patentNumber: "US-IMP-3,302,991" title: "Anti-Gravity Boots" titleRu: "Антигравитационные сапоги" filingDate: "September 12, 1956" issueDate: "June 27, 1961" inventor: "Dr. Mabel Q. Foxworth" inventorRu: "д-р Мейбл К. Фоксворт" inventorSlug: "mabel-foxworth" classification: "Relativistic Impossibilities" status: "Theoretically Plausible by ~2500" abstract: "A pair of articulated leather-and-brass footwear for the elevation and locomotion of the wearer above the terrestrial surface by means of the local reversal of the gravitational coupling between the wearer's mass and the Earth, comprising a sole-mounted gravitomagnetic field generator (1) wound from superconducting filament about a soft-iron core, energized in normal operation by a pair of rechargeable accumulator cells (2) housed within the bootleg, and configured to establish a quadrupolar gravitomagnetic field of sufficient magnitude to invert the local g·m product of the wearer. The boots include a heel-mounted altitude regulator (3) adjustable by the wearer in flight, a toe-mounted directional vane (4) for the steering of horizontal locomotion, and a buckle-mounted dead-man's switch (5) which de-energizes the field upon any interruption of contact with the wearer's instep." abstractRu: "Пара сочленённых сапог из кожи и латуни для подъёма и перемещения носителя над поверхностью земли посредством локального обращения гравитационной связи между массой носителя и Землёй, состоящая из встроенного в подошву гравимагнитного генератора поля (1), намотанного из сверхпроводящей нити вокруг сердечника из мягкого железа, питающегося в нормальной работе от пары перезаряжаемых аккумуляторных элементов (2), размещённых в голенище сапога, и конфигурированного для установления квадрупольного гравимагнитного поля, достаточного для обращения локального произведения g·m носителя. Сапоги включают пяточно-монтированный регулятор высоты (3), регулируемый носителем в полёте, носково-монтированную направляющую лопасть (4) для управления горизонтальным передвижением и пристёгнутый к застёжке переключатель «мёртвого человека» (5), снимающий питание с поля при любом нарушении контакта с подъёмом носителя." citations:

• "US-IMP-4,221,008"

Field of InventionОбласть изобретенияField of Invention

The present invention relates to apparatus for the personal locomotion of a single human wearer through the air without the agency of fixed-wing or rotor-wing aerodynamic support, and more particularly to such locomotion by the local manipulation of the wearer's gravitational coupling to the Earth. The invention is intended as a successor to the foot, the velocipede, and the omnibus, and is suitable for application by adults of standard proportions over distances not exceeding the range of the accumulator cells (approximately fifteen kilometers in the present configuration).

BackgroundПредпосылкиBackground

The wearing of footwear has been documented in human practice since prehistoric times. The function of conventional footwear, however, is restricted to the protection of the wearer's feet from the asperities of the underlying terrain; it does not alter the wearer's gravitational coupling to the Earth and does not contribute to his elevation above the terrestrial surface, the wearer remaining throughout his life in contact with the Earth and subject to its gravitational pull, save during such brief intervals as the wearer may be airborne by reason of his own muscular exertion, the receipt of external impact, or his employment as a passenger upon a heavier-than-air or lighter-than-air craft.

Prior art has attempted the elevation of the wearer by various means, including (a) stilts, which merely extend the wearer's height without altering his gravitational coupling; (b) the parachute, which permits a controlled descent but not ascent; (c) the gas-filled balloon harness, which elevates the wearer by the displacement of atmospheric air but produces an inconvenient bulk in the vicinity of the wearer's torso; and (d) the rocket-backpack, which provides thrust by the conventional reaction principle but exhibits poor controllability, low fuel economy, and a regrettable propensity to ignite the wearer's clothing.

The instant invention provides a personal-locomotion apparatus which is compact, controllable, and clean, by means of the local reversal of the wearer's gravitational coupling.

