Hutchison effect

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	This article may not comply with the content policies of Wikipedia. To be compliant, it must be written from a neutral point of view and must not include unverifiable or unsuitable material or original research.
Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page.

The Hutchison effect is a name given to a collection of alleged natural phenomena that John Hutchison claims to have discovered in 1979.

1 Nature of the effect
2 Scientific opinion
3 Media coverage
4 Charges of fakery
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Nature of the effect

Purported photograph of a butter knife embedded in a metal plate. This photograph can be found on Hutchison's website

Hutchison claims that while trying to duplicate experiments done by Nikola Tesla, he discovered a number of strange phenomena, including:

levitation of heavy objects
fusion of dissimilar materials such as metal and wood
the anomalous heating of metals without burning adjacent material
the spontaneous fracturing of metals
changes in the crystalline structure and physical properties of metals.
disappearing metal samples

All these phenomena are grouped under the name Hutchison Effect (HE). Hutchison maintains that none can be the result of known physical phenomena, such as electromagnetism.^[1]

Hutchison and his supporters surmise that these phenomena arise from zero-point energy.

[edit] Scientific opinion

There is no acceptance of Hutchison's claims among mainstream scientists. In a recent posting to the newsgroup sci.physics.research, Marc Millis, who formerly ran the now defunct Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Program for NASA, wrote:

[The] 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^[2]

Indeed, Marc Millis remarks that Hutchison himself appears unable to reproduce his earlier alleged experiments. Hutchison also claims to have invented over-unity batteries, which he calls Q Cells or Hiroshima cells and which, he says, obtain energy from the vacuum using the Casimir effect. Another problem with Hutchison's effect is that many of the effects shown, such as the levitation and heating of objects, can be produced by other physically established laws, such as the Lorentz force and acoustic levitation (which uses ultrasonic waves to levitate objects of up to ten kilograms, and can work on any material, including water, wood, metal and stone) ^[3] ^[4]^[5]

Furthermore, the actual creator of his effect is in dispute, as Mel Winfield claims 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.

[edit] Media coverage

The Hutchison effect has been featured in television programs aired on The Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, National Geographic Channel and Nippon Television.

Hutchison and his effect have been discussed in various fringe science newsletters and websites, such as

American Antigravity, a fringe website devoted to commercial antigravity research and products,
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.

At various times, Hutchison has maintained his own website; the most recent is www.hutchisoneffect.biz.

[edit] Charges of fakery

The "levitating" toy UFO with string visible in the top left corner

Hutchison previously sold (for about one hundred fifty dollars each) videos illustrating his "effect", and has released some shorter video clips online.^[6]^[7] Videos of his effect are now sold exclusively by Gryphon Productions^[8].

When skeptics pointed out that, in one of these videos, a string is clearly visible at the edge of the frame which appears to be holding a small toy "UFO", Hutchison explained:

The string is not string but #32-gauge double polythermalized wire on a takeup up reel with 20 to 50000 volts DC. 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

Ice cream purportedly levitated by the Hutchison effect. (This image is one frame from a documentary investigating the effect.)

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.^[9]

Hutchison states that he hasn't actually reproduced his effect since approximately 1991, though he continues to reject 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.

Hutchison claims to have reproduced the effect in his apartment as recently as March 2006 for National Geographic, as well as for author Harold Berndt, whose film of the event can be found on the American Antigravity website, which promotes Hutchison's claims.