textfiles/ufo/UFOBBS/3000/3158.ufo

SUBJECT: THOMAS TOWNSEND BROWN                               FILE: UFO3158


PART 1


                            Taken from KeelyNet BBS
                                 


                     From the November, 1958 FATE magazine

Graphic files: BRN2A.GIF, BRN2B.GIF

Thomas Townsend Brown has been flying strange metal saucer-like discs of his own
secret design and make for more than 30 years - some big ones too, up to 30
inches in diameter!

Mostly, Brown has flown his discs in good old common air.  The discs are tethered
to a mast or pole and the thin, double-saucer-like things fly a circle around and
around the mast in free flight.

Only a slight hum is audible as they fly.  In the dark they glow with an eerie
lavender light, revealing their motive power which is a kind of electricity.

Many scientists and engineers have watched these discs fly.  Under their breath,
and sometimes out loud, most of them have said the force which makes Brown's
discoids spin is one which every highschool physics student knows about -
"Electric Wind" - and not a new principle Brown has discovered at all!

One engineer told  me, "The whole thing is so screwball I don't want to even talk
about it!"  Another said, "The device is only about one-tenth of one percent 
efficient."  Both these statements have since been proved incorrect!  Most other
engineers object to the lack of mathematical substantiation presented by Brown. 
To engineers and scientists one equation is worth a thousand words!  But even an
equation is of little use unless it has values assigned to at least some of its
main parts.  When these were not forthcoming, from a technical point of view, it
appeared Brown was walking on straw legs.

Then recently Brown went to France.  Under what was virtually a French Government
sponsored program of research, Air-France successfully flew some of the Brown
discs in a HIGH VACUUM!

And that took all the "electric wind" out of the previously dissenting sails. 
These tests were of a highly secret nature and, because of this, and because they
were made in a foreign nation, their results REMAIN CLASSIFIED.

One by one, U.S. engineering and scientific heads are beginning to show above the
storm  cellars.  It is now quietly admitted that perhaps Brown may have something
after all!

One thing he DOES have which he has not had before is a sponsor!   Perhaps that
is the reason for the heads showing from the cellars.  There is nothing quite
like having financial backing.

What do Brown's inventions mean?  Another kind, type, or arrangement of high-
speed flight, both within our own atmosphere and in the space beyond it!

How will it compare as a motive force with the rocket motors and the jet engines
of today?  Of course, we cannot say yet but there is nothing to indicate Brown's
method will not compete most favorably with them.  Brown's method has definite
"anti-gravitic potentials" which their rockets or jets do not have.  Because of
present patent situations many details of the Brown system must be by-passed
here, but it seems they represent no small item in the total picture of space
flight.

Since 1923 Brown and his family have spent nearly $250,000 of their own funds on
experiments and research into the mysteries of that strangest of strange
electrical phenomenon, the "Biefeld-Brown Effect".  Electrical literature
contains few writings on this subject, mostly because Brown has maintained a
tight grip on the information and has not seen fit to write on the matter
scientifically or otherwise.  No one else has seemed inclined to research the
matter.  What is more American scientific journals are open to few ideas that DO
NOT ORIGINATE with men CONNECTED WITH LARGE UNIVERSITY or COMMERCIAL RESEARCH
LABORATORIES!

I first heard of Townsend Brown and his Biefeld-Brown Effect from Mr. Arlin C.
Hauser.  Hauser is a designer and builder of fine technical instruments in
Pasadena who doesn't hold an idea at arms-length because it is "new".  Hauser
furnished me a copy of a monograph titled, "A SIMPLIFIED EXPLANATION OF THE
APPLICATION OF THE BIEFELD-BROWN EFFECT TO THE SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEMS OF SPACE
NAVIGATION".  This monograph was published by Dr. Mason Rose, president of the
University for Social Research, Los Angeles, but was actually written, I learned
later, by Mr. Bradford Shank, a nuclear scientist, formally of Los Alamos, now
engaged in engineering work for a Los Angeles aircraft valve manufacturer.

