LETHAL DANGER: THIS DEVICE IS AN ENERGY-STORAGE CAPACITOR. IT PRESENTS AN EXTREME ELECTROCUTION HAZARD AND MANY OTHER HAZARDS BESIDES. (ENERGY STORAGE CAPACITORS AT HIGH JOULE VALUES CAN CAUSE FLESH TO DETONATE LIKE A BOMB.) IF YOU ARE NOT TRAINED AND EXPERIENCED WITH HIGH VOLTAGE AND CAPACITOR SAFETY ISSUES, DO NOT BUILD OR OPERATE THIS DEVICE. IT CAN KILL YOU VERY EASILY. EVEN THE EXPERIENCED PROFESSIONALS HAVE BEEN KILLED BY THIS TYPE OF DEVICE. USING IT IS FAR MORE DANGEROUS THAN USING LOADED WEAPONS OR EXPLOSIVE MATERIALS.

Note that as of 2005, no reputable person has seen any thrust from "Gravity Capacitor." The two people who claim success have never provided any evidence for this, only words. The majority of hobbyists who build the device do not measure any thrust. Even the original author never built a successful device! I conclude that the claims of success are most probably lies.

• Jump down to main article
• ORIGINAL Tom Kennedy correspondence (wrong)
• LATER Tom Kennedy correspondence (1991) (admits it's TT Brown Gravitator)
• T. Brown: How I Control Gravitation (Rex Research)
• T. Brown Electro-gravity Device
• T. Brown patent GB 300,311
• Serrano's recent patent for similar device
• Notes from Bill B.
  

• Pos. results(5/31/2001) Daniel H.
• Neg. results (6/6/2000)
• Negative results (6/5/2000)
• "C" Positive results (5/2000)
• "S", Positive results (3/2000)
  • NEW 10/2000 metal foil pattern PDF file (not yet tried)
  • Correspondence
  • Foil ring image (.GIF)
  • Foil ring diagram (.GIF)
  • Exper. to try next (.GIF)
• D. Buehler, capacitor weight-loss (4/2004)
• John P report (2/2001, neg results)
• James B's site
• Suggested construction
• Newspaper article (pdf) on grav-cap
• Another similar set of plans
• Antigravity Page
• The Morton Effect
• Other weird projects

BILLB DATA

• If it's about 25uA leakage at 2KV for 24 layers, then for 390 layers it will be 400uA (about a watt,) storing 48 millijoules. Or, if driven by a 20uA VandeGraaff, the leakage will only allow voltage to rise to a few hundred volts if using 390 layers.
• If it's 1500pF (measured) for 24 layers, then it will be .024uF for 390 layers
• If it's .32in thick (measured) for 24, then a stack of 390 will be 5.2in tall (compressed down to 4in min?)

DC KV Power Supplies

• Negative Ion Generators
• VDG machines

Norm S. found this:
J B Dental Supply (Calif USA)
Tin foil, $8/lb
800 333-7141

1/16/2002
The original paper was half bogus. See below. It doesn't look very certain that Kennedy ever obtained any thrust.

3/31/2000
If a capacitor-stack is divided in two by a thick dielectric plate, does it reduce the thrust? (In other words, is the 3D shape of the device important?) If we build two separate ones, do they interact? Does it interact with pieces of matter of various compostion? Magnets? Electrets? Why does it affect electronics? Alters transistors? Makes xtal clocks run fast? Alters dielectric of capacitors? Resistor values?

3/23/2000
India ink is conductive. Try printing the electrode pattern onto paper, then glue the printed paper sheets alternately with wax paper sheets to form a very solid stack.

3/23/2000
Will smaller electrode-rings also create a thrust? If so, then print arrays of small rings on the paper, instead of single large rings. If electrically charged during construction, and if there are no connections between them, then these rings will still operate even if the whole capacitor is chopped into pieces. Create antigrav-matter by fabricating ring-shaped regions of charge into solid blocks of quartz or other insulator. Antigravity building materials become feasible. Paper-stack bricks and morter can construct a floating mass!

3/22/2000
If the metal rings are adjusted so they they are slightly offset rotationally from each other, so that the slots in the metal rings SPIRAL lengthwise through the capacitor... will it produce torque and not just linear thrust?

3/22/2000
This device should not work! The inner plates are +-+-+- symmetrical, and should not contribute any forces. If the charge polarity of the end-plates controls the direction of the large thrust, then perhaps the end-plates determine the direction, while the rest of the stack acts like an "amplifier" with positive feedback causing maximum thrust. If so, the power supply of this "amplifier" is an energy source of unknown nature. Perhaps the entire thrust can be controlled by a small signal applied to just one end-plate. Switch it on and off, and thus create a piston engine.

