Eric Dollard: a study primer
Written for a self-taught reader at undergraduate level. Source tags: [read] from Dollard's documents, [web] with URL, [memory] recalled with a confidence level, [calc] computed here (and reproduced in example.py). Final verdicts are the arbiter's (arbiter.md).
Source gap (repeated from earlier steps, updated after quality engineering (QE)). Most of the folder is scans of Dollard's 1986-1990 Journal of Borderland Research (JBR, published by the Borderland Sciences Research Foundation, BSRF) articles. The reviewers read them from page images; machine text from optical character recognition (OCR) now exists for every page. After QE, the 1987 interview (compilation pp.2-12) and all 30 pages of EPDPaper.pdf (his "telluric wave" receiver typescript) were read in full. That full read confirms the typescript has no drawings, no frequencies, no component values, no spacings, no lead times and no test data, and its Part Three (the San Andreas seismic material) exists only as a line in the contents page [read: deep read EPDPaper pp.1-30]. The equations of "The Transmission of Electricity" Part I (compilation pp.14-17) have still not been transcribed from page images, so one factor in them ("p") remains unidentified. Only the 1990 article "Introduction to Dielectricity and Capacitance" has a clean text layer; I re-read its key passages myself for this primer. Dollard's books (Theory of Wireless Power, Symbolic Representation of the Generalized Electric Wave, Condensed Introduction to Tesla Transformers) are not in the folder. The folder contains no measurements at all. Anything said below about Dollard's wider ideas beyond these pages rests on the reviewers' reading or on [memory], and is tagged.
1. The idea in one paragraph
Eric Dollard is an electrical experimenter in the tradition of Nikola Tesla and the General Electric engineer Charles Proteus Steinmetz. His central idea is that electricity is not "electrons flowing in wires" but energy carried by fields in the space around the wires, and that this field has two partners of equal standing: a magnetic side (stored in coils, "inductance") and a dielectric or electric side (stored in capacitors, "capacitance"). He argues that textbooks neglect the dielectric side, and that if we took it seriously we would find that it can travel faster than light, can release unlimited current, is the "productive" side of electricity from which free energy might come, and can carry waves through the earth that warn of earthquakes. The first half of this (energy lives in the fields; electric and magnetic storage are mirror images) is real, standard physics that introductory courses underplay. The second half (faster than light, infinite current, free energy, non-electromagnetic earth waves) does not survive calculation or has never been stated precisely enough to test.
2. What you need to know first
Electric and magnetic fields and their energy. A field E (electric, volts per metre) or B (magnetic, tesla) fills space and stores energy: the energy per cubic metre is u_E = (1/2) eps0 E^2 for the electric field and u_B = B^2 / (2 mu0) for the magnetic field. Here eps0 = 8.854e-12 F/m is the permittivity of free space and mu0 = 4 pi x 1e-7 H/m is its permeability. Read: Griffiths, Introduction to Electrodynamics, chapters on electrostatics and magnetostatics (energy sections). [memory: high]
Capacitors and inductors. A capacitor (two conductors separated by an insulator) has capacitance C = Q/V (charge per volt, unit farad, F) and stores U = (1/2) C V^2. An inductor (a coil) has inductance L = flux per amp (unit henry, H) and stores U = (1/2) L I^2. Voltage across an inductor is V = L dI/dt; current into a capacitor is I = C dV/dt. Read: any circuits text; Horowitz and Hill, The Art of Electronics, chapter 1. [memory: high]
Second-order linear ordinary differential equations (ODEs). An equation a x'' + b x' + c x = 0 has solutions exp(s t) with a s^2 + b s + c = 0. If the roots are complex, x oscillates and decays (underdamped); if real, it just decays (overdamped). This is all the mathematics you need for the worked example. Read: Boas, Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences, the chapter on ordinary differential equations. [memory: high]
Maxwell's equations, displacement current and the Poynting vector. Faraday's law (curl E = -dB/dt) says a changing magnetic field makes an electric field. The Ampere-Maxwell law (curl B = mu0 J + mu0 eps0 dE/dt) says currents, and changing electric fields, make magnetic fields. The extra term eps0 dE/dt is Maxwell's "displacement current": a current-like effect that needs no moving charge. Together these give waves at speed c = 1/sqrt(mu0 eps0) = 299,792,458 m/s. The Poynting vector S = E x H (H = B/mu0; "x" is the vector cross product) gives the power per square metre flowing through space. Read: Griffiths chapters 7 (electrodynamics), 8 (conservation laws, Poynting's theorem) and 9 (electromagnetic waves) [memory: high for the 3rd/4th editions]; Feynman Lectures vol. II ch. 27 [web] https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/II_27.html.
