The Gravity of Anti-Gravity (3 page)

Over the years he added on to the small house
one room at a time. It ended up being a good size and very comfortable even though its multiple additions made it look a little out of character with the neighborhood. Some of the neighbors even referred to it as the ‘Burton Mystery House’.

Pops
built the barn last complete with a bathroom and small office. In the barn he had one of the best machine shops on the planet and went all over; to auctions, going out of business sales or anywhere he could find and purchase the equipment he wanted – cheap!

This is where Pops, according to my design, created the parts needed to build the anti-gravity machine. I’ll never forget the first time I explained the concept to him.

“Pops, I have an idea and a theory. I believe that with the right machine we can counteract the effects of gravity.”

“Is that all?” Pops commented. “Just for curiosity, when will your cure for cancer and Alzheimer’s come on the market? I’m old. I might need that cure for Alzheimer’s sooner rather than later.”

“I’m being serious.” I answered.

“So am I Bill. You know dementia isn’t pretty.” Pops replied with a sarcastic smirk.

“I get it. You think my idea is crazy. Well, maybe it is but if you will sit back and allow me to explain, I think it will make sense.”

“OK Rocket Boy lay it on me.” Pops said.

“Here goes and I want you to know that I’ve practiced this speech hundreds of times in my mind, so sit back and make yourself comfortable.”

“Gravity is the most pervasive power in nature.” I started. “It’s the amazing glue that holds everything together. It’s the thing that keeps our feet on the ground and the sun and stars in the sky. Without it, the earth and everything else that exists never would have.”

“I’ve read everything there is on the mechanics of gravity searching for what it really is and how it works, but nothing made real sense to me. It can be measured and predicted but what is it really?”

“When the earth revolves around the sun, it’s like a tether ball game where the ball is Earth, the pole is the sun and gravity is the rope. The dilemma is that with gravity, there is no rope. There is only an unseen, invisible force holding Earth, and all the other planets, revolving a certain distance from the sun. And it’s been doing it for billions of years.”

“Einstein’s Theory of Relativity says that gravity is a result of the curvature of space time caused by the mass of things, particularly massive objects like planets and stars.”

“Billy,” Pops interrupted. “I’m feeling like you’re a hypnotist and you are putting me into a trance. Before you have to count backwards from three to wake me up, what’s your point?”

“Pops, my calculations tell me that if we can create an electronic pulse with a small enough frequency, we should be able to neutralize the gravitons between the earth and the object creating the pulse, rendering it weightless.”

“What will the object do, float or blast off?” Pops asked.

“I’m not sure. It’s one or the other but I don’t think the household power we have here in the barn is strong enough to create a blast-off.”

“Not sure, power in the barn? What the hell are you planning, Bill?”

“You and I are going to create a mechanical gravity machine – here – in the barn. Just the right amount of speed and power, we have a floater. A lot more power, probably higher than what we have available here, we have an anti-gravity force. That’s when we have blast-off.”

“String theory predicts the existence of a graviton,” I continued, “the tiny vibrating string responsible for gravity. Some physicists do not believe it exists, but I do. That’s the particle we will be targeting with the machine we will build.”

“Billy, wouldn’t it be better to make your machine work electronically rather than mechanically?” Pops asked.

“That’s a great question Pops, very astute. The answer is, eventually yes, but there are two reasons why I’d like to go the mechanical way first. The first is expense. A lot of the parts that generate the pulses and the circuits required to drive them are expensive or not even invented yet. And to design and manufacture them would cost millions.” I explained

“So we’re stuck with the mechanical approach. If we can get the speeds up high enough, it should create enough particle chaos below our device to neutralize the gravitons.”

When I finished explaining my theory to Pops, I saw the strangest look on his face. It was that cocked head, squinty-eyed, ‘you must be crazy’ look. But then the wonder of a small boy crept into his face as he organized his thoughts and got a grip on what I was saying.

“Do you realize Billy boy what you are actually saying? If you could actually pull this off, it would be the greatest discovery of all time, of
all time!” Pops repeated. “Do you really think you can out think most of the greatest thinkers in the history of the thinking world? You must have lost your marbles. And you want me to help you how? Billy I’ve got to think about this”.

There was a small pause of about ten seconds during which time Pops seemed to look right through me. I’d triggered some center of imagination in Pops brain and he was deep in thought. I kept quiet while he went through this mental exercise.

Slowly he turned away from me and I could hear him talking softly to himself. Suddenly he whipped around and calmly announced, “I’m in! When do we start?”

Pops decision to help fired an elevated level of excitement in me and I began to explain my concept to him speaking more rapidly than I normally did.

“The anti gravity machine will include five pods with rotating orbs inside,” I explained to Pops. “There will be four smaller ones, one on each corner in a frame about four feet square. Then there will be a center, main orb twice the size of the outer orbs. Each orb will have a reflective shell or pod made of a metal or alloy that will direct the ‘gravity confusing’ pulse downward toward the earth. The outer orbs will direct their beam at the beam of the larger middle orb. This will effectively chop the primary pulse into smaller and smaller vibrations. At just the right combination, bingo, we have lift-off!”

“The power required is far beyond the ability of any battery available so we’ll have to hook our prototype up to the 220 Volt power available in the barn,” I added. “If the thing actually works, its flight radius will be limited to the length of the extension cord.”

“The center orb needs to revolve at very high speeds - above 100,000 RPM’s. The outer orbs must spin at half the speed of the middle orb. It will take a machinist of extreme skill to create such a precise machine and Pops you are the only man I know who can do it.”

