John Hutchison

John Hutchison is a Canadian inventor known for his claims of inventions and discoveries of a variety of extraordinary phenomena, which other researchers - and often Hutchison himself - have been unable to duplicate.

Hutchison effect

In 1979, Hutchison (Born October, 1954) claims to have discovered a number of unusual phenomena, while trying to duplicate experiments done by Nikola Tesla. He refers to several of these phenomena jointly under the name "the Hutchison effect", including:
# levitation of heavy objects.
# fusion of dissimilar materials such as metal and wood, while lacking any displacement.
# the anomalous heating of metals without burning adjacent material.
# the spontaneous fracturing of metals.
# changes in the crystalline structure and physical properties of metals.
# disappearance of metal samples.

Hutchison has maintained a number of websites over the years, in which he posts videos and pictures of the purported effect, including short low-quality clips of objects flying around or rising from the ground, and metallic objects moving without being touched. [cite web
url = http://www.hutchisoneffect.ca/Videos.html
title = Videos and Downloads
accessdate = 2007-10-14
work = [http://www.hutchisoneffect.ca hutchisoneffect.ca] ] [cite video
people = John Hutchison (creator)
year = 2003
title = Video clip of a "levitating" toy UFO
url = http://www.uforc.com/Video_2.WMV
format = WMV
accessdate = 2006-12-10
medium = [http://www.uforc.com/antigravity/blackops.html News release]
publisher = [http://www.uforc.com UFO Research Center] ] He has offered mail-order VHS tapes of the effect for $100 each, [cite web
url = http://www.theverylastpageoftheinternet.com/otherdevices/hutchison/hutchison.htm
title = The Hutchison Effect (report contains several articles)
accessdate = 2006-12-10
work = [http://www.theverylastpageoftheinternet.com/ The Very Last page of the Internet]
quote = See THE HUTCHISON EFFECT AND ZERO POINT ENERGY CELLS demonstrated in these professionally made videos: Order information below video descriptions.] though videos are now sold exclusively through Gryphon Productions. [cite web
url = http://www.hutchisoneffect.ca/Friends/Canada%20Gryphon%20Productions.html
title = Gryphon Productions
accessdate = 2006-12-10
last = Hutchison
first = John
authorlink = John Hutchison
work = Video section of Hutchison's 2006 site]

Supporters like Mark Solis, his former webmaster, maintain that none of these effects can be the result of known physical phenomena, such as electromagnetism. [cite web
url = http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Thinktank/8863/jkh_efct.html
title = The Hutchison Effect – An Explanation
accessdate = 2006-12-10
last = Solis
first = Mark A.
date = February 16, 1999
work = [http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Thinktank/8863/main.html John Hutchison's Web Page] [geocities version (last updated June 23, 2002)]
quote = The levitation of heavy objects by the Hutchison Effect is not---repeat not---the result of simple electrostatic or electromagnetic levitation...] Hutchison and his supporters surmise that these phenomena arise from zero-point energy or the Casimir effect.

It has been saidWho?|date=October 2007 that researchers at NASA and the Max Planck Institute have attempted to reproduce some of Hutchison's experiments, but that so far none has succeeded. Indeed, NASA's Marc Millis remarks that Hutchison himself appears unable to reproduce his own experiments. Hutchison claims that this is due to the destruction of his lab by the military, or because he has been otherwise prevented legally by the government from repeating his experiments.

Canadian inventor and fringe physicist Mel Winfield says that it was solely through his theories that The Hutchison Effect came into being. He has published evidence including signed contracts, letters, and communications from John Hutchison himself on his website.Fact|date=April 2007

