199 lines
8.7 KiB
Plaintext
199 lines
8.7 KiB
Plaintext
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(word processor parameters LM=8, RM=75, TM=2, BM=2)
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Taken from KeelyNet BBS (214) 324-3501
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Sponsored by Vangard Sciences
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PO BOX 1031
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Mesquite, TX 75150
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There are ABSOLUTELY NO RESTRICTIONS
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on duplicating, publishing or distributing the
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files on KeelyNet except where noted!
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June 27, 1992
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JUPIBOLT.ASC
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Does Jupiter have new bolts?
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LOOK at it this way: an outfit founded and paid for by a Texan
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fried-chicken magnate hires (among others) a physicist who has done
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government-sponsored work on extra-sensory perception. After nine
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years of secretive research it says it has discovered that one of
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the basic laws of electronics can be breached and that its ideas can
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revolutionise the world of high technology. That is how sceptics
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would describe the activities of Jupiter Technologies of Austin,
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Texas.
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Now look at it another way: a pioneering inventor and technologist
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with a distinguished track record claims a breakthrough in his
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field. After preliminary investigations, scientists and officials
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from the CIA, America's armed forces and the departments of energy
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and commerce convene a special meeting in Washington to look at his
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ideas. Put that way it sounds less cranky. Next week an assessment
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group set up by the defence department will try to distinguish
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crankiness from truth.
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The group will be investigating what Jupiter's chief inventor, Mr
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Kenneth Shoulders, calls condensed-charge technology. Mr Shoulders,
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who was for four years a staff scientist at the Stanford Research
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Institute (SRI) in California, has invented and developed an
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extraordinary mixture of gadgets, ranging from tiny radios to
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backpack flying machines. He is best known as the father of vacuum
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micro-electronics, the technology that seeks to miniaturise old-
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fashioned vacuum tubes to a scale where they can compete with the
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tiny transistors on silicon chips.
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Mr Shoulders thinks he can use simple vacuum micro-electronic
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components to compress electric charge in such a way that hundreds
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of billions of electrons can be packed into spheres one millionth of
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a metre across. That should not be possible. Particles with the
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same charge are meant to repel each other. It normally takes a
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great deal of force to persuade negatively charged electrons to
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cluster together against their natural urges. Powerful magnetic
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fields can do the trick. But it takes relatively large and heavy
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equipment to generate the fields.
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Mr Shoulder's compression devices are, he says, simple and
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economical. His tiny nuggets of pure charge, as dense as a solid,
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zip around at one-tenth the speed of light. For Mr Shoulders, the
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Page 1
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patterns of tiny bullet holes that are sometimes produced when
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electrons are fired at various materials are marks of the impacts of
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charge-clusters (or EVs, as he also calls them).
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He thinks that EVs are in fact quite common--notably in the form of
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lightning, which he considers to be made of them.
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How might charge clusters overcome the forces of repulsion? One
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theory (which Mr Shoulders himself is not wholly convinced by) has
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been proposed by Jupiter's resident theoretician, Dr Harold Puthoff.
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Dr Puthoff used to teach at Stanford University and work at SRI,
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spending a little of his time on extra-sensory perception but most
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of it on pastimes that are more usual for a physicist. He is the
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co-author of a widely used standard text on lasers. He thinks that
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the secret might lie in the Casimir effect.
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The Casimir effect depends on a paradoxical finding of quantum
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physics: that empty space is full of energy, in a form that cannot
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be used or even--under normal circumstances--observed. This vacuum
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energy exerts a certain pressure on all matter. Since the pressure
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is normally the same in all directions, it tends not to be noticed.
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However, when two metl plates are placed a few millionths of a metre
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apart, they can shield each other from the pressure, at least to a
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degree. That means that the pressure is greater on the outside
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surfaces of the plates than on their inward, facing surfaces, with
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the result that the plates get pushed together. The force on the
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plates gets greater the closer they come. That is the Casimir
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effect.
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Dr Puthoff is much taken by vacuum energy. He has suggested that a
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variant of the Casimir effect may be familiar to everybody as the
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force of gravity. On a less cosmic scale, he suggests that the
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electrons in a ball of condensed charge may be acting like Casimir
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plates, shielding each other from the vacuum pressure. The vacuum
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pressure would squeeze electrons into an EV ball, which would be
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stopped from collapsing altogether by their natural repulsion.
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Dr Puthoff's explanation has some plausibility, but--as he realises-
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-would need much more detail to become enticing. However, leaving
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aside the whys of the EVs' existence, the hows of their use would
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certainly be interesting. An electronic device that was based not
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on the movement of individual electrons (as today's devices are) but
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on the flow of dense packets of charge should be far faster and more
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efficient. The EVs would not need to travel along wires; they would
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simply follow grooves etched in insulating materials.
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Circuits and other basic electronic devices should therefore be
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relatively easy to make, according to Mr Shoulders. The grooves
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would be as straightforward to fashion as those etched in today's
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compact discs.
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Jupiter Technologies has a wish-list of applications for EVs. They
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include medical X-ray machines the size of a pencil (a company
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called CBI Labs in Schenectady, New York says it has already made an
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X-ray device using EV technology), flat-panel high-definition
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television displays and all sorts of high-speed communications
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devices and computers. One reason that military agencies seem
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especially interested is that electronic devices using EVs should
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withstand the debilitating electromagnetic pulses created by nuclear
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weapons.
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Page 2
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The company, which was founded in 1974 by Mr William Church (of
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Church's Fried Chicken), a rich and retiring amateur scientist and
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chess enthusiast, does not want to manufacture anything. It wants
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to license the ideas that it is trying to parent. Will it find any
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takers? If this month's investigation goes well, Jupiter will
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probably have to fight back the applicants, and Mr Shoulders will
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one day be as famous as the inventor of the transistor. If it
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flops, EVs could end up as merely the strangest twist in the history
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of the fried chicken business.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
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If you have comments or other information relating to such topics
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as this paper covers, please upload to KeelyNet or send to the
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Vangard Sciences address as listed on the first page.
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Thank you for your consideration, interest and support.
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Jerry W. Decker.........Ron Barker...........Chuck Henderson
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Vangard Sciences/KeelyNet
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
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If we can be of service, you may contact
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Jerry at (214) 324-8741 or Ron at (214) 242-9346
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Page 3
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