John Hutchison is a Canadian inventor known for his claims of inventions and discoveries of a variety of extraordinary phenomena, which other researchers - and often Hutchison himself - have been unable to duplicate.
In 1979, Hutchison claims to have discovered a number of unusual phenomena, while trying to duplicate experiments done by Nikola Tesla. He refers to several of these phenomena jointly under the name "the Hutchison effect", including:
1. levitation of heavy objects.
2. fusion of dissimilar materials such as metal and wood, while lacking any displacement.
3. the anomalous heating of metals without burning adjacent material.
4. the spontaneous fracturing of metals.
5. changes in the crystalline structure and physical properties of metals.
6. disappearance of metal samples.
Hutchison has maintained a number of websites over the years, in which he posts videos and pictures of the purported effect, including short low-quality clips of objects flying around or rising from the ground, and metallic objects moving without being touched. He has offered mail-order VHS tapes of the effect for $100 each,though videos are now sold exclusively through Gryphon Productions.
Supporters like Mark Solis, his former webmaster, maintain that none of these effects can be the result of known physical phenomena, such as electromagnetism. Hutchison and his supporters surmise that these phenomena arise from zero-point energy or the Casimir effect.
It has been said[who?] that researchers at NASA and the Max Planck Institute have attempted to reproduce some of Hutchison's experiments, but that so far none has succeeded. Indeed, NASA's Marc Millis remarks that Hutchison himself appears unable to reproduce his own experiments. Hutchison claims that this is due to the destruction of his lab by the military, or because he has been otherwise prevented legally by the government from repeating his experiments.
Canadian inventor and fringe physicist Mel Winfield says that it was solely through his theories that The Hutchison Effect came into being. He has published evidence including signed contracts, letters, and communications from John Hutchison himself on his website.[citation needed]
Military interest
According to Hutchison and United States Col. John Alexander,[6] military scientists from the United States have been working with him because of the effect's military potential. In the documentary Free Energy: The Race to Zero Point, he states that military scientists were impressed with the effects, but were not able to replicate them on their own without assistance
Hutchison later accused the military of coercing the Canadian government into seizing his lab so that it could be passed on to Lockheed Martin Skunkworks for research purposes. Journalist and author Nick Cook later wrote that this had been confirmed by a high-ranking friend of his in the Skunkworks. Boyd Bushman, retired Lockheed Martin senior engineer, later confirmed this in an interview in Nick Cook's book The Hunt for Zero Point.
Hutchison claims that "at the end of the cold war" a "military intelligence service" (not otherwise specified) destroyed his lab in Vancouver while he was traveling in Europe. To support this allegation, Hutchison has presented photos of letters allegedly written by various scientific and government organizations, as well as a letter allegedly written by Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein. However, it is far from clear what relevance these letters, whose provenance is unverified, might have.
Charges of fakery
A "levitating" toy UFO. A line, said by critics to be string supporting the model, can be seen moving with the UFO at the top left of the screen.
A "levitating" toy UFO. A line, said by critics to be string supporting the model, can be seen moving with the UFO at the top left of the screen.
One set of videos posted to an antigravity website (and later taken down) shows closeups of a toy UFO bouncing around, and then shots of the toy gyrating wildly in the air. When it was pointed out that the movement of the toy was consistent with being supported by a string, and a moving wire or string could be seen in the video, Hutchison claimed it was a power supply:
The string is not string but #32-gauge double polythermalized wire on a takeup up reel with 20 to 50000 volts DC. The the main apparatus was turned on, causing the toy plastic ufo to fly all about in amazing gyrations. This was a pretest to gryphon films airing this fall for fox TV. I did not need the extra high voltage 2000 time period so the toy levitated without a high voltage hook up during the filming for gryphon there was a string on the toy no high-voltage dc but interesting movements.
—John Hutchison, quoted at the American Antigravity website
Hutchison later admitted to being "creative" with the footage, citing pressure from the Discovery Channel to create material for the show and an inability to legally reproduce the original effect, according to Tim Ventura of American Antigravity.
Image of ice cream "levitating" from a cup, from a documentary investigating the effect.
Image of ice cream "levitating" from a cup, from a documentary investigating the effect.
In 2005, Hutchison admitted that he hadn't actually reproduced his effect since approximately 1991, though he says the earlier levitation footage from the 1980s is genuine. These videos show objects suddenly flying upwards and never coming back down, and are consistent with objects falling from an upside-down stage filmed with an upside-down video camera.
