LEVITATION PRINCIPLE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22198, 27 August 1935, Page 14

LEVITATION PRINCIPLE

STORY OF AN INVENTION STRANGE "NEW FORCE" [from our own correspondent] By Air Mail LONDON, July 27 A story is contributed by Mr. Dudley Barker to the Evening Standard regarding an invention which seems to be an adaptation of the principle known as levitation. The inventor is Mr. W. I). Verschoyle, now nearly 70, who went to New Zealand when ho was 15, and tried farming and goldmining there, and other occupations in different parts-of the world. Recently, ho has sold his farm in Ireland, come to Barnes, bought some old X-ray apparatus, and has now renewed his inventions. The writer' says:—l saw tho invention to-day. In the room aro three small tubes of paper, each with a strip of a certain metal coiled inside in a certain way (secret). Each tube, called a "levitor," is hanging in the air by a thin silk thread, and is connected by a thin, wire to an electric motor. " When I turn this motor 011," said Mr. Verschoyle, " a new force will operate 011 those tubes of paper. I have only just discovered it, and I don't properly understand it myself yet, but it is something to do with the atom and the electron. Now, watch." Tho inventor turned the motor on. The three tubes rose straight up in the air, tugging at tho silk threads that hold them. When the engine stopped they came down again. '1 lie interesting point is that as the voltage increases, tho lifting power is increased many times more. With 100,000 volts, the tube of paper will lift itself, plus 1} times its own weight. With ono million volts, if all goes well, it should go clean through tho roof. " Jf my invention works out," said Mr. Verschoyle, " the air fleets and tho motor-cars aro so much scrap iron."