ELECTRIC FLYING MACHINES: Thomas Townsend Brown
The films confirmed the suggestion. Materials enveloped in the expanding blackness completely vanished. The mystifying disappearance of the materials was thus, a space distortion effect. Equations were summoned in proof of these speculations. The vanishing of matter proceeded, from surfaces nearest the arc directly through the masses to their outer peripheries. The blackout proceeded as an enveloping wave; expanding to a limit, and then retracting. After the blackout wave, materials were “erased” from our space.
Summarizing his keynotes, Dr. Brown emphasized that the effect in question was clearly an electrogravitic one; where sufficiently intense electrical fields had inadvertently been focused to a degree, which collapsed space into a thready distortion. Concluding his talk, he added that his descriptions of electrogravitic interactions were the only ones in existence, seeing that his precious research in these avenues had been conducted amid a great deal of academic doubt and derision.
He would not have been surprised if this small cluster of military superiors and engineers rejected his approach to the problem. The group was spellbound. Never had anyone presented such a complete analysis of the phenomenon. The otherwise bizarre event found a most satisfactory explanation. Imagine, they had the very fabric of space in their grasp! What things could now be done?
Dr. Brown also predicted that spontaneous levitations and other gravitational anomalies would follow the event. Gravitometers could never accurately register the brevity of these impulses, being interpreted as “anomalies” and instrumental “failures”. Military use of the effect would not hide itself from his own electrogravitic detectors. These detection systems would necessarily be as highly classified as the effect itself.
Little more than his description existed as bibliography. Questions and conversation followed his formal presentation. Space warps having the focus and intensity of the new Naval welding facility had never been encountered by human agencies. Data of events taking place within the arc channel simply did not exist. Unknowns filled the discussion. Where was the dissolved matter going? In what form was it going? The questions were endless. The technological potentials, just as endless. One could not be sure exactly what was occurring within the arc channel until closer examinations were made possible. This was dangerous work. Once matter entered into the warp, all discussion became theoretical.
The speed at which the blackout swept space and matter also determined the completeness of its effect. The timing of its manifestation was critical.
The “event” spread through space, a shockwave of deadly effect. Once within the “event horizon” one would be removed from local space correspondence. Annihilated.
How materials were being drawn into the arc channel was simply not known. The arc seemed to be a thready channel, but whether or not matter was reduced to a thready vapor while entering that channel was also an unknown. What if matter was being wholly transferred into another space? What space was it then? These considerations brought science fiction dreams to mind. Could objects be teleported by this means? Were there other worlds into which voyagers could go? One thing was clear: dense matter from “local space” was being “translated” to another space. Where “that space” was remained unknowable.
There was danger in these experiments. Once initiated, the effect could “grow” against all control factors. One simply did not know what would happen when once the process was triggered. Suppose the very act of initiating the disturbance created space “drafts”? How long before they would cease? Would they cease at all? Would a space warp, once started, ever stop drawing light and matter into its ever-growing event horizon? The frightening possibility that the blackout wave could become haphazard or uncontrolled was a possible threat. If the intensity of arc focus reached a critical unknown “universal constant”, a complete local space collapse into another space could occur.
The space distortion “flashed” in its radiant and striated blackness, the rays reaching out in all directions. Those who had been in the control room were fortunate not to have been “drawn away” in the event horizon. This early discussion was rich in terms by which “black holes” are described. All agreed that careful examinations of the effect would only be possible with a modified welding system; one in which very precise adjustments of discharge power could be arranged. Only then would researchers be able to “grade” the effect, watching for the successive phases of phenomena manifesting near the explosive arc.
After he had concluded his presentation, the verbal display of congratulations was overwhelming. The shy and reserved man remained silently smiling amid the applause. But something troubled him about these proceedings. Even as he made his delivery, a strange heart-tug would not permit him to disclose the other and more deeply mysterious aspects of the spacewarp blackout phenomenon. He refused to discuss all the features of the spacewarp because of its possible use in weaponry. It was obvious that “they” were not intrigued with the phenomenon from its more spiritual viewpoint. This phenomenon represented something of far greater importance than even he was able to perceive. Without such knowledge, without such wisdom, the technological application of this technology would become the terrible weaponry of future wars.
RECALL
True to form, military discussion continued into the night. The scientific applications of this effect would be endless. This new technology would improve their methods of warfare. Devastating. Such a device could eradicate every material in a specific circumference with no evidence that anything was once in existence! Better than an atomic bomb! They brimmed from ear to ear at the prospect. This accidental observation could be the “new power” which the world was awaiting.
Numerous phases of the effect could be used for various functions in warfare. Derivatives of the effect could be selected and deployed. By the time the night was over, whiskey and cigar smoke having thoroughly saturated the room, several schemes were proposed. First, it was determined that an experiment be conducted with the “blackout” effect. An attempt to “cloak” a selected region of ground space would be their first goal.