Hutchison later rejected charges of fakery, and maintains that his "effect" has been demonstrated many times in the presence of scientists and, he says, members of the US Army Intelligence and Security Command.
In March 2006, Hutchison states that he managed to reproduce the effect in his Ash St., New Westminster apartment for National Geographic, as well as for author Harold Berndt, whose film of the event can be found on the American Antigravity website.
Scientific opinion
In a posting to the sci.physics.research newsgroup, Marc Millis, who ran the now-defunct Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Program for NASA, wrote:
This "Hutchison Effect" has been claimed for years, without any independent verification — ever. In fact, its originator can't even replicate it on demand. This has been investigated more than once, been part of documentaries on The Discovery Channel, but still never seems to pass critical muster. This is in the category of folklore. In general, the "American Antigravity" web site caters to such folklore and its enthusiasts.
—Marc G. Millis, Video Footage Of Antigravity ?
Quantum batteries
Hutchison also says that he has invented new power sources, which he calls "Crystal Energy Cells" or "Hiroshima cells". He claims they obtain zero-point energy from the quantum vacuum using the Casimir effect. In one video a battery is described by John as including Rochelle salts, gallium, iron pyrite, and germanium. Hutchison claims that his work "explains the technology behind UFOs".[citation needed]
These batteries have been labeled by some[who?] as over-unity devices. Mainstream physicists point out that over-unity is just another word for a perpetual-motion machine, and that zero-point energy and the Casimir effect, while legitimate scientific concepts, are often invoked by people seeking to mislead the public or tap into free energy, in defiance of the laws of thermodynamics.
Media coverage
Hutchison and his claims are regularly featured and discussed in various fringe science newsletters and websites, such as:
* American Antigravity a fringe website devoted to antigravity claims, lifters, homemade electromagnetic weapons, etc.
* the UFO Resource Center, a website devoted to ufology
* Space Telescopes, a website which features a mixture of writings including such topics as the Hubble observatory and the Hutchison effect
* World Mysteries, one of many websites which discuss a wide range of fringe, new age, and paranormal topics
He has been profiled along with his claims in several documentaries aired on The Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, National Geographic Channel (Is It Real?) and Nippon Television.
In 1979, Hutchison claims to have discovered a number of unusual phenomena, while trying to duplicate experiments done by Nikola Tesla. He refers to several of these phenomena jointly under the name "the Hutchison effect", including:
1. levitation of heavy objects.
2. fusion of dissimilar materials such as metal and wood, while lacking any displacement.
3. the anomalous heating of metals without burning adjacent material.
4. the spontaneous fracturing of metals.
5. changes in the crystalline structure and physical properties of metals.
6. disappearance of metal samples.
Hutchison has maintained a number of websites over the years, in which he posts videos and pictures of the purported effect, including short low-quality clips of objects flying around or rising from the ground, and metallic objects moving without being touched. He has offered mail-order VHS tapes of the effect for $100 each,though videos are now sold exclusively through Gryphon Productions.
Supporters like Mark Solis, his former webmaster, maintain that none of these effects can be the result of known physical phenomena, such as electromagnetism. Hutchison and his supporters surmise that these phenomena arise from zero-point energy or the Casimir effect.
It has been said[who?] that researchers at NASA and the Max Planck Institute have attempted to reproduce some of Hutchison's experiments, but that so far none has succeeded. Indeed, NASA's Marc Millis remarks that Hutchison himself appears unable to reproduce his own experiments. Hutchison claims that this is due to the destruction of his lab by the military, or because he has been otherwise prevented legally by the government from repeating his experiments.
Canadian inventor and fringe physicist Mel Winfield says that it was solely through his theories that The Hutchison Effect came into being. He has published evidence including signed contracts, letters, and communications from John Hutchison himself on his website.[citation needed]
Military interest
According to Hutchison and United States Col. John Alexander,[6] military scientists from the United States have been working with him because of the effect's military potential. In the documentary Free Energy: The Race to Zero Point, he states that military scientists were impressed with the effects, but were not able to replicate them on their own without assistance
Hutchison later accused the military of coercing the Canadian government into seizing his lab so that it could be passed on to Lockheed Martin Skunkworks for research purposes. Journalist and author Nick Cook later wrote that this had been confirmed by a high-ranking friend of his in the Skunkworks. Boyd Bushman, retired Lockheed Martin senior engineer, later confirmed this in an interview in Nick Cook's book The Hunt for Zero Point.