Divergence and why a free wave is transverse. The divergence div F (also written ∇·F) measures how much a vector field F spreads out from a point. Gauss's laws say div E = rho/eps0 (rho = charge density) and div B = 0. In empty space with no charge, both divergences are zero. For a plane wave, a field of the form E0 exp(i(k·r - omega t)) (k is the wave vector, pointing along the direction of travel, with length 2 pi / wavelength; r is position; omega is angular frequency), taking the divergence just multiplies by i k, so div E = 0 becomes k·E0 = 0: the field must be perpendicular to the direction of travel. That is why light and radio waves in free space are transverse electromagnetic (TEM) waves. Read: Griffiths chapter 9 (plane waves). [memory: high]
Dimensions (units) as a check. Every physical quantity has a dimension built from length L, time T, mass and charge. A velocity is L/T; only quantities of the same dimension can be added or set equal. Checking dimensions is the cheapest error test in physics. Read: any first-year physics text, the section on dimensional analysis. [memory: high]
Linear systems cannot create new frequencies. A linear, time-invariant system (resistors, capacitors, inductors and transmission lines with fixed values) driven at frequency f responds only at f. New frequencies, including harmonics (2f, 3f, ...) and sub-harmonics (f/2, f/3, ...), need a nonlinear element (a diode, a saturating core) or a component whose value is varied in time ("parametric pumping"). Read: Horowitz and Hill, The Art of Electronics; any signals-and-systems text. [memory: high]
Near field versus far field. Close to an antenna (much less than a wavelength away) the electric and magnetic fields behave almost independently, like the static fields of a capacitor and a coil. Far away (many wavelengths) they lock together into a radiating wave with E/H = 377 ohms. Read: Griffiths chapter 11 (radiation); Kraus, Antennas. [memory: high]
Phasors and impedance. For sinusoidal (alternating-current, AC) signals, a capacitor's current leads its voltage by 90 degrees and an inductor's lags by 90 degrees. Average power into a pure capacitor or inductor is zero: energy goes in and comes back each cycle. Read: any AC circuits text. [memory: high]
3. The textbook view
(a) Energy flows through the fields, not inside the wire. Take a coaxial cable: inner conductor radius a, outer radius b, voltage V between them, current I. Between the conductors
- E = V / (r ln(b/a)) pointing radially (r is distance from the axis),
- H = I / (2 pi r) circling the axis,
- S = E x H = V I / (2 pi r^2 ln(b/a)) pointing along the cable.
Integrate S over the ring-shaped cross-section (area element 2 pi r dr) from a to b:
P = integral_a^b [V I / (2 pi r^2 ln(b/a))] 2 pi r dr = V I ln(b/a) / ln(b/a) = V I.
So all of the power V I travels in the insulating space between the conductors. At 100 V and 1 A that is 100 W flowing through the plastic, not the copper. [calc] Electrons in the wire still carry the charge (the current), and the fields push them; both pictures are part of Maxwell theory.
(b) Good conductors reflect fields. An alternating field enters a conductor only to a skin depth delta = sqrt(2 / (omega mu sigma)) (omega = 2 pi f, sigma = conductivity). For copper (sigma = 5.8e7 S/m) at 1 MHz, delta = 66 micrometres [calc]. So conductors guide and reflect fields; they do not let them in.
(c) Displacement current needs no electrons. A capacitor C = 1 nF whose voltage changes at 1 V per nanosecond (1e9 V/s) passes I = C dV/dt = 1e-9 x 1e9 = 1 A "through" its vacuum or insulating gap. [calc]
(d) Electric and magnetic storage are duals. U = (1/2) C V^2 and U = (1/2) L I^2 are mirror images: swap C with L and V with I. Connect a charged capacitor to an inductor and the energy sloshes between them at angular frequency omega0 = 1/sqrt(LC) (frequency f0 = omega0 / 2 pi). The ratio of peak voltage to peak current is the characteristic impedance Z0 = sqrt(L/C). The circuit equation for the capacitor charge q(t) in a series loop with resistance R is
L q'' + R q' + q/C = 0.
