Several years ago, following several rather bad aeroplane crashes for which there was no satisfactory explanation, the people from "elsewhere" were asked through "contacts" if these crashes were possibly due to our craft flying too close to their craft. We were informed that while a very few of our craft had suffered in this manner much greater care was now being exercised by the saucer pilots so that this cause was virtually eliminated. We were informed, however, that our pilots flew around in complete disregard of the regions of reduced binding with which this planet is afflicted, and very often their craft was not designed with sufficient factor of safety and came apart.
When we countered by saying that we knew nothing of such regions, we were informed that means for detecting them were easily within our technology and that we should build suitable instruments and then pay attention to what they registered. They also passed a few uncomplimentary remarks about our propensity for shooting off atom bombs which actually created a pair of such "vortices" with each explosion.
The principle of the "Binding Meter" was then explained to us, and we were left to work out its detailed design. The principle is quite simple; all matter is held together by the relative configurations of the three basic fields of nature, tempic, electric and magnetic. These configurations are characteristic of what we call the molecular structure, and the interactions of these fields is not linear. Therefore, since the fields interacting are the sums of the local fields and the background fields, such interaction can be used to indicate certain characteristics of the background, through this very nonlinearity.
Structually the binding meter consists of a nylon fiber which is stressed close to its elastic limit (after having been over-stressed to establish stability) pulling against a steel spring which is stressed well below its elastic limit. The nylon fiber is wound around a spindle which carries a pointer, so that any longitudinal movement of the fiber will cause the spindle to turn and the pointer to move across an arbitrary scale. In setting up the instrument, nylon fishing leader was used and pre-stressed to the breaking point and this point noted. The instrument was then threaded and one end fastened to the spring and the other placed under tension to 75% of the previously noted breaking stress, and the end clamped under a friction washer which was somewhat softer than the nylon, to grip it solidly without deforming the nylon. The whole instrument was then set aside for a few days to make sure that it was stable, after which the pointer was slipped to mid scale and the instrument was considered ready for service. (Ed. - also see this photo of a different, perhaps later, design that seems to pit the nylon fiber against a metal wire.)
By making the body of the instrument of aluminum tubing about 1/2 inch diameter and 10 inches long, the combination gives very good temperature compensation, and a range of temperature of 100°F makes less than 1/2 division on an arbitrary scale of 12. There is no perceptible change over the complete range of humidity and no barametric sensitivity was observed. Dimensions apparently are not critical, and successful instruments have been made with quite a variety of parameters. Unfortunately, we have no way of calibrating these instruments at the present time, and the best we can do is use them for qualitative indication.
My colleagues and myself have investigated the general areas through which aircraft have flown just prior to unexplained crashes and we have found several regions of reduced binding, the meters showing several scale divisions change. These regions seem to be roughly circular and about 1000 feet in diameter, and probably extend upward quite a distance. A few have been detected by air when planes have flown through them, but fortunately in these cases the craft were strong enough to remain intact!
Whether this is generally true or not we cannot say, but it does appear that things are somewhat stronger in the northern latitudes than they are farther south, and certain areas seem to be permanently afflicted with reduced binding. We do not know if the regions of reduced binding move about or just fade away, but we do know that when we looked for several of them after three or four months we could find no trace of them.
It would appear therefore that this business of reduced binding would stand quite a bit of further investigation.
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To the Director, Civil Aviation:
I am offering the following for whatever help it may provide. Our knowledge of basic science is, to say the least, inadequate and some of our ideas about the structure of matter are actually erroneous.
The reality of matter as it manifests to our awareness consists of the derived fields of basic spin, among which are the density, gradient, divergence and curl. These are only partially recognized at present. We are familiar with the effects of these fields but not to any extent with the fields themselves, or how they interact to form matter as we know it.
The scientific aspects and how I came into possession of this information are not particularly relevant at the moment. The important matter is the bearing which this information has on the structural failures of aircraft and various other objects.
The inverse square law for the forces between material particles is approximately valid only for the intermediate range of distances within our experience. It does not apply at extremely large or extremely small distances. Furthermore, the forces which we observe are resultants, not basic forces. The basic forces are the consequences of the distribution of the fields comprising the reality of matter. This distribution is sinusoidal, and the resultant forces are the consequences of the harmonic combination of all fields present.
Matter is held together by the equilibrium of all the forces acting within it, and the alteration of any of the fields reflects in the binding forces within the matter.
Not all the fields within matter are due to that particular chunk of matter, or even to matter itself, as the field structure within which matter is immersed may be altered by many outside influences.
This all means that the binding forces within matter are not the fixed and immutable quantities we have believed them to be.
On this earth, and reasonably close to its surface, the field structure is predominantly constant, except for certain regions, and matter displays reasonably stable characteristics throughout the world.
However, there do exist certain regions which may be termed Vortices, in which one or more of the fields are different from the values generally prevailing elsewhere. Within these regions there may be substantial changes in the binding forces of matter, depending upon the nature and extent of the field differences.
Based upon this understanding of the nature of matter I devised and constructed several instruments to detect changes in the binding forces of matter. These instruments were given to friends in various parts of the world who have reported changes in binding forces in some regions.
The instruments consist of nylon fiber stressed to 1/2 its breaking strength by a metal spring stressed well below its ultimate strength. Alteration of the binding force affects the nylon and metal differently and one or the other elongates. This motion is transferred to a spindle and pointer. While I can give no indication of the magnitude of the changes in binding force in these various regions, I do know that they exist and that the changes are appreciable. I am convinced that at least some of the structure failures of aircraft are due to the machines flying through regions where the reduction in binding force brought the strength of a highly stressed part below the load level it was expected to carry.
I do not know whether these regions of reduced binding force are fixed in position or move about but I expect they do both.
I would therefore recommend that:
W. B. Smith
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With regard to the memo on the binding forces, I got exactly no reaction, which is what I half expected. However, there is a sequel, in that a friend of mine had occasion to drive through Quebec and he took two binding force meters of different types with him. Both indicated a definite vortex near Quebec City! Furthermore, he found a strong one out over the North Atlantic where he flew in connection with the NATO manoeuvers, but as the plane was flying easily nothing broke although both instruments took on a permanent deflection showing that the vortex drove them beyond their elastic limits. I am still convinced that this is one explanation of aircraft and other structural failures.
If the vortices are pronounced they constitute a menace to aircraft flying through them if the crafts contain parts which are stressed close to their limit. A fertile field to investigate is close to where one or more aircraft have crashed from defects which developed in flight. We have knowledge of several such vortices, but needless to say, orthodox officialdom will have no part of it even though I presented it through the "proper channels".