Some of the information set forth in this monograph rang a bell way back in my
memory.

Between 1919 and 1925 I was "errand boy" in a laboratory conducting experiments
with high potential, high frequency alternating currents.  We were playing with
a million volts at 750,000 cycles per second!  A new type of electrical condenser
had been built and was to be tested.  It was hooked into the circuit but was not
"bolted down" - it was heavy.

The director stood at the switchboard; the rest of us at a respectful distance
away.  The switch was thrown.  There was a hum, a bursting flash of green and
purple light, a loud bang, a violent lurch and twist of the new condenser and
that piece of apparatus lay a smoking ruin!  The director said, "Gentlemen, our
baby has grown up!"


It is this movement manifest in an electrical condenser which is the essence of
the Biefeld-Brown Effect.  This movement makes the Effect highly interesting as
an anti-gravitic force!

The Biefeld-Brown Effect says an electrical condenser, when charged, will MOVE
TOWARD its positive pole and remain so positioned UNTIL DISCHARGED, if free to
do so, regardless of WHICH POLE or WHICH SIDE of the dielectric is made positive.

This movement does not disregard the time-honored "law" which indicates every
action carries within it an equal reaction.  The reaction, as in gravitation, is
present BUT NOT OBVIOUS.  The reaction is a finite but vanishingly small movement
of all the other matter in the Universe.  But the nearest masses are affected
first and most!

The Effect was first observed when the condenser plates were charged with a
DIRECT CURRENT.  But the experience noted above, which was observed subsequently
during other experiments, indicates something of the same phenomenon is present
when condensers are charged with ALTERNATING current also - but probably not as
effectively or as lastingly.

While these alternating current condenser MOVEMENTS were noted at the time,
especially when the condensers were initially charged after a long and complete
discharge, those directing the research then believed the movements were due to
resonances set up within the apparatus by the 60-cycle feed currents.  Thus, this
phenomenon, though noted, was never investigated by the group to which I was
attached.

This electrical condenser movement is believed to have been first perceived and
examined by Dr. Paul Alfred Biefeld, professor of physics and astronomy, Denison
University, Granville, Ohio, sometime before 1923.

However, search of the Denison University's own published scientific records does
not indicate Dr. Biefeld wrote anything regarding this discovery while there. 
Dr. Lawrence Biefeld, a son of Dr. Paul Alfred Biefeld, writes me that he does
not recall his father ever having mentioned discovering such an effect!  However,
Mr. Bradford  Shank who has been intimately associated with several phases of the
Townsend Brown Foundation and its work for several years relates that Dr. Biefeld
did originate the initial research into the Effect itself and also directed
Townsend Brown, then a student at Denison University, in Brown's early interest
in the matter.

Although the Effect may have been recognized first by Dr. Biefeld, a greater part
of the development research and ALL the practical application of it has been
carried on by Brown - mostly at his own expense, over a period of more than 30
years.

Apparently the Effect was named by someone else writing a report on the subject. 
But had it not been for Townsend Brown's long interest and research this Effect
might remain unrecorded and unexploited still!

Evidence indicates the entire Universe, from the greatest systems of stars and
their planets down to the smallest atom and its parts - hydrogen - operates on
only three basic forces - electricity, magnetism and gravitation.  These three
forces may be entirely separate and different or they may be only different
phases of the same force, a Universal force we have not yet distinguished as
such.  Regardless of this, we know the relationship between electricity and
magnetism and we know this relationship is brought about and maintained by the
very simple COIL OF WIRE!

It is quite possible, through the Biefeld-Brown Effect, we have come upon the
relationship between electricity and gravitation, a relationship being brought
about and maintained through the very simple electrical condenser!

If each of these three forces is considered separately, we find little of
practical value in any of them!  It is only through combinations of two, and
perhaps more, that we begin to use them.