(e) Radiation is the "missing" energy from an antenna. An antenna behaves as if it had a resistor R_rad (radiation resistance) that turns power into outgoing waves: P_rad = I_rms^2 R_rad. For a quarter-wave vertical tower over good ground, R_rad is about 36.5 ohms [web] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopole_antenna. The ohmic loss resistance of a well-grounded tower is a few ohms, so most of the input becomes radiation.
(f) Signals travel at c or slower. Radio, radar and Global Positioning System (GPS) timing confirm c to high precision; on a cable the speed is 1/sqrt(L'C') (per-metre L' and C'), which is below c. [memory: high] Since 1983 the SI (International System of Units) defines c as exactly 299,792,458 m/s, so "a changing speed of light" could only mean that eps0 or mu0 change. [memory: high]
(g) Electromagnetic (EM) waves in empty space are transverse. From the divergence argument in section 2, a plane wave in charge-free space has E and B both perpendicular to the direction of travel; Faraday's law then gives B = (k x E)/omega, so E, B and k are mutually perpendicular. Longitudinal field components (along the direction of travel) do occur, but only near sources (the near field), inside waveguides (the TE and TM modes, transverse electric and transverse magnetic), or in conducting media. [memory: high]
(h) A superconducting ring holds its current with no power input. Once a current is set up in a superconducting loop it persists; experiments looking for decay put its lifetime above 100,000 years [web] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistent_current . No power is consumed because there is no resistance, so nothing has to be "supplied perpetually".
4. Where Dollard departs
| Topic | Textbook | Dollard | Where it holds / fails |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where energy travels | In the fields around the wire (Poynting); electrons carry charge | "Conductors might best be called electric obstructors ... It is then the insulators that are the true conductors of electricity" [read: page image, JBR Sep-Oct 1987 pp.6-7, via physicist] | The energy statement is right (section 3a). Calling insulators "conductors" redefines the word: an insulating rod from a battery to a bulb carries no steady current (glass resistivity about 1e10-1e14 ohm m vs copper 1.7e-8 [memory: high]). |
| Electric vs magnetic propagation | E and B regenerate each other; a free wave moves at c | Dielectric induction propagates on its own at (pi/2)c = 1.57c, citing Tesla and Wheatstone [read: page image, JBR May-Jun 1988 p.11] | Near-field E/B separation and displacement current are real (3c). No derivation of pi/2 appears. Tesla's 471,240 km/s equals 150,000 pi exactly, i.e. (pi/2) x 300,000 km/s, so it looks computed rather than measured [calc]. Wheatstone's 1834 figure (about 1.5c) is explained as a cable-capacitance artefact [web] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_electricity. |
| Capacitance | Field energy (1/2)CV^2; plate charges are the field's end points | Capacitance is energy stored "inward" in a bounded space, dual to magnetism's "outward" storage; "the prehistoric conception of the electrostatic charge" is inadequate (quoting Steinmetz) [read, 1990 p.10-11] | The duality is correct and well taught by Steinmetz. "More energy in a smaller space" is true at fixed voltage, false at fixed charge (hidden assumption). |
| Shorting a capacitor | Current rises to V0 sqrt(C/L), limited by loop inductance and resistance | "The field explodes against the bounding conductors with a velocity that may exceed light ... it jumps to infinity" [read, 1990 p.13] | Fails; see the worked example. His next paragraph concedes: "The inertia of the magnetic field limits the rise of current to a realistic value" [read, 1990 p.13]. |
| LC formulas | omega0 = 1/sqrt(LC); Z0 = sqrt(L/C) | "The inverse of the product" of the storages gives the pitch; "the ratio" gives the impedance [read, 1990 p.13] | Square roots dropped; small slips, but formulas matter. |
| Antenna losses | Unreturned, unheated energy is radiated (R_rad) | It may instead be lost to "hysteresis of the aether", citing Steinmetz quoting Kennelly (1891) [read: page image, JBR May-Jun 1988 pp.11-12] | The quoted passage blames loss on the retardation (finite travel time) of the field, which is exactly radiation. His own source supports the mainstream answer. |
| Earth waves | Earth currents are ordinary EM fields diffusing in rock (magnetotellurics) | A non-electromagnetic "telluric wave" received by a ground-aerial with filters and a parametric amplifier, giving seismic warning; the antenna is "incapable of the transmission and reception of external electro-magnetic waves" [read: EPDPaper p.5] | No frequency, component value, spacing, lead time or test anywhere in the 30 pages [read: deep read]. The antenna-cannot-receive-EM claim conflicts with his own design, which needs a separate "rejection aerial" loaded to run at exactly c to subtract EM interference [read: EPDPaper pp.9-10]. A long grounded wire is an ordinary EM antenna. |
