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THE METAL-BENDERS” by JOHN B. HASTED

Not only is the speed of motion of the surface of action important; one must also consider its possible change of shape whilst in motion. Many paranormal metal bends, particularly of easily deformed specimens such as wires, have been through very large angles, often several thousand degrees (spiral); occasionally the formation of the spiral is reported to take place in one continuous motion; it can be a little frightening to the child on the first occasion. In such an event we might imagine that the surface of action to some extent follows the form of the specimen; it is as though it clings to it, exerting continuous quasi-force. Such a clinging surface would be capable of forming remarkably complicated metal shapes, and these are precisely what have been found.

Plate 7.1 shows a ‘folded strip’ shape which several metal-benders have formed.

Nicholas Williams was already familiar with violent spontaneous bending events when he and I first encountered a folded strip. One day I offered him pieces of very easily deformed aluminium alloy 30 cm X 8 mm X 0.75 mm, which he was able to leave on its own in anticipation of spontaneous action. We took them up to his third floor bedroom in the empty house, and placed them on a table, in the form of a cross. We both started to leave the room, without closing the door. Within seconds I heard a scratching noise, as though the metal strips were moving rapidly on the table. We found the strips folded together, and the free end of one of them twisted.

The twisting gives a clue to a possible interpretation: namely that a surface of action starts to rotate about an axis in its own plane. The surface is caught between the two strips, and as it rotates it clings to them and causes them to form into folds. On this occasion one of the strips was longer than the other, and so one end was left free. By good fortune the axis of the rotating surface aligned itself along the free end, causing it to twist.

This twisting has not been found in the many ‘folded strips’ which have since been made.

Andrew G. and Willie G., albeit unobserved, both claim to have produced such folded strips without seeing the original, and without being told what might happen when two aluminium strips were crossed. A common feature is that a single coil is formed in the folded structure. More than two strips can be used, and more complicated folds obtained.

A number of folded strips were produced by Nicholas Williams without his being present in the bedroom. I did not destroy the delicate balance of observational psychology by installing a video-camera, but I recorded the speed of the events instrumentally in the following way.

A magnetized tinned steel strip of very similar appearance was, unknown to Nicholas, substituted for one of the aluminium alloy strips; a fluxgate magnetometer probe was mounted near by on the table, but the nature of the experiment was not explained. When the folding took place, the time-varying magnetic field was chart-recorded, and showed rapid variations, as in Figure 7.1. Since the metal strips move around as they fold, one might expect there to be a simple proportionality between the number of chart-record peaks and the number of folds in the finished specimen; one, two or even three peaks per fold. The correspondence between the numbers of peaks and the numbers of folds is shown in Table 7.1; it encourages us to believe that the motion of the metal strips is being observed by this simple magnetic device. Similar experiments have been carried out with pairs of wires in a V configuration fixed by the apex to a wooden board.

The magnetic field variations, such as those shown in Figure 7.1, indicate that the rotation speeds of the surface of action can be as high as three revolutions per second. But we must beware of placing too much reliance on visually unobserved experiments.