Aside from the researches into the Biefeld-Brown Effect carried on by Mr. Brown
science has done practically nothing toward developing the relationship between
electricity and gravitation.

Most scientists today will admit a weak COUPLING EFFECT DOES EXIST BETWEEN
GRAVITATION AND ELECTRICITY but any practical use of this coupling effect they
deny!

Standing almost alone in this belief Mr. Brown has maintained his position
regarding the matter stubbornly, faithfully, and devotedly.
If a simple, two-plate electrical
condenser
(FIGURE 1) is suspended by a cord in
such a way as to allow it complete
freedom to move in any direction,
except downward of course, and this
condenser is charged with the proper
amount and pressure of direct electric
current the instrument will swing
TOWARD the side  holding the POSITIVE
CHARGE.

If this same condenser is discharged,
the positive and negative wires
switched and connected oppositely,
when recharged the condenser will
swing in the OPPOSITE DIRECTION.

If the condenser is placed upon one side of a balanced beam (FIGURE 2) with
enough weight opposite it to continue the balance and if the positive pole is
pointed up, when the condenser is charged the weight on the opposite side of the
beam will fall and the entire condenser WILL RISE!

This shows that some of the "weight"
of the condenser has been relieved. 
If the positive pole now is reversed,
when the condenser is again charged
the weight on the opposite end of the
beam WILL BE LIFTED!  This illustrates
gravitic affect.

This is the Biefeld-Brown Effect.  As
far is now known it is the only method
of affecting the gravitational field
electrically!  However, apparently
there are several other research
programs now under way attempting to
establish an electro-gravitic
relationship.

One of the mysteries of this Effect is that it APPEARS TO BE AFFECTED BY TIME! 
Time does not do away with the Effect completely, but it does appear to minimize
it temporarily.  This was noted first by Brown during experiments located in a
closed room.

He watched his discs through a telescope from outside the room.  Brown observed
that after a time the discs did not swing quite so far as initially, in either
direction, with the same electric charge.  I understood from Mr. Shank that this
point was discussed with Albert Einstein but what Mr. Einstein had to say remains
unknown to me.

The phenomenon might be accounted for by subtle atomic structural breakdowns in
the dielectric material, or in the plate material, or both.  After a time,
following a complete discharge, these breakdowns mend themselves.

The intensity with which the Biefeld-Brown Effect may act is determined by five
factors.  Ultimate intensity cannot possibly be obtained by a combined use of all
five factors - each in their separate ultimates!  A compromise must be made. 
This is not as grave a disadvantage as it might seem at first, for it will allow
an almost endless arrangement of factors in any given disc or ship.

The best combination of these then may be chosen and applied to a wide variety
of practical conditions which will surely arise in everyday aeronautical or
astronautical flight.

1)  PROXIMITY OF PLATES

The first factor regulating the intensity of the Effect is controlled by the
closeness at which the condenser's plates can be set.  If the charging pressure -
 or voltage - is high then the plates will have to be farther apart than for
lower voltages -using the same dielectric.  If it is necessary to charge the
condenser quickly a higher voltage is needed than if more time can be taken. 
Hence, the closer the condenser plates the greater the Effect gained - other
circumstances remaining the same.

2)  DIELECTRIC CONSTANT

The second factor is the ability of the material chosen as a dielectric to store
electrical energy.  There are many kinds of dielectrics: glass, mica, rubber,
paper, bakelite, air, ceramics, and many of the plastics.  A dielectric is any
material which opposes the flow of an electric current and at the same time is
capable of storing the electrical energy as an "elastic stress."

The action resembles the squeezing of a soft rubber ball.  The muscles in your
hand represent the electric voltage.  They squeeze the  ball's sides together. 
The sides remain squeezed until your muscles release their pressure, then the
sides jump back into their original shape.

