This article appeared in the April 1993 issue of Geo-Monitor, out of Santa Clara, CA. (The ham radio people there have begun to predict earthquakes by listening to the low frequency signals which Charlotte King picks up.) The original version of this article was completed on 2/28/93; before the Mar. 25, 1993 Oregon quake. This has been slightly modified.
(Background: Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh-Onnes discovered superconductivity in mercury at four degrees Kelvin in 1911. Bednorz and Muëller published their first paper on high temperature superconducting ceramics in late 1986. This led to near riots at physics conferences in early 1987. In the race to improve these materials, some researchers successfully added bismuth to their concoctions in 1988.)
Jerry Gallimore's expertise in a wide range of subjects was well known to people involved with psychotronics; but some people who knew him casually did not appreciate his talents. Our awareness grew during the US Psychotronics Association Conference at Oglethorpe University, Atlanta, in July 1984, when Rita (my ex-) and I initiated a conversation with Jerry. I asked him if he knew anything about signals from the earth which warned animals, and some people like Charlotte King, before earthquakes occurred.
Jerry's answer was startling: Yes, he knew a great deal about the signals. About 1973, he had invented a device which measured the signals; and it could be used to predict earthquakes. Gallimore explained that the earth signals were due, in part, to electrical superconductivity in the rocks. We objected: Rocks deep in the earth could not possibly be cold enough for superconductivity to be involved.
Again Jerry's answer was startling: Under the right conditions, temperature was not a factor; a properly designed conductor would superconduct at room temperature. Why? Electrical resistance results from competition between two energies: electricity and a second energy. A bi-metallic conductor solves the problem. With a copper sheath encasing a core of bismuth, which is a powerful diamagnetic, the second energy migrates to the core, leaving the copper clear for the electrons. The magnetic field forms a standing wave outside of the conductor (the Meissner effect).
Note that superconducting ceramics use a layered lattice which includes a conductor, an oxide, and other elements. The structure here is critical. Gallimore's experiments may have been conducted in air; the oxygen there apparently performed the same function as the oxide in the ceramic. (Is there a special relationship between oxygen and magnetism?)
The scientific community rejected Gallimore's device and his thesis as being absurd; superconductivity at room temperature was "impossible." He did not have the resources to conduct a proper scientific study.
Later I learned, from reading Gallimore's material, that this phenomenon is known as Maxwell's Displacement, for the theory by James Clerk Maxwell. Maxwell had proposed a "two-fluid" theory (Article 36) to explain electricity. Also, Maxwell held that electrons normally flow on the surface of a conductor (Article 80; see Coulomb's Law). "Neutricity" is the name Gallimore applied to the energy of Displacement; he says that a third energy, possibly gravity, is also involved. Gallimore claimed, in an interview with Christopher Bird, that he had achieved room temperature superconductivity approximating 99% efficiency. The interview, which includes most of the material above, took place on July 21, 1976; it was published in 1977, in Vol. 2 of Gallimore's Handbook of Unusual Energies (p.115).
What could be the source of the earth signals? Is superconductivity involved? Many of the changes that occur in the areas before the faults rupture to cause the quakes, have been attributed to the process known as "dilatancy." This is based on the idea that rocks, under stress, develop tiny fractures. As stress increases, the cracks widen and begin to admit water. The net effect is that the volume of the rock increases; it expands, or dilates. Measurements have shown that land sometimes rises or tilts before a quake. Changes in the conductivity of the stressed rock have been noted; as have changes in the transmission of seismic waves. Geologists had hoped that these factors would be helpful for earthquake prediction. Although some successes were noted, these factors proved to be unreliable.
Apparently unrecognized by the mainstream scientific community, evidence which seems to tie Gallimore's ideas to dilatancy have emerged. Margulis and Grundel (1982), in Russia, found that low frequency vibrations of 7-200 Hz) will precipitate chemical changes in liquids and gases. This suggests that low frequency sound may be a factor in the movement of Radon gas in the earth. This is probably true of changes in well water and geysers before an earthquake.
Dr. Robert Hazen published an article, "Perovskites," in the June, 1988 Scientific American. This is a class of "natural ceramic super-conducting minerals, common in the earth." Perovskites, with a crystalline structure, display an unusual variety of electrical properties. Piezoelectricity, the release of electricity under physical pressure, is well known. But, some perovskites change shape, elongate, when subjected to an external electric field. This converts electrical energy into mechanical energy: vibrations - sound waves. This is the basis of microphones and audio speakers. (See p. 76).
Significant differences in the chemical composition and crystal structure of rocks could give rise to many variations in the signals being generated. Yet, I suspect that it is the perovskites, under pressure from tectonic activity, that generate the sounds which Charlotte King is hearing. It appears that her forecasting improves as the magnitude of the quake increases. This suggests that signal parameters tend to converge as the volume of stressed rock increases.
Another item came to my attention, from Japan: "Uranium decay series," by Hiroshi Wakita, in Earthquake Prediction Techniques, Their Application in Japan, edited by Toshi Asada. Radon gas is a decay product of uranium. Wakita gives the isotopes plus the half-life: Uranium238, 4.51 billion years; Radium226, 1600 years; Radon222, 3.82 days; Polonium218, 3.05 minutes; Lead214, 27 minutes; Bismuth214, 19.8 minutes; Polonium214, 1.5 seconds; then to Lead210. Bismuth? Radon, transported during dilatancy, seems to be concentrating Bismuth, one of the elements of Gallimore's superconductor, and lead, also a weak diamagnetic, along the channels in the rock. This could provide a channel for electrical discharge: water, diamagnetic elements, and the host rock providing the elements of Gallimore's superconductor. Intermittent discharges through such a system may be the source of the "code" signals which Charlotte King receives.
Gallimore said Maxwell's original equations included the effects of the second energy; this is also true of the original calculations for the constant in Ohm's Law. Jerry also said that one man was ahead of him in understanding the mathematics involved: Col. Thomas E. Beardon, USA (Ret.), a nuclear engineer and rocket scientist from Huntsville, Alabama, who located two papers which provide the necessary calculations: On the Differential Equations of Physics, Math. Ann., Vol. 57, pp. 333-355 (1903); and The Electromagnetic Field Due to Electrons, Proceed. London Math. Soc., Nov. 12, 1903, Series 2, Vol. 1, pp. 367-372. Both of these papers are by Sir Edmund T. Whittaker. The concepts involved in these papers are advanced; they probably influenced Gallimore's paper, Unified Field Theory.
More recently Beardon has remarked that papers by Harold E. Puthoff have added to Whittaker's papers. The majority of the orthodox scientific community refuses to embrace these concepts; they often reject the possibility of change.
Who will be the first to prove (or disprove?) Gallimore's thesis?
See Resistance in High-Temperature Superconductors, in Scientific American, February 1993, for additional information on the subject. Permission to copy this article is granted so long as proper credit is given for the author and Geo-Monitor.
Addendum:
Upon further examination of Gallimore's works, we found this concept: In an electrical conductor, gravitons hide from electrons; they will migrate to the center of the conductor, and/or be expelled to form a gravitic field outside of the conductor's magnetic field. Perhaps this is the explanation for one recent researcher's experience: A magnet, which had been floating above a ceramic superconductor, disappeared while his back was turned. Finally, he found it dangling beneath the superconductor.