| The "longitudinal magneto-dielectric" (L.M.D.) wave and "counter-velocity" | Free waves are transverse: div E = 0 and div B = 0 force E and B perpendicular to travel (section 3g) | The telluric wave is complex: real part a TEM wave, imaginary part an L.M.D. wave whose E and B lie "co-linear or longitudinal to the direction of electric wave propagation", whose ratio is "not numerically equivalent to the velocity of light", and whose dimension is "per unit length per unit time", hence "counter-velocity" [read: EPDPaper pp.20-22] | Read as a wave in empty space, it is ruled out by Gauss's laws. And 1/(L T) is not a velocity (L/T), nor an attenuation constant (1/L). Yet he says velocity plus counter-velocity give "a simple electric wave dimensionally and numerically equivalent to the velocity of light" [read: EPDPaper p.28]: adding quantities of different dimensions. He never says whether he means near fields, guided modes or fields in rock, where longitudinal parts do exist. |
| Sub-harmonics | A linear passive network produces only the frequencies it is fed (section 2) | TEM waves carry Fo, 3Fo, 5Fo with amplitudes Ao, Ao/3, Ao/5; L.M.D. waves carry a "degressive" series Fo, Fo/3, Fo/5 with the same amplitudes [read: EPDPaper pp.21-22] | Asserted, not derived. Sub-harmonics need nonlinearity or parametric pumping, and he gives no reason why "longitudinal" should produce them. |
| Reciprocity | A linear passive antenna receives exactly as it transmits | Reciprocity "does not hold", by analogy with an induction machine that must lag as a motor and lead as a generator [read: EPDPaper p.13] | True only for active or nonlinear systems; no calculation given. |
| Energy balance | Passive circuits obey dW/dt = -I^2 R <= 0 (W = stored energy) | "Free energy will come from the dielectric field where energy grows rather than decays" [read: page image, JBR Mar-Apr 1987 p.28, via mathematician] | Fails for any passive system; "advanced vs retarded" likely echoes the 90-degree phase lead/lag, which carries zero average power. |
| A "reproducible free energy device" | A negative-resistance element turns supply power into oscillation | Philo Farnsworth's multipactor, "a secondary emission, negative resistance tube", is "probably the only real free energy device that anyone ever demonstrated which can be reproduced"; it "tends to take off when connected to apparatus such as a Tesla coil" [read: interview, compilation p.2] | "Taking off" is oscillation powered by the tube's supply. No input or output power is given. Farnsworth studied multipactor (1934) and tried to use it as an amplifier; today it is mainly a breakdown effect to avoid in radio-frequency (RF) hardware [web] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multipactor_effect . It is also an electron device, which sits badly with his claim (p.4) that the real current flows "without any electrons". |
| "Many amperes" of dielectric current | Displacement current I = C dV/dt needs no electrons | The high-voltage terminal of a Tesla transmitter puts out "a current of many amperes flowing through free space without any electrons" [read: interview p.4] | Partly mainstream. Illustration with my own numbers, not his: terminal C = 50 pF, V = 200 kV, f = 300 kHz gives I = 2 pi f C V = about 19 A peak [calc]. That is ordinary displacement current, not a separate carrier. |
| Speed of light | c is fixed by definition (section 3f) | "The velocity of light continually changes which changes the capacity of all capacitors and changes the effect of orgone" [read: interview p.7] | No size, period or mechanism given, so nothing to test. |
| Orgone accumulator | Metal layers screen electric fields (a Faraday cage) | The accumulator is "like a capacitor" (p.3), yet its "dielectric part penetrates through [the metal layers] without even seeing what's going on" (p.7) [read: interview] | The two statements conflict: a capacitor's metal plates are exactly what stop the electric field. Light slowing in a dielectric (v = c/n, n = refractive index) is textbook; the step to "drawing in orgone" is not derived. |
A point in Dollard's favour: his units in "Transmission of Electricity" Part I (C = 1/c^2, L = a length squared) are the vacuum permittivity and permeability of the old electromagnetic centimetre-gram-second (CGS, emu) system relabelled as circuit elements [memory: high], an idea with real historical roots in Steinmetz. A tension remains between Part I and Part II. Part I says the space "has the property of propagating a wavefront of light at a definite velocity" [read: OCR p.14]. Part II calls the idea that "electricity and light are the same thing" possibly "the most significant obstacle to the understanding of electric transmission" [read: OCR p.17]. The arbiter treats this as a change of emphasis: Part II backs away from Part I's framing without withdrawing the equation. One factor in the Part I formulas, written "p" in (4 pi 10^-9 p), is still unidentified.
