Ball Lightning, the Genesis

We have long running discussions going on over at the Quonset Hut,  discussions that have been carried on from forum to forum. One of our favorite topics is the Moore/Berlitz story of  the alleged 1943 Philadelphia Experiment which implies that  Townsend Brown had something to do with a disappearing ship called the USS Eldridge.

Some of us Brown Hounds are on the trail of an entirely different rabbit, ball lightning, and a reported accident aboard the USS Cutlass (SS 478) marks its starting point.

Chapter Four is Up

Chapter Four: Ashlawn One

The Cady Report, Part B

I am {still) deep into  Cady's report, which can be read online at Andrew Bolland's's Qualight site. It is a wonderful document because it provides informative details for all aspects of Townsend's work at the time.  It is equally wonderful because I see how effectively Tee (as his friend Merlyn calls him) sandbagged the study.

The Muse Leads the Dance.

I have no TTB topic for today. Blogs don't just write themselves by themselves, you know. The muse comes and goes as she will and ALWAYS leads the dance when she arrives.

The Controversial Cady Report

Townsend received all sorts of attention in 1952. His sidereal radiation data was being hyped, not by him, but by those around him as valid stock market indicators, and he was being investigated for fraud by the FBI.  He was demonstrating "flying saucers" for the press at his Townsend Brown Foundation office in Los Angeles.. And his  Winterhaven Proposal (for the propulsion of aerial vehicles) was being read and studied in military aviation circles.

William Cady of the Office of Naval Research was tasked with preparing an analysis of Townsend's supporting research work. The Cady Report concluded that Townsend was observing nothing more than electric wind in action.  While the holes and the contradictions in this report are obvious to  trained scientific researchers,  the astute reader will find that it is very informative in what it does NOT say:

Projects Zenith, Winterhaven, Xerxes

Toward the end of his life, Townsend's stationery carried the Project Xerxes reference.  However, we have no knowledge (yet) of the purpose or scope of this project. Of those listed in the title of this blog, the 1952 Project Winterhaven proposal is the best known. It is often cited as evidence of the "antigravity" research that was carried out in the fifties..

I have recently come across a carbon for an undated proposal for a Project Zenith that appears to be a Winterhaven predecessor, or possibly, a Winterhaven offshoot, though I can't yet determine a specific year. It is likely that it was written after 1953, as that was the year Townsend spent time in Cleveland. a The phone number is given as "Metropolitan 8-6070." which makes me want to break out into a 1940's boogie-woogie for some reason.  (I need a reverse look-up phone book for 1954-1960, please, Google.)

The proposal kicks off with this information: .

Quite recently, careful studies of the detailed records of the Brush experiments on Gravitation have been completed. The unpublished notes and letters, uncovered last year, in the old files of the Brush estate in Cleveland have been examined. There seems to be no doubt that Dr. Brush's findings, if confirmed, are of tremendous importance and may easily provide the answer to an urgent and unsolved problem in the control of guided missiles.

Weekend Reading Plans

The Edge is first on my weekend reading list, as soon as I download it to my (ahem!  Drumroll, please!) ebook reader. But as nice as the digital book technology is, I'm really looking forward to spending time with my nice fat new volume of Spycraft: The secret history of the CIA's spytechs, from Communism to Al-Quaeda (Wallace and Melton).  In my imagination I will be walking some of the same halls that Townsend once trod.

Energy on the Edge

I have discovered a beautifully done magazine devoted to scientific explorations at the outer edges of knowledge. The second issue is linked here. Just look at their wonderful table of contents!  It's enough to set any Brownie's heart a-patter! 

INSIDE ISSUE 2 EDGE SCIENCE (January 2010)

Next chapter

Chapter Three: The Soul's Code is up

Carolines, the condensed version

Before he was thirty years of age, Townsend would be introduced to an informal, but powerful, network of wealthy industrialists. These "influential connections" were dubbed the Carolines in DEFYING GRAVITY.  The name was taken from the private yacht (the second longest in the world at that time) used for the research expedition that brought LTJG Townsend into William Stephenson's circle.  Eldridge Johnson's boat was so luxurious that it even had a wood-paneled library graced with Lewis Carroll's original manuscript of Through the Looking Glass (under glass, of course).

Linda. the horsewoman

A new/old Facebook friend recently asked me to tell him about the book we are writing. Don, this one's for you:

The GOOD-BYE MAN is the story of how Linda Brown learned of her father's clandestine career. And how that career has extended its effect into her own life in the most unusual of ways.

Linda epitomizes what I love most about the denizens of this high desert region: She is private, practical, down-to-earth and gifted in unusual ways. However, she would be the VERY last person in the world to seek the limelight for those gifts. The most boastful thing I have ever heard her say is that she hasn't been thrown from a  horse in years.  To which I mentally hear her add, "And I'm not about to start now!"  (She is also a very determined person, once her mind is made up.)

