Eric Roberts Laithwaite (14 June 1921 – 27 November 1997) was an English engineer, principally known for his development of the linear induction motor and Maglev rail system. June 14 is the 165th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (166th in leap years), with 200 days remaining. ... Year 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for full calendar). ... November 27 is the 331st day (332nd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Motto (French) God and my right Anthem God Save the King (Queen) England() – on the European continent() – in the United Kingdom() Capital (and largest city) London (de facto) Official languages English (de facto) Government Constitutional monarchy  -  Queen Queen Elizabeth II  -  Prime Minister Tony Blair MP Unification  -  by Athelstan 967  Area... For the Technical Symposium of NITK Surathkal Engineer , see Engineer (Technical Fest). ... A linear motor is essentially an electric motor that has had its stator unrolled so that instead of producing a torque (rotation), it produces a linear force along its length. ...

Image File history File links Size of this preview: 200 × 283 pixelsFull resolution (200 × 283 pixel, file size: 28 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Laithwaite PR shot from Imperial College This work is a copyrighted publicity photograph. ...

Biography

Raised in the Fylde, Lancashire and educated at Kirkham Grammar School, he joined the Royal Air Force in 1941. Through his service in World War II, he rose to the rank of Flying Officer, becoming a test engineer for autopilot technology at the Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough. Fylde is a peninsula in western Lancashire, England. ... Lancashire is a county in North West England, bounded to the west by the Irish Sea. ... Kirkham Grammar School is an independent school in Kirkham, Lancashire. ... The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the air force branch of the British Armed Forces. ... For the movie, see 1941 (film). ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Comparative military ranks are a means of comparing military rank systems of different nations as a means of categorizing the hierarchy of an armed force compared to another. ... An autopilot is a mechanical, electrical, or hydraulic system used to guide a vehicle without assistance from a human being. ... This article needs cleanup. ... Farnborough Airport or TAG London Farnborough Airport (IATA: FAB, ICAO: EGLF) (previously called RAE Farnborough) is an airport situated in Farnborough, Hampshire in England. ...

On demobilisation in 1946 he attended the University of Manchester to study electrical engineering. His work on the Manchester Mark I computer earned him his master's degree. His subsequent doctoral work started his interest in linear induction motors. He became professor of heavy electrical engineering at Imperial College London in 1964 where he continued his successful development of the linear motor. 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... It has been suggested that Victoria University of Manchester be merged into this article or section. ... Electrical Engineers design power systems… … and complex electronic circuits. ... Manchester Mark 1 was the worlds first stored program computer, which made its first successful run of a program on 21st June 1948 The Manchester Mark I was one of the earliest electronic computers, built at the University of Manchester in England, in 1949. ... A linear motor is essentially an electric motor that has had its stator unrolled so that instead of producing a torque (rotation), it produces a linear force along its length. ... Imperial College London is a university in London and is one of the United Kingdoms best-known scientific academic institutions. ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... A linear motor is essentially an electric motor that has had its stator unrolled so that instead of producing a torque (rotation), it produces a linear force along its length. ...

In the 1980s, he was involved in creating a device to extract energy from sea waves (see patent GB2062114); although the technology was successful in trials, it could not be made storm proof, hence it never became a commercial success.

Laithwaite was an able communicator who made many television appearances. Memorable among these were his Royal Institution Christmas Lectures to young people in 1966 and 1974. The latter of these made much of the surprising phenomena of gyroscopes. Michael Faraday delivering a Christmas Lecture in 1856. ... 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1966 calendar). ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... A gyroscope For other uses, see Gyroscope (disambiguation). ...

In 1974, Laithwaite presented a private demonstration to the Royal Institution, in which he claimed gyroscopes had no or little angular momentum. He later repeated this practical presentation to students at Imperial College. Laithwaite suggested that Newton's laws of motion are restricted to mass in straight lines and that these properties could be used as a means of reactionless propulsion. He theorised that Newton's law required an imaginary element in the equation in order to balance the forces acting on a swinging gyroscope. 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... The Royal Institution of Great Britain was set up in 1799 by the leading British scientists of the age, including Henry Cavendish and its first president George Finch, the 9th Earl of Winchilsea, for diffusing the knowledge, and facilitating the general introduction, of useful mechanical inventions and improvements; and for... A reactionless drive or inertial propulsion engine (also reactionless thruster, reactionless engine, and inertia drive) is any form of propulsion not based around expulsion of fuel or reaction mass - the name comes from Newtons Third Law of Motion, usually expressed as, Such a drive would use a hypothetical form...