Part I also argues that a shorted superconducting circuit holding magnetic pressure "requires ... perpetual motion, an unlikely proposition" [read: OCR p.16]. Persistent-current experiments contradict this (section 3h). His remark that a superconductor repels a magnetic field is correct: that is the Meissner effect [memory: high].
5. Worked example: does a shorted capacitor deliver "infinite" current?
Dollard's own statement (1990, p.13 [read]): on a short circuit "the field explodes against the bounding conductors with a velocity that may exceed light. Because the current is directly related to the velocity of field it jumps to infinity in its attempt to produce finite voltage across zero resistance."
Setup. C = 1 microfarad, charged to V0 = 1000 V. Short it with a 10 cm loop of thick wire. Every loop has inductance; take L = 1 microhenry and R = 10 milliohms (typical bench values [memory: medium]; the conclusion does not depend on the exact numbers).
Step 1: stored energy. U = (1/2) C V0^2 = 0.5 x 1e-6 x 1e6 = 0.500 J.
Step 2: the equation. Kirchhoff's voltage law around the loop: L q'' + R q' + q/C = 0, with q(0) = C V0 and q'(0) = 0 (no current at the instant of closing). Current I = -dq/dt.
Step 3: the ideal case R = 0. Try q = C V0 cos(omega0 t): then L q'' = -L omega0^2 q, so the equation is satisfied when omega0^2 = 1/(LC). Hence
I(t) = C V0 omega0 sin(omega0 t) = V0 sqrt(C/L) sin(omega0 t).
Peak current I_pk = V0 sqrt(C/L) = 1000 x sqrt(1e-6 / 1e-6) = 1000 A, reached at t = (pi/2) sqrt(LC) = 1.571 microseconds.
Energy check: (1/2) L I_pk^2 = 0.5 x 1e-6 x 1e6 = 0.5 J, exactly the stored energy, now all in the magnetic field. This is Dollard's own next paragraph ("the capacitance dumps all its energy back into the magnetic field and the whole process starts over again") made quantitative.
Step 4: add resistance. Damping rate alpha = R/(2L) = 0.01 / 2e-6 = 5,000 per second; omega0 = 1/sqrt(LC) = 1e6 rad/s. Since alpha << omega0 the circuit rings. The current is I(t) = (V0 / (L omega_d)) exp(-alpha t) sin(omega_d t) with omega_d = sqrt(omega0^2 - alpha^2). The peak falls to about 1000 x exp(-5000 x 1.57e-6) = 992 A. example.py confirms 992.2 A by both the formula and a direct numerical integration of the ODE, and finds that the total heat, integral of I^2 R dt, equals 0.5000 J: every joule is accounted for.
Step 5: "faster than light"? Light crosses the 10 cm loop in 0.334 ns. The current takes 1571 ns to peak, about 4,700 times longer. Nothing in the circuit is racing light; the speed is set by sqrt(LC), not by c. (This is also why ordinary circuit theory, which ignores travel time, works here.)
Step 6: where "infinity" comes from. I_pk = V0 sqrt(C/L) does go to infinity as L -> 0. That is the only route to Dollard's result, and it requires a loop with zero size. Shrinking L while keeping R = 10 milliohms [calc, example.py Part 3]:
| L | peak current |
|---|---|
| 1 microhenry | 992 A |
| 10 nH | 9,267 A |
| 0.1 nH | 54,629 A |
| 1 pH | 96,356 A |
Once L is tiny, resistance takes over and the current approaches V0/R = 100,000 A. Finite.
Step 7: Dollard's scale. He imagines "several KWH". Store 1 kWh (3.6 MJ) at 20 kV: C = 2U/V0^2 = 18 mF. Through a 1 microhenry loop, I_pk = 20,000 x sqrt(0.018 / 1e-6) = 2.68 million amps, peaking after about 211 microseconds [calc]. That would indeed vaporise a busbar, so his warning about "inconceivable violence" is fair engineering. It is still finite, and it is still set by L, not by any superluminal field.