“Billy, STOP!” Pops yelled. “You’ve filled this old brain beyond its current capacity already. Get me some engineering drawings to study and that should help me understand the hardware requirements even if I don’t understand the other mumbo jumbo.”

It took an intense few weeks in my spare time to create the engineering drawings.

As Pops studied them, he said “Billy, these are some really hard parts to manufacture. You’re using beryllium which is brittle and unless everything is perfectly balanced, these parts will be subject to breaking, especially at the rotation speeds you are planning.”

“And you know Pops,” I added, “beryllium is toxic so you’ll have to use some heavy protection gear including a good respirator when you machine it. Then we come to the really big question, how do we pay for the stuff? Beryllium is somewhat rare and expensive.”

“It may break the bank a little my young Frankenstein, oh sorry, I mean Einstein, but I’ve got a little loot stashed, away from your grandmother, waiting for a rainy day. By the way,” Pops said with an impetuous smirk as he looked out the window, “is it raining outside?”

I hadn’t seen Pops with that look on his face since before my folks died. I could tell that Pops was as anxious to get started as I was.

-4-

The next morning after Pops gave me my first tour of the bomb shelter, we went back into the barn to clean up the mess we had made. “

What was it you wanted to tell me last night Pops?” I asked and apparently hit a nerve.

“Well let me tell you!” Pops started sounding like an evangelist on Sunday. “Just as we discussed before, when we get a working prototype, all of us, you, me, Joanna, Grandma, your friends, associates, professors – everyone you know could be in danger. The entire world will see the monumental potential of your device. I believe not only the evil, but lots of the good people on this planet will do anything that needs to be done to possess it. The device not only represents great wealth, it represents something even more seductive – Power.”

“There you go again, Pops. Sometimes I think you’re turning into a drama queen. All we’ve got to show for our efforts right now is a pile of junk.”

“True, but we have to agree right here and now. We can’t tell anyone,” Pops demanded.

“Not even the guys at the ‘In-N-Out Burger?” I asked.

“Keep going young man. You know I think I’m going to rename you Billy Smart Ass. Yeah, that sounds good – like some wise old Indian Chief, ‘Billy Smart Ass’. I think I like it.” Pops said with a broad smile.

“Now if you can get serious for just a moment, I’d like to elaborate on what the bomb shelter means to gravity, anti-gravity and Chief Billy Smart Ass.”

The next ten minutes I listened to Pops recap the dangers surrounding my device. Pops concluded this second dissertation by saying, “So, for now, we agree to let no one in on our project. It will take me at least a couple months to get the material and machine all the parts we need to get the ‘Flying Wallenda’ working again.”

“What’s that mean? What’s a Flying Wallenda?” I asked.

“Billy, I forgot how young you are. The Flying Wallendas were a family of circus performers in the early and middle 1900’s. A few of the descendants are still doing it today. They were a group of high-wire walkers who amazed the world. They would string a wire between buildings, at the umpteenth floor, in the wind and proceed to walk across without a net. I thought naming our device after them was appropriate.”

“That works for me.” I said.

“To continue,” Pops began again, “when we have a functioning prototype – one that someone could use or reverse engineer; we need to hide it in the bomb shelter when we’re not playing with it. If word of this gets out, we could have half the crooked world crawling around here trying to get it. And you may not agree with me now, but your contraption is a world changing bit of engineering. We can’t trust anyone and we must take every precaution we can think of to keep it out of the wrong hands.”

“OK, Pops, I’ll play it your way for now.” I said. “But before you start on rebuilding the damaged parts, I had an idea that might make the machine more controllable and allow us to be able to test a wider range of variables. I’ll draw up the changes and let you look at them.”

-5-

About three months later I finished the engineering drawings for the new and improved Flying Wallenda. Pops had suggested I quit the In-N-Out Burger so I could concentrate on my studies which I did. It was hard because I had become friends with several of the workers there. What I wouldn’t miss was being called Burger Nerd instead of Bill.

“I think I’ve finally finished the new drawings Pops.” I said.

“Well I should hope so. It’s only been three months.” Pops responded wryly.

“I know. I think the Professors at school have been trying to kill me with work. But I showed them, those ‘rascally varmints’ that killing Chief Billy Smart Ass was harder than they thought.”

“When did you start doing Elmer Fudd impressions?” Pops asked.

“Just now, weird huh? Sorry, I guess I’m a little giddy. I’m caught up at school and I finished my revised drawings of the Flying Wallenda. Life is good!”

And life was good. A few weeks later I was offered an internship at JPL. JPL, the Jet Propulsion Lab is associated with Cal-Tech and is also related to NASA. JPL designed much of the now retired Space Shuttle program and currently was working on new projects in future space travel. The job was 20 hours per week, leaving time for my studies while earning a modest salary. It had been Dr. Cummings, my primary faculty mentor, who helped me get the job.

“Dr. Cummings, I can’t thank you enough for getting me the job at JPL. I think it will be right up my alley.”

“I think so too, Bill.” said Dr. Cummings. “I had to pull some strings because your grades aren’t as high as some of our other seniors. However I believe you are a better fit for a current project they are working on. Your approach to problems, even though they are sometimes a little off- target are unique. It shows you don’t look at problems exactly like most of the rest of us. This is the kind of thinking I thought this project at JPL calls for.”

“I’m really excited about this opportunity Dr. Cummings, but the guy who interviewed me, Dr. Blackburn is a little strange. Have you met him?”

“Oh yes. Malcolm and I go back over 20 years when we worked together at JPL and before I came to Cal-tech to teach. He is a little strange but brilliant too. I think once you get to know him, you’ll be fast associates. I don’t say friends because to my knowledge, Blackburn doesn’t have any.”