The Einstein Papers

CHAPTER 36

Jeff Scaramelli glanced out the window of the laboratory at the Advanced Physics Center in Boulder, Colorado. A lone female robin was yanking a worm from the turf with its sharp beak. The robin slipped one end of the worm inside its mouth, then tilted her head back and swallowed. Bouncing a tennis ball against the glass and catching it in his hand, Scaramelli turned and glanced at Choi.

"Aurora Borealis," Scaramelli stated.

"That's right. High-vacuum, high-power electrical discharges in the upper atmosphere," said Choi.

"The solar wind colliding with the earth's magnetic field."

"So you think that Einstein was trying to use the earth's magnetic field to prove his theory?" Scaramelli asked.

"Maybe. What if the earths magnetic field altered gravity? It would be almost imperceptible at any given location, yet small variances could add up to big results," Choi said, scratching his head with the eraser on a pencil.

"So we want to amplify the background magnetism and introduce electrical discharges. How do we simulate gravity?"

"That's the problem," Choi agreed.

Scaramelli walked over to a workbench in the laboratory and picked up one of the items from the hardware store. He felt the heft in his hand, then tossed it into the air and caught it. Polishing the orb on his pants leg, he stared at Choi.

"Why don't we drill a hole through the center of this," Scaramelli said.

"For what purpose?"

"We thread the center with a copper wire and introduce electricity." Choi nodded slowly. "It's worth a try."

"We have a fabrication shop here at the center," Scaramelli noted. "Follow me." Pausing to lock the laboratory, the two men walked down the hallway to a set of stairs. They took the stairway to the second floor and walked down to the fabrication shop. A man dressed in machinist's clothing switched off a milling machine as they entered and sauntered over.

"Afternoon, Jeff," he said easily.

"Bobby Escerson, Li Choi," Scaramelli said, making the introduction. Escerson was tall, a shade over six feet three inches in height. Though his face was slightly weathered, with a world weariness that said he had seen it all, his smile lit up the room. His hair was blond but flecked with gray at the temples. His hands were large slabs of meat with the proud callouses of a man who knew what work was. Escerson was fifty-two years old but looked barely forty.

Choi recovered his hand from Escerson's paw and pointed to his ballcap. "I'm a Broncos fan too."

"Then we'll get along just fine," Escerson said, smiling. "What can I do for you men?" Scaramelli lifted the orb in his hand and passed it to Escerson. "I need a hole drilled in the center of this."

"What are you planning to do with it?"

"Run copper wire through the hole and electrically charge the wire," Scaramelli said. Escerson nodded and walked over to a series of drawers above his workbench. Removing a spool of copper wire, he motioned Scaramelli and Choi over.

"You want this thickness?"

"Thicker," Scaramelli said.

Escerson replaced the wire and opened another drawer. "How about this?"

"Do you have one size thicker?" Choi asked.

Escerson nodded and opened a third drawer. He looked at Scaramelli and Choi and raised an eyebrow.

"That should do it," Scaramelli said.

Escerson closed the drawer and placed the spool of wire on his workbench. "Is this going to hang from the wire," he asked, "like a pendant?"

"Not really," Scaramelli said. "It needs to be suspended in place." Escerson nodded. "So you'll need a stand."

"Something that holds the copper wire taut," Choi said.

"Magnetic or nonmagnetic?" Escerson asked.

"We're going to charge the copper wire with electricity," Scaramelli said. Escerson nodded then stared into the distance for a second. "I'll weld you a small stand out of iron with two flanges that come from the sides. That will allow you to hook the positive and negative leads to the stand. The copper wire will come over the sides and attach to the flanges. I'll tighten the wire as I attach it, suspending this ball exactly in the center."

Scaramelli looked befuddled.

Escerson reached for a yellow pad on his bench, then grabbed a carpenter's pencil from a slot on his machinist's coat. He quickly sketched out a diagram.

"Like this," he said when he was almost finished.

Choi and Scaramelli stared at the diagram and nodded.

"One more question," Escerson asked. "Do you want the ball to be able to spin freely?"

Scaramelli looked at Choi, who nodded. "Would that be hard to do?"

"Not if you tell me now," Escerson said.

"Yeah, have it spin freely," said Scaramelli.

"No problem," Escerson said. "How soon do you need it?"

"As soon as possible," Choi said.

Escerson glanced at the part he was machining when the pair entered. "Okay, I can put off what I'm working on now and start on this. If I work late I should have it built by six or seven tonight."

Escerson turned and began to remove an iron plate from below his workbench.

"Thanks, Bobby," Scaramelli said as the pair turned to leave. "We'll buy dinner tonight. What are you hungry for?"

Escerson never glanced up from the iron plate he was turning over in his hands. "I like Thai food, Jeff," he said quietly.

As Choi and Scaramelli left the fabrication shop, Escerson was already marking the iron plate to saw.

At 6:47 that evening Escerson buzzed Scaramelli in his laboratory. "You can come and pick it up," he said.

Scaramelli was carrying a Styrofoam container of Thai food as the two men entered the fabrication shop, where most of the lights had already been extinguished. A small pile of iron shavings had been carefully broomed into a pile. Escerson was washing his hands at a stainless-steel sink.

"It's there on the bench," he said.

Illuminated in the glow from a fluorescent light above the bench sat a two-foot-tall iron apparatus. Twin wings rose from the base plate, suspending the ball on the copper wire. The piece had been painstakingly machined and welded with precision. The flanges that attached to the sides were devoid of paint and highly polished. The ball itself was exactly level.

Choi walked over to the bench, and touched his finger to the ball. Moving his finger slightly the ball began spinning freely. Escerson walked over and took the Styrofoam contained from Scaramelli's hand.

"If you men don't need anything else, I'm going to take this home and eat it," he said with a satisfied grin.

This is amazing," Scaramelli said.

Escerson reached behind his bench, removed a cardboard box, and placed the apparatus inside. Handing it to Scaramelli, he flicked off the light over the bench. He motioned for the door and followed the men to the stairs, clutching his bicycle helmet.

"Be careful not to drop that, Jeff," he said easily. "Everything should be aligned just right now."

The men reached the bottom of the stairs and Escerson began to buckle his helmet.

"Buzz me tomorrow and let me know how it worked," he said as he walked through the door to the parking lot.

Scaramelli smiled, and Choi said, "Let's go experiment."