Military interest

According to Hutchison and United States Col. John Alexander, [cite video
people = Col. John Alexander (interviewee)
title = http://www.hutchisoneffect.ca/Videos.html video clip from an unidentified documentary
url = http://www.hutchisoneffect.ca/Videos.html
format = Flash video
accessdate = 2006-12-11
medium = Web site intro] military scientists from the United States have been working with him because of the effect's military potential. In the documentary "", he states that military scientists were impressed with the effects, but were not able to replicate them on their own without assistance. [cite video
year = 1997
medium = DVD
url=http://www.lightworksav.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=3667
title=Free Energy: The Race to Zero Point
publisher=Lightworks Audio & Video] [cite video
url=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8943205214784769158
author=Lightworks Audio & Video
medium=Google Video
accessdate = 2006-12-11
title=Free Energy: The Race to Zero Point] [cite web
url=http://www.seaspower.com/InsideZeroPoint-Valone.htm
quote=It is worth noting that the "" video shows the evaluation of the Hutchison effect by the U. S. military, who promptly classified the report
author=Thomas Valone
title=Inside Zero Point Energy]

Hutchison later accused the military of coercing the Canadian government into seizing his lab so that it could be passed on to Lockheed Martin Skunkworks for research purposes. Journalist and author Nick Cook later wrote that this had been confirmed by a high-ranking friend of his in the Skunkworks. [cite video
people = Nick Cook discussing Lockheed Martin Skunkworks in a clip from an unidentified documentary
title = Hutchison
url = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHiyePwIxH4
medium = Flash video
location = YouTube.com
accessdate = 2006-12-11] Boyd Bushman, retired Lockheed Martin senior engineer, later confirmed this in an interview in Nick Cook's book "The Hunt for Zero Point". [cite book
url=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hunt-Zero-Point-Nick-Cook/dp/0099414988
title=The Hunt for Zero Point
first=Nick
last=Cook
year=2003
authorlink=Nick Cook
publisher=Arrow
id=ISBN 0099414988]

Hutchison claims that "at the end of the cold war" a "military intelligence service" (not otherwise specified) destroyed his lab in Vancouver while he was traveling in Europe. To support this allegation, Hutchison has presented photos of letters allegedly written by various scientific and government organizations, as well as a letter allegedly written by Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein. However, it is far from clear what relevance these letters, whose provenance is unverified, might have.

Charges of fakery

One set of videos posted to an antigravity website (and later taken down) shows closeups of a toy UFO bouncing around, and then shots of the toy gyrating wildly in the air. When it was pointed out that the movement of the toy was consistent with being supported by a string, and a moving wire or string could be seen in the video, Hutchison claimed it was a power supply: [cite web | url = http://americanantigravity.com/hutchison.html | title = Video Clip Notes | accessdate = 2006-12-11 | last = Ventura | first = Tim | authorlink = Tim Ventura | work = The Hutchison Effect | publisher = [http://www.americanantigravity.com American Antigravity] | archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20050923213538/http://americanantigravity.com/hutchison.html | archivedate = 2005-09-23 | quote = I've received a number of messages about the above video-links pointing out that a string is clearly visibly holding up the toy-UFO that Hutchison is experimenting with. I asked John for more information on the purpose of the string, and received the following reply...] quote|The string is not string but #32-gauge double polythermalized wire on a takeup up reel with 20 to 50000 volts DC. The main apparatus was turned on, causing the toy plastic ufo to fly all about in amazing gyrations. This was a pretest to Gryphon Productions airing this fall for fox TV. I did not need the extra high voltage 2000 time period so the toy levitated without a high voltage hook up during the filming for Gryphon there was a string on the toy no high-voltage dc but interesting movements.|John Hutchison|quoted at the American Antigravity website

Hutchison later admitted to being "creative" with the footage, citing pressure from the Discovery Channel to create material for the show and an inability to legally reproduce the original effect, according to Tim Ventura of American Antigravity. [cite web
url = http://socialtech.ca/ade/index.php/2005/05/the-discovery-channel-is-bogus-2/#comment-398
title = The Discovery Channel is Bogus (blog comment)
accessdate = 2006-12-10
last = Ventura
first = Tim
authorlink = Tim Ventura
date = December 15, 2005
work = [http://socialtech.ca/ade/ Ade's Blog]
quote = This second set is a concern, because John has been unable to recreate the true Hutchison-Effect since approximately 1991 (by mandate of the Canadian EPA). Puttkamer asked John to get creative, however, resulting in a toy-UFO flopping wildly in the air. This clip has been criticized because a wire is clearly seen suspending the UFO.]