The Atomic Heritage Foundation's Version of the Philadelphia Experiment

 The Quonset Hut visitors from down under are particular stars in their areas of specialty. Friend Langley is the expert on the history of the development of atomic energy and on the effects of the atomic tests conducted in the South Pacific.  He was one of the first to educate me to the fact that America's quest for atomic energy  originated before the war at the Naval Research Lab as part of their search for a silent propulsion system.

By the time General Groves and the Manhattan Project came along, the Navy had mastered isotope separation via the thermal diffusion method. Their success was one of the most closely held atomic secrets for many years. So was the accident that killed three people in a demonstration put on for visitors from Oak Ridge. The full story of this documented "Philadelphia Experiment" is  now on the Atomic Heritage website.

The Professor on NICAP and Ball Lightning.

Looks like The Professor has been reviewing old files.

The Friday Finale

The forum friends and diligent duo, Geoff and Kestrel have turned up what seems to me  to be a likely explanation  for the sailors in the mystery uniforms in the Fouquet's photo. I promise, I am capering!

02/16/10 UPDATE: the Quonset hut was moved to a new server over the weekend and the above link was lost. I apologize. I will see what I can do about getting the information back.

Forget the filler, let's go straight to the main course

Chapter Two: First Contact is now up. Enjoy.

Boundary Layers. And Fillers.

Dr. Anderson also talked about some other intriguing topics. One was the use of the Temporal Tremor Detector.  Another was his lab experiments with the timewarp generator, which he says can shape a  time field  that is easily three orders of magnitude greater than the six-minute delay/progression that they had achieved eight years ago.

Sourcing the Story

The template for this blog includes a "label cloud," (see the one at the bottom of the page) that prints the most frequently used labels in larger, bolder print. At the time of this writing, I see that my favorite Irishman is getting the top rating and I'm afraid to mention his Twiggy name again, lest it take over completely.

Time Wars

Thank you, Hobbit Kevin, for this easy to play link to Dr. Anderson's January interview with Art Bell.   Anderson comes across as a serious and knowledgeable expert and I believe him when he says all nations of the world are pouring huge amounts of money into time travel research.  His greatest concern is that time warfare will be developed and used before the general public even knows such a thing is now possible. 

I sure wish he had sounded more like a whack-o nut job.

Oh, Shoot, Let's Make it a Three-fer.

I must have had a brain fart when I said that time travel and UFOs were the two elements of the Townsend Brown story that prevent people from taking it seriously.  How could I have forgotten  the infamous Philadelphia Experiment, the place where the rubber really meets the road. I don't know what that means, but it sounds emphatic, and I like that.

Going for a Two-fer

I might as well go for a two-fer by following my previous post with one on UFOs, the second biggest hot-potato on the Townsend Brown topic list. Townsend cemented his role in UFOdom for all time by founding NICAP (National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena) in 1956.  Personally, I believe his interest in the subject dated further back, at least to the spring of 1945 when he "jumped" at the chance to parachute behind the lines and vet a German scientist claiming expertise in "ball lightning,"  the suspected root cause of the early foo-fighter sightings reported by Allied pilots.

Anti-gravity is the shibboleth

If there is one word that that will give away a newcomer to "Brownan" research, it is  "anti-gravity," a term Townsend personally disliked.   I see that it  is being revisited over at the Above Top Secret forum and someone has also posted some terrific TTB background information in that thread.

Thank you, "Slayer"....that was a big HONK!

Beau "Peepless" Kitselman

Alva Lasaile Kitselman....

Beau was one of Townsend's closest friends and associates  and. like Townsend,  his tracks through history are, nearly invisible. Appropriate for a man whose intelligence codename was "Sandcastle" in honor of the  thoroughness and speed with which he could create and erase full blown operations.

Time to Talk Time Travel

Time Travel is one of the  two hottest (potato) topics in the Townsend Brown story. UFOs run a close second. The barest whiff of either of them sends people scurrying away muttering something about whack-o nut jobs; so I might as well bring this one up for discussion now. At least it will help to cull  the closed-minded from the eventual book-reading audience.

The Good-Bye Man: read it here first

Linda and I are starting the second draft of her memoir. I will be posting the chapters over at The Good-Bye Man. Comments and corrections will always be welcome. Enjoy!

But for now, until we have the first chapter ironed out between The Astrologer and myself, since I have been talking about a photo taken on Townsend's 51st birthday, the first post over there is a later segment of the book, Linda's memory of that day.

I'm still juggling those 03/18 and 04/18 dates, wondering what the significance of 04/18/55 might be. Was the intentionally misdated check just a homage to the date of Einstein's death? Was it less? Was it more? Was it just a cigar?

Before we leave "Buster"...

The LIFE magazine story of May 28, 1956, provides a detailed account of the days before and after Commander Crabb's disappearance.  Many think this last dive was done at the behest of  the foreign arm of  British Secret Intelligence, a belief  bolstered by the publication of  Peter Wright's SPYCATCHER. Wright claimed that Crabb was sent down to observe the hull and propeller design of the Ordzhonikidze, the radically fast new Russian cruiser that brought Premier Krushchev to Great Britain on a diplomatic call.