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Eric Laithwaite

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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.

Biography

Eric Roberts Laithwaite was born in Atherton, Lancashire, on June 14 1921, 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.

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.

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.

In 1974, Laithwaite was invited by the Royal Institution to give a talk on a subject of his own choosing. Such an invite was traditionally the precursor to the person being inaugurated as a member of the Royal Society. Laithwaite decided to lecture about gyroscopes, a subject in which he had then only recently become interested. His interest had been aroused by an amateur inventor named Alex Jones, who contacted Laithwaite about a reactionless propulsion drive he (Jones) had invented. After seeing a demonstration of Jones's small prototype (a small wagon with a swinging pendulum which advanced intermittently along a table top), Laithwaite became convinced that "he had seen something impossible".

In a BBC documentary (Heretics of Science), the lecture before the Royal Institution was reconstructed, with Laithwaite taking part. The lecture had to be reconstructed because, though the Royal Society normally recorded and published such inaugural lectures, in this case they had recorded and then expunged the record of the lecture. In the reconstruction of his lecture, Laithwaite used a large gyroscope located on the end of a long rod. he demonstrated, that, although he could not lift the gyroscope easily at all - even using both hands - when it was stationary, he could easily lift it with one hand when it was spinning. Laithwaite then asked "Where did the weight go?" - as the apparatus had clearly become lighter - and suggested that the mathematics of Newton's laws of motion could not explain the loss of weight. Presumably because any suggestion of potential fault in Newton's theories is untenable, the members of the Royal Institution rejected this suggestion, and expunged all record of the lecture, and did not invite Laithwaite to become a member. (This was the first and only time - to date - that an inaugural lecture at the Royal Institution has been expunged and not published.)

Despite this rejection, and despite his later acknowledging that gyroscopes behave fully in accordance with Newtonian mechanics, he continued to explore gyroscopic behaviour. He maintained the belief that some form of reactionless propulsion could be derived from gyroscopes. He set up Gyron Ltd with William Dawson and in 1993 applied for a patent entitled "Propulsion System". See US5860317, GB2289757 and WO9530832 for the US, UK and pct application for patents respectively. A United States Patent, Number 5860317, was granted in 1999.

Although Laithwaite is well-known for his invention of the linear motor and his ideas concerning gyroscopes, he may be less well-known for his ideas concerning moths. One such idea was that moths communicate via ultra short wave electromagnetic phenomena (Inventor in the Garden of Eden, E R Laithwaite 1994 page 199). 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).

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.

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.

Published works

Articles

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

Bibliography

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