3/18/2000
If the force is directional and not just up/down relative to the Earth, then the capacitor can be attached to a wheel rim with thrust-axis tangent to the rim, and used to run a generator. Like a water wheel, but the "paddles" are driven by "aether flow?" But if we cover the wheel-rim with capacitors, does it increase the thrust, or will the "gravity flux" connect into a circle and produce less force?

OLD:
If it runs with several thousand volts but essentially zero current, then use a DuLuc Drypile as a permanent power supply. Print the drypile onto the same paper stack as the electrodes.

This file below is INCORRECT. The author apparently never built the device himself, since he later wrote to others and said the stuff below is in error. See the files on vacuum-energy.com Among other things, Kennedy says that the foil sectors must be staggered, that the entire stack should be driven from copper foil plates on the end (not from individual strips on the sides.) He used a layer of glue under his foils (making them asymmetric,) and the capacitor is suppsed to be driven by rapid high voltage pulses of a single polarity (not by a "strong battery" as originally claimed.) The original paper says that tin foil is required and aluminum won't work. Later letters say he used aluminum foil because he couldn't get the tin! First he said that wax paper is the dielectric, later he said that it has to be a high-K material. The patent date is 1928, not 1930, and the patentee is Thomas Townsend Brown (UK patent No. 300,311)

=================================================

This file is several years old. I've called and left messages with the author twice and wrote once, all with no responses. (Update: someone on freenrg-L contacted the author's family and found that he had been killed in a car accident.) UPDATE: TOM KENNEDY WAS NOT KILLED AFTER ALL. HE DID HAVE A SERIOUS CAR ACCIDENT THOUGH. HIS FATHER LIED TO TELEPHONE CALLERS TO MAKE THEM STOP CALLING TOM.

I don't understand why the author didn't include a patent number. A cursory search of 1930 patents shows nothing called "electric rocket" or similar, but a more intensive search could be performed. I wouldn't be suprised to discover that the article is a hoax, with the goal being to get someone to put massive effort into building a foil-stack capacitor with thousands of layers, each made of many small parts! Fascinating idea though, and very much in line with T.T.Brown's work with the small apparent gravity forces generated by large capacitors at high voltage.

-Bill B. (more)

       
       The device is actually a variation on the 19'th century Fizeau's 
       condenser, and was invented quite by accident, in the early 1930's, 
       by a 17-year old tinkerer.
        
       The boy patented the device as the "Electric Rocket."  The patent 
       was bought by the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, which is
       today called MOBIL, for about one million dollars, which in the 
       1930's was a staggering some of money.

       I'm not sure how long the boy lived after selling his invention to 
       the fine people of Standard Oil, but I do know that he was sworn to 
       secrecy, and that his million dollar fortune was contingent on 
       keeping his mouth shut.

       Of course, all of this information, with the exception of actual 
       design description, is readily available to the public, which is 
       how I learned of it, and subsequently figured out that the "cylind-
       rical grid" was indeed a simple variation of Fizeau's condenser.

       The device can and will make fossil fuels obsolete, and, by elimin-
       ating the fossil fuel industry, which is the cornerstone of the 
       American Economy, force our government, and the industrial dynasties 
       that control it, to release all the other suppressed discoveries 
       that will advance our civilization beyond even the most wild fan-
       tasies of science fiction.

       The better the plate/dielectric materials used, the better it works.
                                                
                                                Truly,
                                                
                                                
                                                Thomas Kennedy
                                                370 Thornycroft Ave.
                                                Staten Island, NY 10312
       
       P.S.  This is for real



       
FIG. 1


FIG. 2


       Use waxed paper for the dielectric.  Cut it into rings, as illus-
       trated, with a large hole in the center.  Use TIN foil (NOT alum-
       inum) as the "plate" material.  Make sure to center the plates on 
       the dielectric, so as to leave ample margin between outer and 
       inner edges of the dielectric, as this is vital to proper func-
       tioning.

       Connect the plates to each other using very thin strips of tin 
       foil, laid on top, and set toward the outer edge, but not going 
       beyond the edges of the plates.

       Leave a long, thin strip of tin foil laid on top of a plate and 
       extending out, to be used for charging the array.

       Curved plates work better than rectangular.  Round off corners on 
       curved plates, as well as rectangular ones.

       You will have to stack hundreds of such layers.  Use TWO waxed 
       paper rings on each layer.