Summary of the InventionКраткое изложение изобретенияSummary of the Invention

The apparatus comprises a pair of boots (left and right), each comprising:

• A gravitomagnetic field generator (1) embedded within the sole of each boot, comprising a toroidal winding of superconducting filament wound about a soft-iron core of approximately fifty grams mass, cooled in operation to a temperature not exceeding 4.2 kelvin by means of a sealed liquid-helium reservoir of approximately thirty millilitres capacity, said reservoir refilled by the wearer from a household Dewar at a frequency of approximately once per fortnight;
• A pair of accumulator cells (2) of lithium-ion-of-amber composition (see U.S.-IMP-4,221,008 for description), housed within the bootleg and providing approximately forty kilojoules of electrical energy per cell;
• An altitude regulator (3) mounted within the heel, accessible to the wearer by means of an adjustment wheel protruding through the leather of the heel-counter, and configured to set the magnitude of the gravitational inversion between zero and one;
• A directional vane (4) mounted within the toe-cap, controlled by flexure of the wearer's toes within the boot, by which the wearer may direct horizontal locomotion in any compass direction;
• A dead-man's switch (5) integrated into the buckle of the boot at the wearer's instep, configured to de-energize the field generator upon any interruption of contact with the wearer's foot;
• A pair of rubber soles (6) of conventional construction, mounted upon the underside of the field generator to facilitate walking when the boots are not energized.

U.S.B.I.P. Drawing №Чертёж У.С.Б.И.П. №U.S.B.I.P. Drawing №

Sheet 1 of 1Лист 1 из 1Sheet 1 of 1

Detailed DescriptionПодробное описаниеDetailed Description

Referring to FIG. 8A, the left boot is shown in elevation and in section. The exterior of the boot is of conventional black-leather construction, of cut sufficient to accommodate the wearer's foot, ankle, and lower calf, with brass eyelets and laces of waxed cotton. The interior is lined with sheepskin throughout.

The field generator (1) is mounted within a rigid frame of brass embedded within the sole, beneath the wearer's foot. The generator comprises a toroidal coil of approximately one thousand turns of niobium-titanium superconducting filament, wound about a soft-iron yoke of toroidal cross-section. The coil is contained within an evacuated chamber and is cooled by a small reservoir of liquid helium, which is refilled by the wearer from a Dewar of household type at intervals of approximately fourteen days.

Upon energization from the accumulator cells (2), the coil establishes a gravitomagnetic field of quadrupolar geometry, with its principal axis perpendicular to the sole. The field is configured such that, within the volume occupied by the wearer's body, the effective coupling between mass and the Earth's gravitational potential is reversed in sign, with the consequence that the wearer experiences a net upward force equal in magnitude to his normal weight. The wearer is accordingly elevated above the terrestrial surface at an acceleration of approximately 9.8 meters per second squared until such time as the altitude regulator (3) is adjusted to a value less than unity.

The altitude regulator (3) is operated by the wearer in flight by means of a small adjustment wheel mounted within the heel-counter, accessible by reaching down inside the boot from the calf. Setting the wheel to a value of 1.0 produces maximum upward acceleration; setting to 0.5 produces neutral buoyancy; setting to zero produces a return to normal weight and consequent descent. Intermediate settings permit graded ascent or descent.

Horizontal locomotion is achieved by adjustment of the directional vane (4) in the toe-cap. The vane is controlled by the wearer's toes, in the manner of a foot-operated tiller, and deflects a small fraction of the gravitomagnetic field into a tangential component which propels the wearer in the corresponding horizontal direction. A normal-walking-paced human is capable of approximately three meters per second horizontal velocity in this fashion.

The dead-man's switch (5) is mounted within the buckle and is configured to de-energize the field generator immediately upon any interruption of contact between the wearer's instep and the buckle. Said interruption may occur if the wearer's boot is unbuckled in flight, with the consequence that the boot descends without the wearer; the wearer himself, no longer in contact with the de-energized boot, descends separately, at a similar rate, but without the protection of the heel-mounted apparatus.

ClaimsФормула изобретенияClaims

1. A boot for the personal locomotion of a wearer above the terrestrial surface, comprising: a sole-mounted gravitomagnetic field generator; an accumulator cell housed within said boot; an altitude regulator coupled to said generator; and a directional vane operatively coupled to said generator.

2. The boot of claim 1, wherein said generator comprises a toroidal coil of superconducting filament wound about a soft-iron yoke, said coil cooled to a temperature not exceeding 4.2 kelvin.

3. The boot of claim 1, wherein said altitude regulator is mounted within the heel of said boot and is accessible to the wearer through the heel-counter.

