# THE GYROSCOPIC INERTIAL THRUSTER

*UPDATE 16*

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Interum update 24 September 1997 - Sam Smith's "Bowling Ball Bertha" pictures have arrived, I have a rendering of the next GIT I'm building on the site now, and changes are planned for the site, see below.

Sunday September 21 1997

Uhhmmmm.......This has been an interesting time period! Some up, some down, all of it keeps me waking another day. Where to start, Hmmmmm......

OK, gotta bite the bullet and have it out. I messed up big time again! Although I try not to eat too much shoe leather, I've had to break out the steak sauce this time!

My sincerest apologies to a certain individual who mistakenly tapped my mail link and sent me an unintended blank letter. My forhead is bloodied from anguish to the company accused by me for a "hardware back door" in their product that MAY be in my computer. I'm SO sorry!

The BIG error was only on the net for 3 days, my "wormwood.htm" construct, and as penance my egg dripping face will remain there for double the time it was in error. Only 46 people saw it, of the many hundreds that visited my site in the mean time. Some consolation I suppose!

PLEASE FORGIVE ME! For those of you who go HUH?, thank the fates you ask that question!

OK, on to REAL news! I received a letter from one who has been a regular, and made a GIT or three while you were just looking and sitting on the fence!

A.H.Forge has been writing me for well over a month, and was initially a doubter, but having machining facilities at his disposal, decided it was worth a try anyway. I've lost his initial letters in the "Worm Wars" of August, but I recall that his initial question was how to resolve the side and back movements, postulating the use of a trackball input with a pendululously suspended GIT to the computer for numeric resolution, and how does he limit the vibration to get a good read on total thrust in a test device?

I'm happy that my suggestion to place a spring or other time and motion averaging system between the test GIT and the measuring device was useful. He went with a spring cage frame, and found a solid thrust!

Oh sure, he grumbles about ONLY 5 kilograms of thrust with a 1/3 horsepower blender motor, (not lift grade thrust/weight ratio) but just passes by the fact that ANY thrust is IMPOSSIBLE! (according to the "High and Holy Church or the Diefied Dead Scientists")!

He's given me permission to reprint his latest letter (I think I'd better stick to that policy,..... ahem!), and with my worm battles, he's been sending me mail through an anonymous mailer, not wanting to attract negative attention. I respect that (and yes, even with my latest mistaken finger pointing, I DO believe the communications are monitored, and my computer is remotely controled, too much personal evidence to doubt it!), so his email address will not be forthcoming.

Frankly I can't even forward, I've lost his address, and can't write him back, SO Mr. Forge, if you are reading this, let me know if you want to add to the info I'm sharing with the person(s) reading this! I've done some minor correction, a stray finger glitch, and breaking up one paragraph into a few to make it more readable.

Greetings Mr. Collinshaw, (editors note, that's a blatent mistake! but a common one, < grin > ;)

Forge here, connecting via anonymous E-mail. I do hope you get that worm problem fixed. Makes correspondence a real pain. Regarding the GIT, I've done some more tests, and have found the twin cone system to be notoriously unstable.

I've resorted to using pre-beveled races surfaced with polyeurethane and those knurled aluminum cones. (Actually, a series of linear grooves running from apex to base, with more grooves-between-grooves the closer to the base one gets.) And yet, the drive masses persist in skidding on the spin-down run.

Speeding up the masses only makes the problem worse. Perhaps I'm using an equatorial ring-mass of excessive proportions. Finally hit on the idea of having a steel pin mounted through the axis of the cone mass via teflon bearings, and a spring mounted "A" frame on runners. The runner wheels engage the opposite side of the race with rubber wheels. Slows down the system, but dramatically increases the stability.

As for orbital spacing, I'm using dual slotted disks with their axis displaced off-center from the race axis by the drive ratio. Seems to work. At least now, the damned Rube Goldberg contraption isn't threatening to throw high-speed masses at me anymore. Actually got the thing to hum quite nicely, when driven via the off-center slotted disk.

Thinking of using sliding bearings now instead of the "A" frames, and a spring to maintain pressure on the orbitals race-ward. Feel free to publish this, as I'm keeping my options open on the patent side. BTW, got an attorney friend (a contradiction in terms.. hehe) to notarize and time stamp my notebooks for record purposes.

Hope the above data helps. Using a 1/3 Hp. Blender motor with that setup generates a rather impressive 5 kilograms of thrust. Thrust to weight ratio is still abysmal though. Will notify you if anything else turns up. Oh, and just in case you've forgotten (I know you must read tons of correspondence) I'm the fellow who's using fishing line and an old trackball....

Sincerely,
A. H. Forge.

Actually I wondered how he was gonna knurl a cone, I've knurled cylinders, but a cone? Thanks Mr. Forge, for returning my question! NOW I know how you were gonna do that! (Grumble!)

As to the mail inundation I'm receiving, when I get more than 5 emails a day, it's a banner day! Mail is abysmal considering the readership (or at least the downloads, I can't be sure anyone's reading my submissions to the world unless they write, and maybe a hundred out of tens of thousands score on that point!).

Uhmmm...what else? JJ of Dallas Oregon pointed out my BIG mistake with the "FIND" program, THANKS! (REALLY!) if I'm out of line, a nudge in the right direction is appreciated.

James in Australia is rather upset at the email interference that me, Sam, Amanda, and Himself has experienced, and wants to get to the bottom of this phenomenon (watch out gremlins, this mind will arm wrestle you to the ground!).

Sam of Florida is off to take care of out of state legal things, and his pictures of BBB and bbb are still overland.

