Editing Pyramid power (section)

== History ==
In the 1930s, a French ironmonger<ref>Drbal, Karel. "The Struggle for the Pyramid Patent." Pyramid Power, edited by Max Toth and Greg Nielson. (New York: Warner Destiny, 1976). 143.</ref> and pendulum-[[dowsing]] author, [[Antoine Bovis]], developed the idea that small models of pyramids can preserve food. The story persists that Bovis, while standing inside the King's Chamber of the [[Great Pyramid of Giza|Great Pyramid]] in Egypt, saw a garbage can inside the chamber piled with dead animals that had wandered into the structure, noticed that these small carcasses were not decaying and inferred that the structure somehow preserved them.<ref>Loxton, Daniel. {{cite web|url=http://www.skeptic.com/productlink/magv12n2|title=''Junior Skeptic'' #23: Pyramid Power}} (Altadena: Skeptics Society, 2006). 81–83</ref><ref>Laigaard, Jens. {{cite web|url=http://www.skeptic.com/junior_skeptic/issue23/translation_Laigaard.html|title=excerpt from Chapter Eight of ''Pyramideenergien – kritisk undersøgelse''}} (1999). Translation by [[Daniel Loxton]] and Jens Laigaard. ''Skeptic.com.'' Retrieved November 24, 2008.</ref><ref>Ostrander, Sheila, and Lynn Schroeder. Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain. (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1970). 340.</ref> However, Bovis never claimed to have visited Egypt.<ref name="skeptic1935" /><ref>Loxton, Daniel. {{cite web|url=http://www.skeptic.com/productlink/magv12n2|title=''Junior Skeptic'' #23: Pyramid Power}}  (Altadena: Skeptics Society, 2006). 83</ref>  In his self-published French-language booklet<ref>Bovis, Antoine. {{cite web|url=http://skeptic.com/downloads/Antoine_Bovis_Booklet.pdf|title=Exposé de M.A. Bovis au Congrès International de Radiotellerie à Nice}}  (Nice: Bovis, c. 1935.) PDF scan of original hosted at ''Skeptic.com.''</ref> Bovis ascribes his discovery to reasoning and experiments in Europe using a dowsing pendulum:

{{blockquote|
I have supposed that Egyptians were already very good dowsers and had oriented their pyramid by means of rod and pendulum. Being unable to go there to experiment and verify the radiations of the [[Pyramid of Cheops|Keops Pyramid]], I have built with cardboard some pyramids that you can see now, and I was astonished when, having built a regular pyramid and oriented it, I found the positive at the East, the negative at the West, and at the North and the South, dual-positive and dual-negative...

A new supposition: since with the help of our positive 2000° magnetic plates we can mummify small animals, could the pyramid have the same property? I tried, and as you can observe with the small fish and the little piece of meat still hanging, I succeeded totally.<ref name="skeptic1935" />
}}

In 1949, inspired by Bovis,<ref>Drbal, Karel. “The Struggle for the Pyramid Patent.” Pyramid Power, edited by Max Toth and Greg Nielson. (New York: Warner Destiny, 1976). 141.</ref> a Czechoslovakian named Karel Drbal applied for a patent on a "Pharaoh's shaving device", a model pyramid alleged to maintain the sharpness of razor blades. According to the patent (#91,304), "The method of maintaining the razor blades and straight razor blades sharp by placing them in the magnetic field in such a way that the sharp edge lies in the direction of the magnetic lines."<ref>Drbal, Karel. {{cite web|url=http://www.amasci.com/freenrg/tors/drbl.html|title=''Patenti Spis c. 91304.'' (Prague: 1959).}} English translation hosted at www.amasci.com. Retrieved November 2008.</ref> Drbal alleged that his device would focus "the earth's magnetic field", although he did not make it clear how this would work, or whether the device's shape or materials exerted the effect.<ref>Loxton, Daniel. {{cite web|url=http://www.skeptic.com/productlink/magv12n2|title=''Junior Skeptic'' #23: Pyramid Power}} (Altadena: Skeptics Society, 2006). 88.</ref>

Drbal's contention that razors could be sharpened or have their sharpness maintained by alignment with Earth's magnetic field was not new.<ref>Loxton, Daniel. {{cite web|url=http://www.skeptic.com/productlink/magv12n2|title=''Junior Skeptic'' #23: Pyramid Power}}  (Altadena: Skeptics Society, 2006). 82.</ref> In 1933, ''[[The Times]]'' carried letters claiming, "if I oriented my razor blades{{Nbsp}}... N. and S. by the compass{{Nbsp}}... they tend to last considerably longer"<ref>Coleridge, Gilbert. Letter. ''The Times.'' 7 Oct. 1933.</ref> and "The idea of keeping razor blades in a magnetic field is not quite new. About the year 1900 I found this out".<ref>Grange, William D’Oyly. Letter. ''The Times.'' 19 Oct. 1933.</ref>

Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder, authors of the paranormal, visited Czechoslovakia in 1968, where they happened upon a cardboard pyramid manufactured commercially by Drbal.<ref>Ostrander, Sheila, and Lynn Schroeder. ''Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain.'' (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1970). 339-340.</ref> They met Drbal,<ref>Ostrander, Sheila, and Lynn Schroeder. ''Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain.'' (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1970). 342.</ref> and dedicated a chapter of their popular 1970 book ''Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain'' to pyramid power. This book introduced both the concept of pyramid power and the story about Antoine Bovis to the English-speaking world.