Observations placeholder

THE METAL-BENDERS” by JOHN B. HASTED

I have recently had the opportunity to conduct experiments with the miniaturized strain gauges now available; but at first I could rely only on less direct evidence.

In chapter 5 I suggested the model of a ‘surface of action’, a surface or perhaps a laminar region in which all paranormal metal-bending action takes place. If one imagined such a surface to be flat or gently curved, one might suppose that the forces were not at all local, but extended over a reasonably large area.

Indeed, at an early stage in the investigations, I was introduced not only to the smoothly curving artwork of Andrew G., but to accurately formed parabolas as much as 30 cm long; these first appeared among the bends produced by David Nemeth.

Julie Knowles and Andrew G. were also able to produce large arcs of parabolas, hyperbolas and even exact circles.

But Nicholas Williams found it difficult to produce gentle and regular curvature.

Many of Willie G.’s smooth parabolas were ‘abnormal plane bends’ in aluminium strip of cross-section 0.75 X 6.5 mm; they are in the plane of the long dimension, not (as would be expected) in the plane of the short dimension.

To produce such smooth bends in this plane is quite a difficult operation when achieved by normal means, for example by means of a conical roller on a flat plate.  A normal parabolic bend is produced not by force applied at a single point between two supporting points (three-point load) but by a force uniform along the bent portion; this action would be produced over the central part of the specimen by a four-point load.

It was the uniformity of the parabola bends which interested me in the first instance.

I believed that my early observations favoured smooth and initially planar surfaces of action without strong localization. Possibly the long parabolic bends might have been produced by a uniform distribution of individual strain pulses. But just how local is it possible for the action to get?

I undertook a number of experiments to throw light on this question.

I offered Andrew G. metal strips scaled to different sizes, in order to see whether he could produce without touch similar objects of different dimensions; what would be the upper, and more particularly the lower limit to Andrew’s paranormal craftsmanship? l found that the smallest scale objects, involving curvatures of about 1 mm diameter, were not of the same high standard as the others. Thus 1 mm diameter curved surfaces of action were not easily controlled by Andrew. This is consistent with his failure to make tight twists with the thinnest metal strips (chapter 7).

In another experiment I attached a number of resistive strain gauges close together on a circular piece of metal, in order to see whether paranormal signals were registered on neighbouring gauges.

I have in one such session with Mark Henry obtained more than fifty signals without a single synchronism between any two strain gauges. The strain gauges were arranged on a circular disc radially with their inner edges on a circle of radius 8 mm. The experiment was designed for the investigation of directional effects, and other similar sessions are discussed in chapter 10.

But since no synchronous signals were obtained, the only conclusion possible was that in this particular session (observed by Professor Barzilai of the University of Rome) Mark’s action was all localised on individual strain gauges. The metal disc did not bend visibly.