       Leave the positive charging strips aligned on one side of the 
       array, and all the negative strips aligned on the other.

       When the array is completed, you just roll and crimp them together, 
       in bunches of two dozen or so, tack them with solder (don't damage 
       the dielectric)

       Wire all positive strips to each other, and all negative strips to 
       each other, so that positive and negative plates charge from oppo-
       site sides of the array.

       The capacitor stack must be tightly clamped together, or it will 
       not work.  You can use pieces of stout boards, with holes in the 
       center correspoinding to the diameter of the holes in the center 
       of the dielectric, perhaps slightly smaller.

       The layers must be perfectly aligned to form a cylindrical grid.
       The gravitational warp forms in the central cavity of the cylinder.

       Two sheets of paper, then one layer of seven plates, then two more 
       sheets of paper, then another 7 plates, etc.  Pos. plate layer, 
       then neg. plate layer, then pos., neg., etc.



FIG. 3



       The boards are held together by a number of long bolts.  The bolts 
       must NOT TOUCH the stack, or it will short out, and discharge in a 
       very dangerous manner.

       The boards must be larger in diameter than the stack, as illus-
       trated above.

       The dotted circle represents the diameter of the dielectric.

       Note that all these drawings are in correct proportions, and a 
       working model can be built to the actual size depicted, using the 
       drawings as templates.
       
       The device described here is 8-1/4" long by 6" in diameter.  Even 
       a small device of this type will build a very powerful charge, and 
       substantial thrust, and should be used with extreme caution.



PAGE 4 MISSING FROM ARTICLE ??!


FIG. 4

       There are 8 bolts, but                 Insulate the entire
       only 2 are shown here,                 array when completed
       for ease of simplicity.


       This unit is based on an antique Fizeau's condenser, which uses 
       tin foil and waxed paper.  Modern, solid-state plate-dielectric 
       components may be used instead, with far better results.  The same
       principles apply, whether you use waxed paper or titanium dioxide, 
       so the basic design remains the same.  Follow the instructions,
       modify when necessary, and you should have no major problems.


       The "attractive force" between + and - plates of a plate capacitor 
       varies inversely with the square of the distance.  This is the same 
       relationship as in gravitation, because IS gravitation.  Although 
       the inverse relationship holds true for other vector fields as well
       as gravitational fields, there is no other plausible explanation 
       for the strong attraction between the plates.  "Conventional" sci-
       ence speaks of "opposite charges attracting", but what is really 
       occuring is gravitational attraction.  All electrostatic attraction 
       and repulsion is gravitational in nature.  "Conventional" scien-
       tific dogma is geared toward maintaining the current socioeconomic 
       status quo, and suppressing scientific understanding is paramount 
       to preventing the widespread understanding of the true nature and 
       potential uses of the forces of nature, such as electrostatic ener-
       gy.  The invention I've described is an example of how scientific 
       knowledge can upset the status quo.

       This device was actually invented in the 1930's, by a 17-year old 
       amateur experimenter, who was just trying to make a new version of 
       the old Fizeau's condenser, but discovered a revolutionary new pro-
       pulsion system, which he patented as the "Electric Rocket."

       The Standard Oil Company of New Jersey (now MOBIL) bought the pat-
       ent from the boy for the then-staggering sum of one million dollars.
       The young inventor was sworn to secrecy, and, in fact, signed a 
       contract that called for the forfeiture of his million should he 
       divulge the secrets of his invention.  Why?  Because this device 
       can and will make fossil fuels obsolete!  Not only can it provide 
       clean, save, and efficient propulsion for vehicles, aircraft, 
       spacecraft, and machinery of every type, it can also be used to 
       run ordinary electrical generators, and garner far more energy 
       than is needed to keep it running.
       
       The current ignorance of the established status quo would dismiss 
       this out of hand with the label, "perpetual motion device," which, 
       of course, is impossible.

       That means that our solar system, as well as the entire universe, 
       is "impossible," since everything is in perpetual motion in a 
       swirling vector field known as gravity.

       The better you make these devices, and the greater the capacity of 
       the dielectric materials used, the longer it will produce a "jet 
       stream" of open-curve gravitation, or gravitational waves, before 
       it needs another "top-off" charge.

       In other words, if you were to use titanium dioxide dielectirc com-
       pounds in this thing, it could conceivably keep going for CENTURIES 
       ON A SINGLE CHARGE!

• Notes from Bill B.
  

• Report of success
• Antigravity Page
• The Morton Effect
• Other weird projects