Hutchison claims that "at the end of the cold war" a "military intelligence service" (not otherwise specified) destroyed his lab in Vancouver while he was traveling in Europe. To support this allegation, Hutchison has presented photos of letters allegedly written by various scientific and government organizations, as well as a letter allegedly written by Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein. However, it is far from clear what relevance these letters, whose provenance is unverified, might have.
Charges of fakery
A "levitating" toy UFO. A line, said by critics to be string supporting the model, can be seen moving with the UFO at the top left of the screen.
A "levitating" toy UFO. A line, said by critics to be string supporting the model, can be seen moving with the UFO at the top left of the screen.
One set of videos posted to an antigravity website (and later taken down) shows closeups of a toy UFO bouncing around, and then shots of the toy gyrating wildly in the air. When it was pointed out that the movement of the toy was consistent with being supported by a string, and a moving wire or string could be seen in the video, Hutchison claimed it was a power supply:
The string is not string but #32-gauge double polythermalized wire on a takeup up reel with 20 to 50000 volts DC. The the main apparatus was turned on, causing the toy plastic ufo to fly all about in amazing gyrations. This was a pretest to gryphon films airing this fall for fox TV. I did not need the extra high voltage 2000 time period so the toy levitated without a high voltage hook up during the filming for gryphon there was a string on the toy no high-voltage dc but interesting movements.
—John Hutchison, quoted at the American Antigravity website
Hutchison later admitted to being "creative" with the footage, citing pressure from the Discovery Channel to create material for the show and an inability to legally reproduce the original effect, according to Tim Ventura of American Antigravity.
Image of ice cream "levitating" from a cup, from a documentary investigating the effect.
Image of ice cream "levitating" from a cup, from a documentary investigating the effect.
In 2005, Hutchison admitted that he hadn't actually reproduced his effect since approximately 1991, though he says the earlier levitation footage from the 1980s is genuine. These videos show objects suddenly flying upwards and never coming back down, and are consistent with objects falling from an upside-down stage filmed with an upside-down video camera.
Hutchison later rejected charges of fakery, and maintains that his "effect" has been demonstrated many times in the presence of scientists and, he says, members of the US Army Intelligence and Security Command.
In March 2006, Hutchison states that he managed to reproduce the effect in his Ash St., New Westminster apartment for National Geographic, as well as for author Harold Berndt, whose film of the event can be found on the American Antigravity website.
Scientific opinion
In a posting to the sci.physics.research newsgroup, Marc Millis, who ran the now-defunct Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Program for NASA, wrote:
This "Hutchison Effect" has been claimed for years, without any independent verification — ever. In fact, its originator can't even replicate it on demand. This has been investigated more than once, been part of documentaries on The Discovery Channel, but still never seems to pass critical muster. This is in the category of folklore. In general, the "American Antigravity" web site caters to such folklore and its enthusiasts.
—Marc G. Millis, Video Footage Of Antigravity ?
Quantum batteries
Hutchison also says that he has invented new power sources, which he calls "Crystal Energy Cells" or "Hiroshima cells". He claims they obtain zero-point energy from the quantum vacuum using the Casimir effect. In one video a battery is described by John as including Rochelle salts, gallium, iron pyrite, and germanium. Hutchison claims that his work "explains the technology behind UFOs".[citation needed]
These batteries have been labeled by some[who?] as over-unity devices. Mainstream physicists point out that over-unity is just another word for a perpetual-motion machine, and that zero-point energy and the Casimir effect, while legitimate scientific concepts, are often invoked by people seeking to mislead the public or tap into free energy, in defiance of the laws of thermodynamics.
Media coverage
Hutchison and his claims are regularly featured and discussed in various fringe science newsletters and websites, such as:
* American Antigravity a fringe website devoted to antigravity claims, lifters, homemade electromagnetic weapons, etc.
* the UFO Resource Center, a website devoted to ufology
* Space Telescopes, a website which features a mixture of writings including such topics as the Hubble observatory and the Hutchison effect
* World Mysteries, one of many websites which discuss a wide range of fringe, new age, and paranormal topics
He has been profiled along with his claims in several documentaries aired on The Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, National Geographic Channel (Is It Real?) and Nippon Television.
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