4. The boot of claim 1, wherein said directional vane is mounted within the toe-cap and is controlled by flexure of the wearer's toes.

5. The boot of claim 1, further comprising a dead-man's switch operatively coupled to said generator and configured to de-energize said generator upon any interruption of contact between said wearer and said boot.

6. The boot of claim 1, further comprising a rubber sole mounted upon the underside of said generator.

7. A method for the personal locomotion of a wearer above the terrestrial surface, comprising the steps of: (a) donning a pair of boots of claim 1; (b) buckling the dead-man's switches of said boots; (c) charging the accumulator cells of said boots; (d) adjusting the altitude regulator of each boot to a value greater than 0.5; and (e) departing.

Why This Violates Physics (For Now)Почему это нарушает физику (пока)Why This Violates Physics (For Now)

The invention as claimed is held by the Bureau to be theoretically plausible by approximately 2500, the apparatus being inconsistent with the laws of physics as presently understood but consistent with certain conjectured extensions of those laws which may obtain at sufficiently late dates.

First, the invention requires the local reversal of the gravitational coupling of the wearer's mass — that is, the local conversion of positive gravitational mass to negative gravitational mass. The equivalence principle of general relativity, established by Einstein (1916) and confirmed experimentally to high precision by Eötvös, Dicke, and most recently by the MICROSCOPE satellite (2017), holds that gravitational mass is identically equal to inertial mass for all material bodies. No mechanism is known by which the gravitational mass of an object may be locally altered without correspondingly altering its inertial mass; and no negative-inertial-mass particle has been observed in nature. The Bureau notes that certain extensions of general relativity, including the bimetric theories of Hossenfelder (2017) and the modified-Newtonian-dynamics theories of Milgrom (1983), contemplate the existence of negative gravitational mass, but that these extensions remain conjectural and have not been confirmed experimentally.

Second, the gravitomagnetic field of claim 2 is contemplated by the gravitoelectromagnetic formulation of general relativity in the weak-field limit (Mashhoon, 2008), and corresponds to the curl of the metric perturbation. The magnitude of such gravitomagnetic field as may be established by a terrestrial superconducting coil is, however, vanishingly small — of order 10⁻³⁰ relative to the strength required to invert the wearer's gravitational coupling. The deficit is approximately thirty orders of magnitude. The Bureau notes the report of Tajmar and de Matos (2003) of an anomalously large gravitomagnetic effect in rotating superconductors, but the report has not been replicated and the most plausible explanation is experimental error.

Third, the invention is inconsistent with the conservation of momentum. Upon energization of the field generator, the wearer is accelerated upward at approximately 9.8 m/s²; conservation of momentum requires a corresponding downward acceleration of equal magnitude on some other body. The boots themselves are coupled to the wearer and cannot satisfy this requirement; the Earth itself, though massive, is in principle accelerated downward by the wearer's upward thrust, but the Bureau notes that the acceleration of the Earth by personal locomotion is at variance with conventional terrestrial mechanics and would, if practiced at scale, produce alterations in the orbit of the Moon. The deficit in conservation is not explained by the application.

Fourth, the second law of thermodynamics is implicated by the apparatus's apparent extraction of work from a single thermal reservoir — namely, the gravitational potential of the Earth — without rejection of heat to a colder reservoir. Although the apparatus consumes electrical energy from the accumulator cells, the magnitude of work performed by the boots in elevating the wearer over a typical fifteen-kilometer flight (approximately ten megajoules for an eighty-kilogram wearer) exceeds the energetic content of the accumulator cells (approximately eighty kilojoules) by a factor of one hundred. The excess work is asserted by the inventor to derive from the reversal of the gravitational coupling rather than from any consumed reservoir, but the Bureau notes that this assertion does not address the thermodynamic accounting.

The Bureau accordingly holds the invention to be theoretically plausible by approximately 2500, subject to (a) experimental confirmation of negative gravitational mass; (b) discovery of a gravitomagnetic effect of magnitude thirty orders greater than presently observed; and (c) suitable resolution of the momentum-conservation deficit. Citations: Einstein, A., Ann. Phys. 49, 769 (1916); Mashhoon, B., "Gravitoelectromagnetism: A Brief Review," in The Measurement of Gravitomagnetism (2008); Touboul, P. et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 231101 (2017).