Gravity Foiler

A young English scientific worker, one R. H. Tate of West Hartlepool, Durham, last week summoned witnesses into his laboratory's secrecy, showed them a sheet of aluminum-like metal on the floor, held a similar piece in the air above the other, removed his hands. The upper piece remained poised in the air. Obviously gravity was being foiled. But how, the young man would not explain.

At Atlanta, Ga., Sergius P. Grace heard of the Tate report. A vice president and department head of Bell Telephone Laboratories Inc., the research bureau of the Bell Telephone system and the Western Electric Co., Mr. Grace was at Atlanta for the regional convention of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers.

Without ado he placed a piece of magnetized cobalt steel on a table and in the air some distance above it placed another similar piece. The upper one remained balanced without mechanical support. His explanation was simple: one end of a magnet is positive, the other negative; with two magnets the positive of one attracts the negative of the other, the positive and negative of one repel the positive and negative of the other; cobalt steel can be so highly magnetized that its repellent power can support a relatively large weight against the pull of gravity.

But this is not eliminating gravity, as Englishman Tate last week declared that he had done. No scientist yet knows just what gravity is, and until someone does know it cannot be overcome.