Lesson. "Infinite current" is what you get when you idealise away the very element (inductance) that the next paragraph of the same article says limits the current. The same idealisation in reverse gives "infinite voltage" when an inductor's current is broken; there, stray capacitance C_s limits the spike to I0 sqrt(L/C_s) (for L = 1 H, I0 = 1 A, C_s = 100 pF: 100,000 V) [calc, arbiter].
Run it yourself: .venv/bin/python review/Dollard-Eric/example.py
6. Evidence table
| Claim | Tested? | Result | Replicated? | Verdict (arbiter) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1a. Energy flows in the fields around conductors; conductors reflect | Yes, routinely (all power and RF engineering) | Confirmed | Yes | Established (not a departure) |
| 1b. Insulators are the true conductors; electrons do not carry current | Yes, by ordinary resistivity, Hall and Tolman-Stewart experiments ([web] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stewart%E2%80%93Tolman_effect); persistent currents contradict his "perpetual motion" objection ([web] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistent_current) | Contradicted | Yes | Tested, not supported |
| 2a. Displacement current; near-field E and B act separately | Yes | Confirmed | Yes | Established |
| 2b. Dielectric induction propagates on its own at (pi/2)c | Wheatstone 1834 (artefact, [web] above); Tesla 1899 figure, no raw data; modern timing contradicts | Not supported | Tesla's figure never replicated | Tested, not supported (Tesla's figure: Never properly tested) |
| 3a. Capacitance as field energy, dual of inductance | Yes | Confirmed | Yes | Established |
| 3b. Shorting a capacitor gives faster-than-light release and infinite current | Capacitor discharges measured daily [memory: high] | Finite I = V0 sqrt(C/L) | Yes | Refuted by calculation; Internally inconsistent |
| 3c. "Supercapacitance" turns field energy into matter | No | None | No | Not testable as stated |
| 4. Tower energy is lost to "aether hysteresis", not radiated | Radiated fields measured at every licensed AM (amplitude-modulation) broadcast station [memory: high] | Radiation accounts for it | Yes | Refuted by calculation; his own citation describes radiation |
| 5a. Ground-aerial receiver, filters, reference aerial | Not as Dollard's design | None | No | Plausible, untested |
| 5b. L.M.D. "counter-velocity" wave as defined (E and B along the direction of travel, in a charge-free region) | No experiment needed | Excluded by div E = 0, div B = 0; the stated dimension 1/(L T) is not a velocity | n/a | Refuted by calculation (changed after QE from "undefined") |
| 5b'. The same wave in rock or a guided structure; non-reciprocal earth coupling | No | None | No | Not testable as stated (no derivation or numbers) |
| 5b''. Sub-harmonic series Fo, Fo/3, Fo/5 | No | None | No | Not testable as stated |
| 5c. Seismic warning by this system | No build or data on record | None | No | Never properly tested |
| 5d. Electromagnetic earthquake precursors in general (others' work, e.g. Loma Prieta 1989) | Yes, by others | Contested, not confirmed [web via mathematician] https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2008JA013932 | Disputed | Tested, not supported (contested) |
| 6a. Dielectric fields store and return energy | Yes | Confirmed | Yes | Established |
| 6b. Energy grows in dielectric fields (free energy) | No measured over-unity cited | Energy balance forbids gain in passive systems | No | Refuted by calculation |
| 6c. Dielectric "productive", magnetism "consumptive" | n/a | Contradicts his own LC energy-swap account (1990) | n/a | Internally inconsistent |
| 6d. Multipactor as a reproducible free-energy device | No power-in/power-out data given | An externally powered negative-resistance oscillator | No | Not supported |
| 6e. The speed of light "continually changes", changing all capacitances | No magnitude given to test | None | No | Not testable as stated |
| 6f. Orgone link | No controlled test sourced | None | No | Not testable as stated; its shielding mechanism is Internally inconsistent |
No source shows any Dollard claim being rejected without testing or suppressed. The honest pattern is "never tested because no testable numbers were given".