The scientific establishment, in the form of the Royal Institution, rejected his theory and his lecture was not published by the RI. His feelings on this can be seen in one of the 1974-1975 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures which he presented. In an apparent defence of his position he quoted Freeman Dyson: "Most of the crackpot papers that are submitted to the Physical Review are rejected, not because it is impossible to understand them, but because it is possible. Those that are impossible to understand are usually published." (Freeman Dyson, Innovations in Physics, Scientific American, September 1958) 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ... Michael Faraday delivering a Christmas Lecture in 1856. ... Freeman John Dyson (born December 15, 1923) is a British-born American physicist and mathematician, famous for his work in quantum mechanics, solid-state physics, nuclear weapons design and policy, and for his serious theorizing in futurism and science fiction concepts, including the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. ...

Despite the lack of interest from other scientists, Laithwaite continued to explore gyroscopic behaviour. Laithwaite set up Gyron Ltd with William Dawson and in 1993 applied for a patent (which was granted in 1999) entitled "propulsion system". See US5860317, GB2289757 and WO9530832 for the US, UK and pct application for patents respectively. 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ...

Although Laithwaite is best known for his ideas concerning gyroscopes, he also held an idea concerning moths. It was that they communicate via radiation. He persisted in this belief even after the pheromone, which they actually use, had been isolated and could even be bought 'over-the-counter'. He also had a habit of championing the ideas of amateurs over those of experts. Such ideas included the ones that there are 3 types of magnetism, and that the '196 problem' is not a problem: terminating after relatively few iterations (in fact, the current count runs to millions of iterations - with no sign of termination). A Lychrel number is a natural number which cannot form a palindrome through the iterative process of repeatedly reversing its digits and adding the resulting numbers. ...

Laithwaite retired from Imperial College in 1986, but was offered no other research post until 1990, when he became Visiting Professor at Sussex University. He was persuaded by George Scelzo of PRT Maglev Systems in Chicago, to submit a proposal to NASA for an electromagnetic launch assist track originally inspired by John Mankins of NASA. He died within weeks of the contract being awarded. The initial stage has been successfully continued by William Dawson and the contract with PRT for this development is still active. The track uses both levitation coils and linear induction motors, and it can be seen in the "Magnets" episode of Modern Marvels on the History channel. University of Sussex Logo © University of Sussex The University of Sussex is an English campus university located near the East Sussex village of Falmer, near Brighton and Hove and on the edge of the South Downs. ...

He was also a keen entomologist and the co-author of The Dictionary of Butterflies and Moths (1975); he had one of the finest British collections of specimens. He married, in 1951, Sheila Gooddie; they had two sons and two daughters. Entomology is the scientific study of insects. ...

Published works

Articles

• The influence of Michael Faraday on power engineering. Power engineering journal. Vol.5, no.5 (Sept.), pp.209–219 (1991)

Books

• Propulsion without wheels (1965)
• Induction machines for special purposes (1966)
• The engineer in wonderland (1967) — The Royal Institution of Great Britain Christmas lectures, 1966/67. With illustrations, including a portrait.
• The linear motor and its application to tracked hovercraft (1971)
• Linear electric motors (1971)
• Experiments with a linear induction motor (1971)
• Exciting electrical machines (1974)
• All things are possible: an engineer looks at research and development (1976)
• Transport without wheels ed. (1977)
• How to invent (1977) co-authored by M.W. Thring
• Why does a glow-worm glow? (1977) illustrated by Mike Jackson
• Electric energy: its generation, transmission and use (1980) co-authored by L.L. Freris
• Engineer through the looking glass (1980)
• Invitation to engineering (1984)
• Shape is important (1986)
• Force: a basic ingredient (1986)
• A history of linear electric motors (1986)
• Using materials (1987)
• Size is vital (1987)
• An inventor in the Garden of Eden (1994)

Honours

• S. G. Brown Medal of the Royal Society (1966)
• Nikola Tesla Award of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Fellow of Imperial College London (1991)
• Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (1992)

The premises of The Royal Society in London (first four properties only). ... 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1966 calendar). ... The IEEE Nikola Tesla Award was established in 1975 through agreement between the IEEE Power Engineering Society and the IEEE Board of Directors. ... The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers or IEEE (pronounced as eye-triple-e) is an international non-profit, professional organization for the advancement of technology related to electricity. ... Imperial College London is a university in London and is one of the United Kingdoms best-known scientific academic institutions. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Not to be confused with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE, I-triple-E). ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ...

Bibliography

• "Eric Laithwaite defies Newton", New Scientist, November 14, 1974, p470

External links

• NASA Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project: COMMON ERRORS: Gyroscopic Antigravity a NASA page discussing Laithwaite's demonstration.
• The Foster-Miller Maglifter project, which has a picture of their linear motor subscale system.
• The Royal Institution is Not Amused