In 2005, Hutchison admitted that he hadn't actually reproduced his effect since approximately 1991, though he says the earlier levitation footage from the 1980s is genuine. These videos show objects suddenly flying upwards and never coming back down, and are consistent with objects falling from an upside-down stage filmed with an upside-down video camera. [cite web
url = http://www.americanantigravity.com/documents/The-Ultimate-Hutchison.pdf
title = The Ultimate Hutchison
accessdate = 2006-12-10
last = Ventura
first = Tim
authorlink = Tim Ventura
date = September 11, 2005
format = PDF
work =
publisher = [http://www.americanantigravity.com American Antigravity] website
pages = [http://www.americanantigravity.com/documents/The-Ultimate-Hutchison.pdf#page=18 p. 18]
quote = The Hutchison Effect has been documented on a variety of visual media to include the levitation of materials ... which usually take off straight up at high speed. At first glance it might almost appear that this is somehow faked, using a camera-booth that can be flipped upside down to give the impression that gravity has been negated, but this isn’t the case.]

Hutchison later rejected charges of fakery, and maintains that his "effect" has been demonstrated many times in the presence of scientists and, he says, members of the US Army Intelligence and Security Command.

In March 2006, Hutchison states that he managed to reproduce the effect in his Ash St., New Westminster apartment for National Geographic, as well as for author Harold Berndt, whose film of the event can be found on the American Antigravity website. [cite web
url = http://www.americanantigravity.com/articles/484/1/Hutchison-Effect-Complete-2006-Video film
title = Video of 2006 H-Effect experiments
author = Harold Berndt, AAG
date = March, 2006
publisher = [http://www.americanantigravity.com American Antigravity] website
format = WMV, Google Video]

Scientific opinion

In a posting to the "sci.physics.research" newsgroup, Marc Millis, who ran the now-defunct Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Program for NASA, wrote:

quote|1=This "Hutchison Effect" has been claimed for years, without any independent verification — ever. In fact, its originator can't even replicate it on demand. This has been investigated more than once, been part of documentaries on The Discovery Channel, but still never seems to pass critical muster. This is in the category of folklore. In general, the "American Antigravity" web site caters to such folklore and its enthusiasts.|2=Marc G. Millis|3="Video Footage Of Antigravity ?" [cite newsgroup
title = Video Footage Of Antigravity ?
author = Marc Millis
date = 2006-04-06
newsgroup = sci.physics.research
id =
url = http://groups.google.com/group/sci.physics.research/browse_thread/thread/cf00e68355286a4a/d2103c94a80e3101?hl=en&lnk=st&rnum=2#d2103c94a80e3101
accessdate = 2007-09-22]

Quantum batteries

Hutchison also says that he has invented new power sources, which he calls "Crystal Energy Cells" or "Hiroshima cells". He claims they obtain zero-point energy from the quantum vacuum using the Casimir effect. In one video a battery is described by John as including Rochelle salts, gallium, iron pyrite, and germanium. Hutchison claims that his work "explains the technology behind UFOs".Fact|date=October 2007

These batteries have been labeled by someWho?|date=October 2007 as over-unity devices. Mainstream physicists point out that "over-unity" is just another word for a perpetual-motion machine, and that zero-point energy and the Casimir effect, while legitimate scientific concepts, are often invoked by people seeking to mislead the public or tap into free energy, in defiance of the laws of thermodynamics.

Media coverage

Hutchison and his claims are regularly featured and discussed in various fringe science newsletters and websites, such as:
* American Antigravity, [ [http://www.americanantigravity.com/articles/220/1/ The Ultimate Hutchison] ] a fringe website devoted to antigravity claims, lifters, homemade electromagnetic weapons, etc.
* the UFO Resource Center, a website devoted to ufology
* Space Telescopes, a website which features a mixture of writings including such topics as the Hubble observatory and the Hutchison effect
* World Mysteries, one of many websites which discuss a wide range of fringe, new age, and paranormal topics

He has been profiled along with his claims in several documentaries aired on The Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, National Geographic Channel ("Is It Real?") and Nippon Television.

