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==Empirical claims and commercial efforts== There have been a number of attempts to build anti-gravity devices, and a small number of reports of anti-gravity-like effects in the scientific literature. None of the examples that follow are accepted as reproducible examples of anti-gravity. ===Gyroscopic devices=== [[File:H W Wallace force field figure 4.png|thumb|upright=1.5|A "kinemassic field" generator from {{US patent|3626605}}: Method and apparatus for generating a secondary gravitational force field]] [[Gyroscope]]s produce a force when twisted that operates "out of plane" and can appear to lift themselves against gravity. Although this force is well understood to be illusory, even under Newtonian models, it has nevertheless generated numerous claims of anti-gravity devices and any number of patented devices. None of these devices has ever been demonstrated to work under controlled conditions, and they have often become the subject of [[conspiracy theories]] as a result. Another "rotating device" example is shown in a series of patents granted to Henry Wallace between 1968 and 1974. His devices consist of rapidly spinning disks of [[brass]], a material made up largely of elements with a total half-integer nuclear spin. He claimed that by rapidly rotating a disk of such material, the [[nuclear spin]] became aligned, and as a result created a "gravitomagnetic" field in a fashion similar to the magnetic field created by the [[Barnett effect]].<ref>{{US patent|3626606}}</ref><ref>{{US patent|3626605}}</ref><ref>{{US patent|3823570}}</ref> No independent testing or public demonstration of these devices is known. In 1989, it was reported that a weight decreases along the axis of a right spinning gyroscope.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Hayasaka, H.|author2=Takeuchi, S.|name-list-style=amp|date=1989|journal=[[Physical Review Letters]]|title=Anomalous weight reduction on a gyroscope's right rotations around the vertical axis on the Earth|volume=63|issue=25|pages=2701β2704|doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.63.2701|pmid=10040968|bibcode=1989PhRvL..63.2701H}}</ref> A test of this claim a year later yielded null results.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Nitschke, J. M.|author2=Wilmath, P. A.|name-list-style=amp|title=Null result for the weight change of a spinning gyroscope|date=1990|journal=[[Physical Review Letters]]|volume=64| issue=18|pages=2115β2116|doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.64.2115|pmid=10041587|bibcode = 1990PhRvL..64.2115N |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1233872}}</ref> A recommendation was made to conduct further tests at a 1999 AIP conference.<ref>{{cite conference |last=Iwanaga |first=N. |book-title=AIP Conference Proceedings |date=1999 |volume=458 |pages=1015β1059 |doi=10.1063/1.57497 |title=Reviews of some field propulsion methods from the general relativistic standpoint}}</ref> ===Thomas Townsend Brown's gravitator=== {{Further|Biefeld-Brown effect|Electrogravitics|United States gravity control propulsion research#Brown's gravitator}} In 1921, while still in [[high school]], [[Thomas Townsend Brown]] found that a high-voltage [[Coolidge tube]] seemed to change mass depending on its orientation on a balance scale. Through the 1920s Brown developed this into devices that combined high voltages with materials with high [[dielectric]] constants (essentially large [[capacitors]]); he called such a device a "gravitator". Brown made the claim to observers and in the media that his experiments were showing anti-gravity effects. Brown would continue his work and produced a series of high-voltage devices in the following years in attempts to sell his ideas to aircraft companies and the military. He coined the names [[BiefeldβBrown effect]] and [[electrogravitics]] in conjunction with his devices. Brown tested his asymmetrical capacitor devices in a vacuum, supposedly showing it was not a more down-to-earth [[electrohydrodynamic]] effect generated by high voltage ion flow in air. Electrogravitics is a popular topic in [[ufology]], anti-gravity, [[free energy suppression conspiracy theory|free energy]], with government conspiracy theorists and related websites, in books and publications with claims that the technology became highly classified in the early 1960s and that it is used to power UFOs and the [[Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit|B-2 bomber]].<ref name="Wired">{{Cite news | magazine = Wired Magazine | date = August 2003 | title = The Antigravity Underground | last = Thompson | first = Clive | url = https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.08/pwr_antigravity.html }}</ref> There is also research and videos on the internet purported to show lifter-style capacitor devices working in a vacuum, therefore not receiving propulsion from ion drift or [[ion wind]] being generated in air.<ref name="Wired"/><ref>Thomas Valone, Electrogravitics II: Validating Reports on a New Propulsion Methodology, Integrity Research Institute, page 52-58</ref> Follow-up studies on Brown's work and other claims have been conducted by R. L. Talley in a 1990 US Air Force study, NASA scientist Jonathan Campbell in a 2003 experiment,<ref name="Wired"/> and [[Martin Tajmar]] in a 2004 paper.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Tajmar | first1 = M. | title = Biefeld-Brown Effect: Misinterpretation of Corona Wind Phenomena | journal = AIAA Journal | volume = 42 | issue = 2 | pages = 315β318 | date = 2004 | doi = 10.2514/1.9095|bibcode = 2004AIAAJ..42..315T }}</ref> They have found that no thrust could be observed in a vacuum and that Brown's and other [[Ionocraft|ion lifter]] devices produce thrust along their axis regardless of the direction of gravity consistent with electrohydrodynamic effects. ===Gravitoelectric coupling=== In 1992, the Russian researcher [[Eugene Podkletnov]] claimed to have discovered, whilst experimenting with [[superconductor]]s, that a fast rotating superconductor reduces the gravitational effect.