerning the something other than ion wind, riien related programming on that channel alleged UFO crash. What they found such devices would appear to violate has been Steven Spielberg's appropri- was truly amazing, beyond what any of 'Conservation of Momentum,' a basic ately-named big-budget mega-series, them had expected. They found law of known physics." Taken. While the series is admittedly fic- Kaufmann's true, undoctored military American Antigravity concedes to its tional and hence beyond criticism on record that, unlike the copy he showed critics, "Although ion-wind does factual matters, it purports to be based them, revealed he had never worked in undoubtedly provide some motive-force upon real-life incidents. Indeed, the intelligence. "To put it quite plainly, on our test-apparatus, the substantial Science Fiction Channel has set up a Frank Kaufmann created an altered ver- body of evidence at this time indicates "UFOlogy Resource Center" on its Web sion of an official document to present a that ion-wind could not provide the site at www.scifi.com/ufo, where the fic- false version of his military career con- necessary force that has been measured tional Taken and purportedly factual sistent with his claims about his involve- on the Lifter and related technologies." material mingle freely. As the old adage ment with the events at Roswell. His If they are correct, we'll have to toss all warns: don't get "Taken"! supposed work in intelligence was used our old physics books into the trash— As for the "serious" Roswell evidence: to explain how he came to be so knowl- but don't hold your breath waiting for the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS), edgeable about what crashed at Roswell Biefeld and Brown to replace Newton. which purports to do scientific research and the subsequent military cover-up," Rodigher writes. Another document, a * » » on the subject (and is also reported to be nearing financial insolvency), has memo purporting to show Kaufmann's The Science Fiction Channel certainly recently acknowledged—witli admirable involvement in a "Flying Disk" recovery lived up to its name with its supposed courage—mat one of die most famous team, was dated July 25, 1947. signed documentary The Roswell Crash— and credible Roswell witnesses appears to by Major Lester Garrigues. Rodigher Startling New Evidence, which premiered have been lying all along. The late Frank determined that Garrigues was still liv- on November 22, 2002 (see Dave Kaufmann claimed to have served in ing, and got in contact with him. Thomas's report in diis issue, page 16). military intelligence at Roswell in 1947, Garrigues not only stated that he had Prior to the broadcast, network represen- allegedly working on the retrieval of already been transferred from Roswell to tatives were promising it contains a dead aliens and UFO wreckage (see an overseas assignment on the date in "smoking gun," aluSough after seeing the www.cufos.org/FrankKauftnannExposed. question, but produced documentation show the only thing smoking seemed to pdf)- His claims were widely believed by to prove it. Worst of all, it was deter- have been die show's producers. Shovels UFOlogists, in spite of certain difficulties mined that Kaufmann owned an old in hand at the supposed Roswell "crash tliat they posed: his name did not appear typewriter whose typeface was an exact site," (actually, one of several alleged in die base yearbook for 1947, and some sites), the researchers had found some- of his statements contradicted other sup- LEVITY WITH LIFTERS thing, they tantalizingly hinted.
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