Anomalous Weight Changes
In Agitated Granular Media:
The Influence of Chirality and a Possible Link
To the Kozyrev Models

N. A. Reiter and L.L. Schillig

09 March, 2002

Background:

In January of 2002, we disclosed a set of observations made regarding an apparent anomalous weight loss in agitated nano-particle media. Work has continued on this phenomenon since that time, and has led to an interesting (and different) perspective on the matter. In February of 2002, Scott Little of EarthTech performed some informal replications of the effect, and did observe some sub-milligram weight alterations, although these were felt by EarthTech to be within the range of potential thermal / buoyancy / out-gassing artifacts.

We also had reported our findings to Altair Technologies of Reno, Nevada - the manufacturer of the nano-particle titania. In discussion with Altair technical personnel, we discovered that they had, on occasion, seen unusual weight discrepancies during the processing of their product, however they had always felt content to invoke either balance problems or atmospheric moisture as explanations. Altair provided to us a sample of some mono-dispersed jet milled nano-particle media for testing, however this product is so fine in its non-agglomerated condition that it proved nearly impossible to fluidize and agitate either acoustically or manually.

Our own testing proceeded in two primary directions: artifact elimination by using better quality sealed and insulated ampoules and vessels, and testing on a wide range of fine-grained materials. We also continued to refine our developing explanation and model for what appears to us to be a genuine phenomenon.

In order to proceed with this report, we disclose the current status of the phenomenon, in our view:

1. The portion of the weight loss in the nano-particle media that appeared to be permanent was likely an artifact of balance drift and imperfect seals on either jars or ampoules. Better quality seals and rigorous repetition indicate that while in some materials, the return to starting weight may take well over an hour, it nevertheless does return to an original value. Thus, we have rejected one of our earlier positions - the possibility for quantum teleportation out of the ampoule.
2. We do, however, continue to firmly maintain that the presence of the effect and its magnitude are subject to a high degree of variability from unknown and unusual influences. Some of these seem to be: time of day, direction of agitation, the paths or dynamics of the agitated particles, the position and disposition of the operator.
3. Possible artifacts due to vessel or material heating continue to be a challenge, however we have used a variety of insulating jackets and high quality ampoules to minimize these factors.
4. A variety of other finely divided materials have been found that have produced the phenomenon to greater or lesser degrees. These have typically all been extremely fine powders: bentonite clay powder, 1 micron spherical nickel powder, fine precipitated (sub-micron sized) silver and tellurium, and powdered lead zirconate titanate. The core matter of this paper involves two other substances, however, that may open a door to understanding the phenomenon.

In Theory:

As previously disclosed, we have turned from the concept of quantum teleportation as an explanation for the weight loss. We have reviewed again and again those two references from the earlier researchers who appeared to have been observing this identical phenomenon: Thomas Townsend Brown and Nikolai Kozyrev. Historically, it appears that T.T. Brown was never able to adequately model the effect or place it into any theoretical framework. He apparently did examine the effect in the early 1970s for a short period of time with considerable scrutiny, before leaving it for other matters of petro-voltaic phenomena.

On the other hand, N.A. Kozyrev appeared to find the weight change phenomenon to be within the framework of his intricate physical time / chronal energy theory. Because of this, we delved deeply into the experimental claims of the single available translated work by Kozyrev on the topic.

One of the features of Kozyrev’s theory is that all matter seems to exist in a state of metabolism, with chronal energy (physical time) flowing in and out. In some interesting respects, this view reflects certain models of aether flow or physical space flow into mass, such as the McMaster model. However, this chronal energy exchange also appears to be subject to an overall state of chirality or "handed-ness". Thus, masses that are either rotating, or have a considerable chiral character may be prone to special and interesting interactions. Many of Kozyrev’s experiments were carried out with small gyroscopes suspended from delicate balances.

It was a particular claim as well that materials or chemicals with a strong chiral nature - ergo twisted or spiral molecular structures - would affect the chronal energy metabolism of nearby systems. Two that are specifically mentioned are sucrose (sugar)-a large right-handed molecule, and turpentine - a long left handed organic molecule. Sucrose was claimed to attenuate the chronal energy inflow for a system or mass. This was ascertained by careful observations of torsion balances and suspended weights.

We considered, then, the following question: would the agitation of masses containing highly chiral molecules produce enhanced weight change effects?

Our Experiments:

In March of 2002, we examined this idea experimentally. Quantities of several chemicals were agitated and examined for weight change effects. The results were surprising, and very exciting!

We focused on two common chemicals obtained in a granular form, and of comparable grain size and density: sucrose (table sugar) and L-tartaric acid (a strongly left handed molecule)

When quantities of the L-tartaric acid were placed in sealed bottles and shaken in a standard fashion, a surprisingly robust weight loss was noted - typically .5 to 2 milligrams for masses of about 20 to 30 grams. As observed with other materials, the weight loss returned to null after typically 10 to 20 minutes. We considered this to be surprising because of the coarse granular structure (equivalent to typical table sugar or salt)

However, when an equivalent volume of granular table sugar was shaken, we now observed a weight gain of robust proportion - typically .5 to 3 milligrams!

To compare these materials to a previously tested grainy substance giving null results, we substituted sodium chloride (salt) for the sugar. True to earlier results, weight changes were null or less than .3 milligram to the negative.

An experiment providing typical results was run on 9 March.

We loaded quantities of each of the three aforementioned chemicals sequentially and separately into a 100 ml volumetric flask with a lightly silicone greased glass stopper. Pre - and post - weights were taken, accompanied by a 45 second manual shake in an east-west orientation. Our balance was an Ainsworth C205 digital unit with .1 milligram resolution. Room temperature was read at 67F, with RH at 28%.

The below table illustrates our results:

Material	Pre-weight (g)	Post-weight (g)	Weight Change (mg)	Weight Change/Mole (mg/mole)
Sugar	28.3287 (.083mole)	28.3294	+.7 milligrams	+8.43mg/mole
NaCl	27.7499 (.475mole)	27.7497	-.2 milligrams	-.42mg/mole
L-tartaric acid	24.7740 (.165mole)	24.7735	-.5 milligrams	-3.03mg/mole

If we consider the results in terms of an action per molecule of the mass, we derive a potentially useful figure of merit in the form of weight change per mole, or conveniently, milligrams per mole.

Discussion and Direction:

Clearly, we have found an interesting new angle to approach this phenomenon from. Could the magnitude of the anomalous weight changes we have been observing be governed by the shape of a particular molecule as opposed to size of the mass particle? In the Kozyrev system, chirality or spin combined with oscillatory motion seems to be a mechanism for adjusting the rate of chronal energy / physical time / aether into and out of a system.

It would tentatively appear as though we have come across some interesting and unique evidence for this theory.

We also speculate that even in the case of the highly directional and chiral sucrose, the disordering of the grains during shaking may have allowed us to see only the barest hint of what strange properties might be observable in a more ordered system.

Currently, our plan is to grow some sizeable crystals of sucrose and L-tartaric acid and try oscillating these during in-situ weight measurement with ultra-sonics. Within such crystals, the chirality and orientation of the molecules should be strongly conserved. Will we observe some radical weight alterations?

We also have only very recently observed what may be some tens of milligrams reproducible weight changes with a flask of concentrated aqueous sucrose solution under either acoustic agitation or manual swirling. These observations will require many more replications, however.

These experiments have been conducted on behalf of The Avalon Foundation and The McMaster Gravity Research Foundation.

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