Other statements in the folder, not judged. None of these affects a verdict; each is a bare assertion with no data in the source. - A four-year Sonoma State University study linking planets, solar flares, weather and radio propagation [read: interview pp.5-6]. - Radio Corporation of America (RCA) forecasting of shortwave disturbances from planetary right angles [read: interview p.8]. This probably refers to J. H. Nelson's work [memory: medium; the web check failed]. - A geomagnetic reversal turning Earth into a "dielectric" regime needing ceramic compasses [read: interview p.6]. A compass needs a magnetic moment, which ceramic alone does not supply. - The planet "hums at 60 cycles", with the country's power grid "in phase" [read: interview p.10]. North America runs several separate, unsynchronised grids [memory: high]. - Naval sonar at 750,000 W blamed for whale strandings [read: interview p.10]. - "250 KWH for lightning stroke" [read: 1990 article]. That is 250 x 3.6e6 J = 0.9 GJ [calc]; not checked against lightning measurements. - A lineage running from Tesla's 1900 oscillation transformer, through Marconi's "Flat Top" aerial, to Ernst Alexanderson's 1919 multiple-tuned aerial, with the claim that the flat-tops were "electro-static rather than electro-magnetic" antennas [read: EPDPaper pp.14-20]. No citations are given; standard histories treat these as EM radiators [memory: medium]. - The array is to be grouped "in Scott configuration" [read: page image EPDPaper p.11]. A Scott connection is a three-phase to two-phase transformer wiring, not an array geometry [memory: high]. The footnote says groups of 3 while the body says groups of four.
7. What a learner should take away
Solid. Dollard is right, and many introductory courses are weak, on two points: (1) the energy of a circuit travels through the fields in the space around the wires, and (2) electric and magnetic storage are exact mirror images. Reading Steinmetz through Dollard is a good way to absorb the field picture. Displacement current without electrons is mainstream physics, and so is his observation that a whip antenna mainly senses the electric field and a loop the magnetic field.
Wrong, and why it is instructive. - Dimensions must match. "Counter-velocity" has dimension 1/(length x time), yet it is added to a velocity to give "the velocity of light". A one-line dimension check catches this, and the same check (div E = 0 for a plane wave) shows a longitudinal free wave cannot exist. Defining a quantity is not the same as defining a consistent one. - An oscillator is not a generator. A negative-resistance device such as the multipactor or a tunnel diode "takes off" by turning its supply power into oscillation. Before calling anything free energy, count every input: heater, direct-current (DC) supply, RF drive. - Idealisation mistaken for physics. "Infinite current" and "infinite voltage" come from setting L = 0 or C = 0 in a model. A good habit: whenever a formula gives infinity, ask which neglected element becomes important. Here it is the loop inductance, and Dollard names it himself a paragraph later. - Reading a source against itself. The Steinmetz/Kennelly "hysteresis of the aether" passage attributes the loss to the finite travel time of the field, which is radiation. Always read the cited passage in full. - Phase is not energy. A capacitor's current "leads" its voltage, but leading is not producing: the average power into a pure reactance is zero. - Numbers that look measured but are derived. Tesla's 471,240 km/s is 150,000 pi to every digit given. When a "measured" constant is an exact multiple of pi, ask how it was obtained. - Words redefined. "Insulators are the true conductors" is only true if "conductor" means "the place energy flows". Change the meaning of a word and you change the truth of the sentence without discovering anything.
Genuinely open.
- "Counter-velocity" is defined, but inconsistently (see above). Whether Symbolic Representation of the Generalized Electric Wave (not in the folder) gives it equations, and whether he meant near fields or fields in rock where longitudinal components do exist, is unknown.
- EPDPaper.pdf has been read in full and contains no testable numbers. Whether a finished Part Three with site data exists anywhere is unknown.
- Whether the telluric receiver was ever built.
- What the factor "p" in Part I's formulas is (needs the page images of compilation pp.14-17).
- How Tesla actually arrived at 471,240 km/s.
- Electrical earthquake precursors in general remain a legitimate, unproven and disputed research field.
8. Check yourself
- Dollard's L.M.D. wave has E and B pointing along its direction of travel. Take E = E0 z-hat exp(i(k z - omega t)) in empty space (z-hat is the unit vector along z). Compute div E and show it is not zero unless E0 = 0. Then check: if counter-velocity has dimension 1/(L T), can it be added to a velocity?
- A 10 microfarad capacitor at 400 V is shorted through a loop of 0.4 microhenry (ignore R). Find the peak current and the time to reach it.
- Why does Dollard's "smaller space stores more dielectric energy" need a hidden assumption? Give the energy of a parallel-plate capacitor at fixed V and at fixed Q as functions of the gap d.