I've had correspondence from another Oregon inventor (we do raise inquisitive minds here!) who happens to live nearby. As a patented inventor, and working engineer in control systems, his addition to the GIT team will be a welcomed boost to your ability to fly to the stars!

Another questing soul has returned the fact that there is a soldering paste consisting of resin and solder dust, a "filler" potential for my joints in orbital weight halves, and although he admits to too much crime in Manhattan (verses my small town preference), he's got a hardware store just down the street that carries it. MUCH appreciated info! I don't know some of this stuff, and a letter of speculation and assistance may in fact strike up a friendship! COOL! I LIKE this NET STUFF! (even with the problems).

Additionally, an email buddy has questioned the validity of the GIT, and suggested a water test, (oh yeah, like I haven't heard of that one!), SOON, soon, but did in fact point out that the very shape of the float could color test results, (I'm reminded of a wave powered boat that uses a toggled flap to get forward motion from up and down movement), and suggested a spherical shape for the float. DONE! (Uhhh, when I get my next GIT afloat!).

Oh yeah! for those of you that like virtual reality, a new player in the 3D modeling business is Rhino 3D, an EXPENSIVE (for my budget anyway!) "NURBS" modeling and rendering system that I'm just beginning to grasp. If you have virtual skills and would like to be a beta tester for Robert Mcneel and Associates, visit the site at:

http://www.rhino3d.com/#features

For a free limited time trial copy of the software. I've met a couple of good heads from the users group, and am still learning (only so many hours in a day!) I like the fact that it can communicate between all the 3D model formats I've ever heard of, and then some, making my previous work useable, and expandable.

mmmm...enough for this update, more later. 12:30 am 22 September 1997 - DavidC

24 September 1997 - Update addition

Sam Smiths photos have arrived! He's sent me construction and finished model pictures of both his "Bowling Ball Bertha" and a more reasonably sized test unit he calls "billiard ball billy", and they reveal a creative and handy mind at work, helping us all get into space.

My budget tells me I will have to wait until friday (payday the 26th) to take them into Kinko's to get them digitized (they've got a self serve scanner, I like keeping as much of my limited funds as I can in MY pocket!), and it's going to take me at least a day to create and post the Sam Smith page, so figure late Saturday or Sunday evening for sure to get a look at his behemoth and his tabletop constructions.

I've posted a rendering of the unit I'm working on, a 10 double conic, bicycle wheel driven, plywood race version on my artwork page (Pictures: link from my index) take a look!

It's incomplete since the wheel spokes kinda burned me out on virtual modeling for a time (an 8 hour marathon that had me not wanting to sit down for a day, but I've gotten praise from professional artists who had a preview), and you'll just have to imagine a motor linked to the wheel to drive the unit (shouldn't be too hard, if you're at my site, you've definitely got "extended" vision!).

The orbitals are 3.75 inches in diameter, 6.25 inches from blunt tip to tip, the bicycle tire is 27.25 inches in diameter, the plywood sheets are 4 feet square with 33 inch circles cut in them at the exact centers of the panels. Not shown is a rubber traction surface I'll add from split bicycle inner tubes to the circle edges, which will reduce the internal circle diameter the fraction it needs to make a 4 to one drive ratio race (the nose orbitals move at 4 times the tail position velocitys). Having CAD skills (amatuer that they are) sure helps with measurements before I commit them to material!

I'm still working on the lead pieces, haven't yet moved to resin/iron dust jacket work, slow, slow, slow! One of these days I'll have the dedicated time I need to work seriously on my projects, but in the mean time, it's a part time "hobby" (if you can call an obsession like mine a hobby!).

Still haven't sent the pictures in the disposable camera in for processing, I want a complete orbital pictured before I spend that chunk of change (being "financially challenged" makes for a real need for patience!), so the pictures of JJ Ellsworth of Dallas Oregon and his first GIT will be a bit longer as well.

He finally sent me his last name, and permission to publish details. He's been busy building race car parts and such for other folks, so his newer, more accurate model is a while in coming. Why is it that world shaking technology is in the hands of everyday working stiffs? Hmmmmmmm......(insert your favorite philosophical paradigm here that explains such oddities!).

My current plans for the site include a GIT BUILDERS page, personalities that have helped us get into space in an everyday way, with links to each ones individual pages showing their constructions, and including a few of their thoughts. Fair warning my fellow space cadets, start working up a short bio, and maybe some philosophy as well.

Since I don't have A.H Forge's email address, you will have to put up with my public request to him - HEY MR. FORGE, SEND US SOME PICTURES! I'd certainly like to add your efforts to the group of soon to be famous and adored by all! (well, maybe a few secret agencies may not be so thrilled by our efforts! ;)

If you haven't yet obtained a copy of my SaucerAd.avi get it NOW! as soon as I get all the digitized pictures ready to post, that short (but very byte heavy) animation is gonna get removed from the site, so sometime this weekend, it'll be gone.

OH! James Hurl's video, the thrust test of his historic "bird bath" GIT was lost in the worm wars of August, and I haven't yet obtained another copy, so please don't ask me for it until I let you know if or when I can do so again. I really hate the word "sorry" and telling you I can't send you a copy makes me feel inadequate, sniff! ):

I think I've punished myself enough with my "Computer Security" (overblown paranoia and clumsey computer skills) page, so it will be removed, and only when I have some solid evidence to nail the worm perps (the real ones) with, will I do something like that again!

Do check back late this weekend for more pictures and information on our efforts to get that vacation on the moon for you more likely, and in our lifetimes!

David - 12:30 pm Wednesday, 24 September 1997

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PS: If you think this last update was hard to read, think about how hard it was for me to write it!