Apartment display

Hutchison keeps a large collection of surplus Navy equipment on his apartment's balcony, [ [http://www.hutchisoneffect.ca/PhotoGallery/Balcony4.jpgBalcony photo] from Hutchison's site] leading to disputes with neighbors and the city. [Cite news
last = Allan
first = Sterling D
title = Anti-Gravity Inventor's Stuff Not Appreciated by ... ?
work = Greater Things News Service
accessdate = 2007-10-15
date = 2003-11-16
url = http://freeenergynews.com/Directory/Inventors/JohnHutchison/apartment/index.html] [Cite web
last = Johnson
first = Joel
title = Great Men: John Hutchison, Kook with Rad Apartment
accessdate = 2007-10-15
date = 2007-01-02
url = http://dethroner.com/2007/01/02/great-men-john-hutchison-kook-with-rad-apartment/] [Cite web
last = Virgin
first = Shana-Lee
title = Help Canadian Scientist Keep Balcony Display
work = GoPetition.com
accessdate = 2007-10-15
date = 2006-04-19
url = http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/help-canadian-scientist-keep-balcony-display.html]

See also

* Tom Bearden

References

External links

Hutchison

At various times, Hutchison has maintained his own websites:

* [http://www.hutchisoneffect.ca hutchisoneffect.ca]
* [http://parisbff.com/people/johnhutchison/ Hutchison on MTV's ParisBBF]
* [http://pickupartist2casting.com/people/hiphophobbit Hutchison on MTV's Pickup Artist 2]
** [http://www.hutchisoneffect.ca/videos.html Video archive maintained by Hutchison]
** Formerly [http://web.archive.org/web/20060617021212/http://www.hutchisoneffect.biz/ hutchisoneffect.biz]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20050521012240/hutchisoneffect.com/ hutchisoneffect.com]
* [http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Thinktank/8863/main.html Geocities website]
* [http://johnkhutchison.blogspot.com/ Hutchison's Blog]

Supporters

* [http://www.americanantigravity.com/hutchison.html Hutchison Effect] from American Antigravity, a retailer of "commercial anti-gravity equipment", located in Kirkland, WA
** [http://www.americanantigravity.com/documents/The-Ultimate-Hutchison.pdf The Ultimate Hutchison] (PDF) — An account of a visit by Tim Ventura of American Antigravity to John Hutchison
** [http://www.americanantigravity.com/articles/347/1/ Hutchison's 'Lost-Footage' - 1991 video narrated by George Hathaway in Google Video and Windows Media format]
** [http://www.americanantigravity.com/articles/220/1/ an article about Hutchison] from American Antigravity
* [http://www.spacetelescopes.com/mel-winfield.html Hutchison Effect] from Space Telescopes
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6122827639205703420 Video demonstration] of Hutchison Effect
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5787522280823887082 "John Hutchison on TechTv"] , another video
* [http://www.beyondtheordinary.net/johnhutchinson.shtml Beyond The Ordinary interview with John Hutchinson]
* [http://www.coasttocoastam.com/shows/2004/05/18.html]
* [http://www.nextenergynews.com/freeenergy/free-energy12.html Video Hutchison Effect]
* [http://geocities.com/jeremy_lowery/Hutchinsoneffect.html Hutchinson Effect video]

Skeptical

* [http://socialtech.ca/ade/index.php/2005/05/the-discovery-channel-is-bogus-2/ The Discovery Channel is bogus] - A criticism of the purported antigravity videos (and [http://socialtech.ca/ade/index.php/2005/06/more-on-hutchison/ part 2] )

* [http://www.skywise711.com/Skeptic/Hutchison/hutchison.html The "Hutchison Effect"?]

* [http://www.trailerparkscience.com/Experiments.html Trailer Park Science]

* [http://www.csicop.org/sb/2007-09/nickell.html The Bermuda Triangle and the 'Hutchinson Effect']