- A quarter-wave tower carries 10 A rms. Using R_rad = 36.5 ohm and a ground-loss resistance of 2 ohm, what fraction of the input power is radiated, and how many watts is that?
- Compute (pi/2) x 299,792.458 km/s and 150,000 pi km/s. Which one matches Tesla's 471,240 km/s, and what does that suggest?
9. Further reading
Mainstream. - D. J. Griffiths, Introduction to Electrodynamics (chapters 7, 8, 9 and 11: Maxwell's equations, Poynting's theorem, waves, radiation). [memory: high] - R. P. Feynman, The Feynman Lectures on Physics, vol. II, ch. 27 "Field Energy and Field Momentum" (energy flow around a wire). [web] https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/II_27.html - E. M. Purcell and D. J. Morin, Electricity and Magnetism (a field-first introduction). [memory: high] - P. Horowitz and W. Hill, The Art of Electronics, ch. 1 (capacitors, inductors, RLC behaviour). [memory: high] - J. D. Kraus, Antennas (radiation resistance, monopoles). [memory: high] - C. P. Steinmetz, Elementary Lectures on Electric Discharges, Waves and Impulses (1911) and Theory and Calculation of Transient Electric Phenomena and Oscillations (1909): the sources Dollard draws on, and good classical engineering. [memory: high for titles, medium for dates] - Schumann resonances (a test of global wave speed): [web] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schumann_resonances . The ideal n = 1 mode is (c/2 pi a) sqrt(2) = 10.6 Hz; observed 7.83 Hz; a global speed of 1.57c would put it near 16.6 Hz [calc, arbiter]. - History of electrical speed measurements (Wheatstone, Fizeau): [web] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_electricity - Multipactor effect (Farnsworth's tube and why it matters in RF engineering): [web] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multipactor_effect - Persistent currents in superconductors: [web] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistent_current
Dollard's own key works.
- "Introduction to Dielectricity and Capacitance", Journal of Borderland Research 46(2), Mar-Apr 1990 (in folder; clean text). Start here.
- "The Transmission of Electricity", Parts I and II, JBR 1987-1988 (in folder, scanned).
- Interview in JBR Mar-Apr 1987 (in folder, scanned).
- EPDPaper.pdf, telluric-wave receiver typescript, undated (in folder, poor OCR, read in full; no drawings or numbers; pp.20-22 hold the T.E.M./L.M.D. wave theory).
- Theory of Wireless Power; Symbolic Representation of the Generalized Electric Wave; Condensed Introduction to Tesla Transformers (not in folder; published by BSRF [memory: medium]).
Answers
- div E = dE_z/dz = i k E0 exp(i(k z - omega t)), which is zero only if E0 = 0 (or k = 0, which is no wave at all). Gauss's law in charge-free space requires div E = 0, so the longitudinal wave cannot exist there. Dimensions: velocity is L/T; 1/(L T) is different, so the two cannot be added. The L.M.D. definition fails both checks for a free-space wave.
- I_pk = V0 sqrt(C/L) = 400 x sqrt(1e-5 / 4e-7) = 400 x 5 = 2000 A. Time = (pi/2) sqrt(LC) = 1.5708 x sqrt(4e-12) = 1.5708 x 2e-6 = 3.14 microseconds. (Energy check: (1/2)(1e-5)(400^2) = 0.8 J = (1/2)(4e-7)(2000^2).)
- C = eps0 A / d. At fixed V: U = (1/2) C V^2 = eps0 A V^2 / (2d), which rises as d shrinks (Dollard's case). At fixed Q: U = Q^2 / (2C) = Q^2 d / (2 eps0 A), which falls as d shrinks. So the statement holds only if the voltage is held fixed.
- Fraction = 36.5 / (36.5 + 2) = 0.948, about 95% (the 2 ohm loss is an assumed value). Radiated power = I^2 R_rad = 100 x 36.5 = 3650 W; heat = 100 x 2 = 200 W; input 3850 W. Nothing is left for "aether hysteresis".
- (pi/2) x 299,792.458 = 470,912.6 km/s; 150,000 pi = 471,238.9 km/s. Tesla's 471,240 matches 150,000 pi, i.e. (pi/2) times the rounded value 300,000 km/s. That suggests the number was computed from pi/2 and a rounded c, not independently measured; how Tesla actually obtained it is not documented here.