I have replicated a device which some authors claim lifts off the table using the Biefeld Brown effect to alter gravity in its immediate vicinity.  The device commonly known as a lifter, is very simple in construction and full details are given on www.americanantigravity.com It consists of a balsa wood frame and piece of thin copper wire mounted above an aluminium foil, see photograph below.  The lifter in the photo has levitated about 5 inches off the table and is attached to the table by 3 cotton tethers.  The power source for the device is a 30 Kilovolt colour monitor power supply which is attached to the upper corona wire and the foil plate.  All the details for this are given on the american anitgravity website and I will not divulge any further details here because of the extreme danger of applying such high voltages to the device.  MARA and Bill Bimson do not accept any liability for the death or injury to any person or the damage to property arising out of attempted replication of this device.  I feel safe in making this lifter because I hold a Higher National Certificate in Electrical Engineering and an M. Phil in a magnetics based subject which involved dealing with high voltages at radio frequencies.  Anyone who does not have equivalent qualifications would be wise not to attempt to replicate the lifter.  One further hazard of the lifter is that the high voltage field creates a great deal of ozone which may be hazardous to asthmatics.  

    First prototype of lifter built by Bill Bimson  To view a video of this lifter on MARA's Myspace site click here then click on view my videos, then click on Lifter 1.  Click back on your browser twice to return here.

I intend to modify this design toinvestigate the possibility of increasing lifting power and making the direction of thrust controllable.

Bill Bimson

Update 10th August 2002

I have now built a second lifter with the aluminium foil replaced by a second corona wire attached to earth.  This lifter also works but the flight was not as elegant as the first lifter. It was much more jerky and the cotton tethers had to be kept shorter to keep it levitated.  The Beifeld Brown effect relies on two electrodes of a capacitor having vastly different areas to produce thrust, but in the case of this second lifter, both plates are a wire and hence their is minimal difference between their areas.  I believe this rules out the Beifeld Brown effect as the reason for the thrust and I am convinced that a form of ion propulsion is at work.  If this is the case (and I hope it is not) then future lifters will never be able to improve efficiency to the point where they can carry the weight of their own power source.  I intend to build further lifters in the future of different designs to investigate the thrust modality. 

 Second prototype of lifter with aluminium foil replaced by a wire.  To view a video of this Lifter on MARA's Myspace site click here then click on view my videos, then click on Lifter 2.  Click back on your browser twice to return here.

At a MARA Christmas party (2002) held in Bill Bimson's house, a number of MARA members made a lifter of their own.  Unfortunately, the lifter never quite got all 3 legs off the ground at the same time, it was probably just a little to heavy.  One member suggested putting tin foil underneath the lifter to see what effect that would have on the lift.  After doing this we noticed that there was a lot of sparking between the lower earthed electrode and the tin foil suggesting that the lower electrode was not earthed properly.  We tried several times to reduce the weight by trimming some of the tin foil and the balsa wood, but we only managed to get two legs off the table at a time. After about 20 minutes of trying different things to make it lift, something happened and the power supply on the colour monitor which powers the lifter failed permanently.  This is another good reason not to try and build these devices yourself.