A dielectric will absorb an electric charge until its capacity has been reached. 
Then it will either hold that charge as long as the charging force is present,
or it will rupture and the pressure will leak away, or if the accumulated
pressure becomes greater than the charging pressure it will discharge itself back
into the charging circuit!  This last can raise the devil!

           Some dielectrics are capable of absorbing a great quantity of
electrical energy if that energy is applied slowly at moderate pressure, but they
break down if called upon to act quickly.

Other dielectrics, like lead-free glass, can be charged and discharged thousands
of times a second at high pressures.  The measure of a dielectric's ability is
called the "K" of the material.  The higher the K, the greater is the Biefeld-
Brown Effect.

3)  INTENSITY

A third factor in creating intensity of the Effect is the AREA of the
dielectric's charging plates.  The discs are used edgewise, and the greater their
area, the greater the Effect obtained.

4)  VOLTAGE

A fourth factor has to do with the VOLTAGE, or pressure used to charge the
condenser's plates.  The higher the voltage, the greater the Effect.

Also, the higher the voltage the shorter the time required to charge a given
condenser size.  But the voltage must not be so high as to puncture the
dielectric, the condenser is permanently, or temporarily ruined - depending upon
its ability to "heal" itself.  Solid dielectrics cannot heal themselves.  Fluids
heal themselves almost as soon as punctured.  (the reason for using OIL filled
capacitors...Vangard)

5)  MASS (SURFACE AREA)

The fifth and last factor is the MASS of the dielectric.  The greater the mass,
the larger the Effect.

These points all are important.  They make it clear that by a not too complicated
electrical arrangement which allows the changing of many positive pole positions
at will an astronautical vehicle could be controlled.

Since a circle contains the greatest number of square units of surface for a
given dimension (a torus has even greater surface area...Vangard), it seems
obvious that a shallow, disc-shaped vehicle could use this type of energy field
to greatest advantage.  It would be charged differently than the models because
it could carry its own charging equipment on board.

The input energy of some models tested in California quite some time ago (they
do not represent present experimental attainments) was about 50 watts, or the
requirements of a small light bulb.

The weight of these units was about 1200 grams, or around 42 ounces, or near two
and 6/10 pounds.  The efficiency of propulsion was 2%.

Unless scientific findings are discounted, we must assume the voltage of
atmospheric electricity rises as the distance from the earth's surface increases.

At low altitudes we sometimes record an increase of 100 volts for EVERY THREE
FEET IN ELEVATION.  But this increase RISES WITH ALTITUDE. It is believed that
in that ionosphere a potential of 100 volts may occur within only four inches!

Even though a discoid-shaped vehicle could be relatively thin, compared to its
diameter, still it would be many times four inches thick.  Hence, it would be
subjected to tremendous differentials of external electric pressure over its
extreme dimensions.

How will this affect the Biefeld-Brown Effect - or any electrically propelled
vehicle?  Some say, not at all.  Others see it as a sizable barrier!

Anti-gravity devices apparently are being experimented with from a number of
directions.  Once any one of them becomes practical a whole new horizon will
unfold before mankind.

At the present time (1958) some 19 patent applications, covering the Biefeld-
Brown Effect and its various applied forms, are being worked on.  A new
laboratory is also being built.  Will Mr. Brown be the first Earthman to build
and fly a FLYING SAUCER?


Vangard notes..

The Law of Equilibrium includes Density.  All things Rise or Fall to their own
Density.  This density can consist of energy in many forms, electric, magnetic,
tachyon, etc.

Note the  remark regarding the higher voltage potentials in the upper atmosphere. 
Both the Brown disc and the Searle disc rely on very high voltage potentials to
provide lift.  The question is whether the electricity seeks its own upper
atmosphere level or does it cause some kind of stress in some other type of
energy to cause repulsion from the Earth surface or ATTRACTION TO A LAYER
EQUIVALENT TO ITS OWN.

      
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