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Podkletnov|first1=E|last2=Nieminen|first2=R |title=A possibility of gravitational force shielding by bulk YBa<sub>2</sub>Cu<sub>3</sub>O<sub>7βx</sub> superconductor|journal=[[Physica C]] |volume=203|issue=3β4|date=10 December 1992|pages=441β444|bibcode = 1992PhyC..203..441P |doi = 10.1016/0921-4534(92)90055-H }}</ref> Many studies have attempted to reproduce Podkletnov's experiment, always to negative results.<ref>{{cite journal| display-authors=4| author=N. Li| author2=D. Noever| author3=T. Robertson| author4=R. Koczor| author5=W. Brantley| name-list-style=amp|title=Static Test for a Gravitational Force Coupled to Type II YBCO Superconductors|journal=[[Physica C]]|volume=281|issue=2β3|date=August 1997|pages=260β267|bibcode = 1997PhyC..281..260L |doi = 10.1016/S0921-4534(97)01462-7 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | doi=10.2514/6.2001-3363 | chapter=Gravity modification by high-temperature superconductors | title=37th Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit | date=2001 | last1=Woods | first1=C. | last2=Helme | first2=J. | last3=Cooke | first3=S. | last4=Caldwell | first4=C. }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | doi=10.1016/S0921-4534(02)02284-0 | title=Gravity modification experiment using a rotating superconducting disk and radio frequency fields | date=2003 | last1=Hathaway | first1=G. | last2=Cleveland | first2=B. | last3=Bao | first3=Y. | journal=Physica C: Superconductivity | volume=385 | issue=4 | pages=488β500 | bibcode=2003PhyC..385..488H }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | doi=10.1016/S0921-4534(02)02305-5 | title=Gravitomagnetic field of a rotating superconductor and of a rotating superfluid | date=2003 | last1=Tajmar | first1=M. | last2=De Matos | first2=C.J. | journal=Physica C: Superconductivity | volume=385 | issue=4 | pages=551β554 | arxiv=gr-qc/0203033 | bibcode=2003PhyC..385..551T }}</ref> Douglas Torr, of the [[University of Alabama in Huntsville]] proposed how a time-dependent magnetic field could cause the spins of the lattice ions in a superconductor to generate detectable [[Gravitoelecromagnetism|gravitomagnetic and gravitoelectric]] fields in a series of papers published between 1991 and 1993.<ref>{{cite journal |journal=Physical Review |date=1 September 1992 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevB.46.5489 |pmid=10004334 |title=Gravitational effects on the magnetic attenuation of superconductors |last1=Li |first1=Ning |last2=Torr |first2=DG |volume=B46 |issue=9 |pages=5489β5495 |bibcode = 1992PhRvB..46.5489L }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |journal=Physical Review |date=15 January 1991 |title=Effects of a gravitomagnetic field on pure superconductors |last1=Li |first1=Ning |last2=Torr |first2=DG |volume=D43 |issue=2 |pages=457β459 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevD.43.457 |pmid=10013404 |bibcode=1991PhRvD..43..457L }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Li |first1=Ning |last2=Torr |first2=DG |journal=Foundations of Physics Letters |title=Gravitoelectric-electric coupling via superconductivity |volume=6 |issue=4 |pages=371β383 |date=August 1993 |bibcode=1993FoPhL...6..371T |doi=10.1007/BF00665654 |s2cid=122075917 }}</ref> In 1999, a Miss Li appeared in ''[[Popular Mechanics]]'', claiming to have constructed a working [[prototype]] to generate what she described as "AC Gravity." No further evidence of this prototype has been offered.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-65730414.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121105040310/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-65730414.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=5 November 2012 |title=Taming Gravity |journal=Popular Mechanics |date=1 October 2000 |first=Jim |last=Wilson |access-date=5 January 2014 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.light-science.com/gen2.html |title=Gravity Conquered? |last=Cain |first=Jeanette |publisher=light-science.com |access-date=5 January 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130706031149/http://www.light-science.com/gen2.html |archive-date=6 July 2013 }}</ref> Douglas Torr and [[Timir Datta]] were involved in the development of a "gravity generator" at the [[University of South Carolina]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Patent and Copyright Committee List of Disclosures Reviewed Between July 1996 and June 1997 - USC ID|number=96140 |url=http://www.sc.edu/faculty/senate/97/annual/patentlist.html|access-date=2 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502013440/http://www.sc.edu/faculty/senate/97/annual/patentlist.html |archive-date=2 May 2014 }}</ref> According to a leaked document from the Office of Technology Transfer at the University of South Carolina and confirmed to [[Wired (magazine)|''Wired'']] reporter Charles Platt in 1998, the device would create a "force beam" in any desired direction and the university planned to patent and license this device. No further information about this university research project or the "Gravity Generator" device was ever made public.<ref name="Platt1998">{{cite news |last=Platt |first=Charles |date=March 1, 1998 |title=Breaking the Law of Gravity |newspaper=Wired |url=https://www.wired.com/1998/03/antigravity/ |access-date=May 10, 2025 }}</ref>
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