Observations placeholder

THE METAL-BENDERS” by PROFESSOR JOHN B. HASTED

Since I found myself forced to believe in teleportations, I wished to control them, or at least to induce metal-bending subjects to bring them about. It occurred to me that the first such event I had seen, the fracture and disappearance of the vanadium carbide foil, involved only a very tiny object. Perhaps such events are more common the smaller the object involved and the thinner the wall that is traversed. I therefore prepared molybdenum electron microscope foils inside similar capsules, and determined to expose them to my strongest metal-benders. This time the security against tampering would be greater; some handling might be necessary, even though Geller had not had his hand closer than ten inches from the vanadium carbide capsule.

I wrapped two capsules in several thicknesses of Scotch tape, which would have to be stripped off or cut if the foil was to be extracted by hand. I also placed a single crystal of germanium in a Teflon tube, and bonded the lid with epoxy-resin. Foils and crystals had both been weighed accurately. Capsules and tube were now all placed in a transparent plastic box (50 X 30 X 10 mm), whose lid was bonded with epoxy-resin, for further security. The foils and crystal could be seen through the walls of their containers.

I offered the box to Nicholas Williams after a successful metal-bending session. I first got him to talk about the various similar events he had experienced in his home. He grasped the box in his hand for nearly a minute. I could not see the foils within the box, since his hand enclosed it, but one end of the box was in my field of vision the entire time.

When I examined it, there was one foil missing from within its capsule. The capsule was apparently undamaged. The other foil and crystal were still present.

We repeated the ‘experiment’, and this time the second foil was missing from its capsule, which also appeared undamaged.

On the third attempt, a silicon crystal was missing from its capsule.

Since all three objects were very small, and the room contained a carpet and much furniture, we did not search for the objects at this stage. But Nicholas said he might ‘bring something back’, and I again gave him the box, a photograph of which with fresh capsules appears in Plate 19.2.

Within seconds the silicon crystal was seen within its tube. The box now contained two capsules without their foils, and one Teflon tube with a silicon crystal inside it.

I replaced the box in my inside pocket, and when I returned to the laboratory and examined it thoroughly, I found no damage to the sealing of the box, or to the sealing of the capsules. I opened the Teflon tube and weighed the silicon crystal, finding no change within 1 mg accuracy. There appeared to have been no normal way in which these phenomena could have happened. I have since realised how lucky I was to be at the right place at the right time with the right equipment to observe such rare spontaneous events.