Sigma-Ro: Investigator sites log

Project: Ether-Technology: A Rational Approach to Gravity Control by "Rho Sigma" (Rolf Schaffranke), 1977. The book collects others' gravity-control work: T.T. Brown, Saxl, Searl/Barret Report, Roos, Seiki/Seike, Heim, Pagès and others.

Run log

• 2026-10-04, run 1 (first run; no earlier sites.md). Chrome with Google. Web time about 7 min of the 10-min cap (epoch 1791155464 to 1791155884). Chrome could not read three domains (naturalphilosophy.org, raum-und-zeit.com, britishnewspaperarchive): the extension has no permission there, so web fetch was used as the fallback. The CiNii, Internet Archive and J-STAGE PDFs were fetched with curl (open APIs and free PDFs). Notes are in research/2026-10-04-*.md; downloads are in research/files/.

Sites

Keywords tried

• "Rolf Schaffranke" "Rho Sigma"
• "Schaffranke" NASA Marshall Peenemünde obituary 1994
• Schaffranke "Post-Relativistic Concepts" OR "Space Energy" symposium pdf
• "Shinichi Seiki" anti-gravity Uwajima
• 清家新一 反重力 宇和島 (Seike, anti-gravity, Uwajima)
• 清家新一 (CiNii)
• 清家新一 フォン・ブラウン (Seike, von Braun)
• "Searl" 1983 Mortimer electricity board court prison "abstracting electricity"
• "John Searl" 1983 prison electricity board Mortimer Berkshire newspaper
• "Searl" 1983 "Mortimer" laboratory raid electricity prison Wormwood
• "Jan P. Roos" OR "Jan Roos" "pushing gravity" Austin
• Saxl 1964 Nature "electrified" torsion pendulum gravity
• "Arthur Cain" Searl "mill-wheel" OR "mill wheel"
• Searl Cain Mühlrad Antrieb Flugscheibe
• Hilgenberg 1931 "Über Gravitation, Tromben und Wellen in bewegten Medien"
• Schaffranke "Raum & Zeit" OR "Raum und Zeit" Einstein Äther Danzig (did not render)
• "Schaffranke" "Raum & Zeit"
• "Forschung in Fesseln" "Rho Sigma" Elektro-Gravitation Verlag
• "Electrodynamic Gravity" Sarasota
• archive.org metadata: Schaffranke; "Rho Sigma"; "Ether-Technology"; Searl AND Barrett
• BNA: "john searl" saucer (1950-1999)

Not yet tried (vary next run): "Tamhelm Press"; "Ventla-Verlag" 1972 "Rho Sigma"; "Barrett report" Searl 1968; "P.L. Barrett" Searl; "Wynniatt" Onerahi; "Association for Pushing Gravity Research"; Seike 『逆重力機関の組立方』 3×10^9 kW; "Seike" "negative gravitational energy"; "Burkhard Heim" Kontrabarie 1959 Stern; "M.J.J. Pagès" "Revue Française d'Astronautique" 1967; "Carstoiu" gravitational vortex; "DePalma" spinning ball 1974; Schaffranke Boeing; "Schappeller" Glasshütte / Aldrans; Brown patent family GB 300,311 / US 1,974,483 / US 2,949,550 / US 3,187,206.

Leads for review

1. The inventor's own work (Rolf Schaffranke / Rho Sigma)

• German original, 1972. Forschung in Fesseln: das Rätsel der Elektro-Gravitation, Ventla-Verlag, Wiesbaden-Schierstein, 1972; reissued by VAP 1994/1996 (ISBN 3922367909 / 3922367917) [web: AbeBooks/Booklooker via Google; Bergier 1978]. It predates the English book by five years. Bears on all claims: an earlier statement of the author's principles. Obtain a copy and compare contents.
• First English edition publisher: Tamhelm Press, P.O. Box 7, Lakemont, Georgia 30552, $5.75 [web: CUFORG Vol 2 No 5, March 1981, archive.org]. Historical record of the book.
• NEN Nov 1993, "Ether Research: Frontier Perspective in an Age of Revelation", by Rolf Schaffranke [web: newenergytimes.com, file in research/files]. It restates claim 2 (the ether exists) through Einstein's "space without ether is unthinkable", Dirac 1954 and Alfvén. By 1993 the focus had shifted to "space-energy converters" (Methernitha, Tewari). There is no new Searl or Brown data.
• raum&zeit articles: no. 37 "Schappellers kosmischer Energieextraktor"; no. 39 "Plädoyer für die Raumenergie-Konversion" (1989); no. 44 "Erdbeben durch Atombombentests" (1990); and the English Raum & Zeit vol 2 no 5 (1991) translation of Einstein's ether quotes. The Schappeller article bears on the Searl ether-flow mechanism (book p.77-78; claims 2 and 3).
• Other works: The New Tesla Electromagnetics and the Secrets of Electrical Free Energy (with T.E. Bearden, 1982/84); abstracts "The Development of Post-Relativistic Concepts in Physics and Advanced Technology Abroad" (1981, 1st Int. Symposium on Non-Conventional Energy Technology) and "Space Energy" (1990) [web: naturalphilosophy wiki].
• The Schaffranke-Brown letters, 1973: Davidson (1989) reprints them independently of the book. Brown: the vacuum-test lab notes (Paris 1955-56, Winston-Salem 1957-58, GE 1959) "were never published and are not available to me" [web: archive.org Davidson]. This bears on claim 1 (vacuum operation). The primary records are the missing lab notes; possible holders are the Bahnson Laboratories / Bahnson family papers and the GE Space Center archive.

2. Supporting information by others

• Seike's own primary record (the book's "Prof. Shinichi Seiki"). Seike Shin'ichi presented anti-gravity work at the Physical Society of Japan's open meetings from 1965 to 1997 [web: CiNii].
• The 1982 abstract "Nuclear Electric Resonance" gives the Frenkel-Kramers equations for axial (ϰ) and polar (ι) angular momentum in a rotating E field plus a static H field [web: J-STAGE page image]. This identifies the book's unexplained "Kramer-equation" and "polar and axial spin" (claim 5). The abstract makes no gravity or power claim; the 3×10⁹ kW must come from his books.
• The 1984 abstract "Gravity cancellation experiment" reports weight loss from a Möbius-wound Klein-bottle coil, 17 turns, DC: 2 A −0.059 g; 3 A −0.123 g; 4 A −0.169 g; 5 A −0.213 g; 6 A −0.291 g. The coil is about 30 g, so about 620 A would give zero weight, "achievable at helium temperature" [web: J-STAGE page image]. The abstract gives no balance, uncertainty, heating or reversal controls. It is a documented, numbered experimental claim that the reviewers can weigh (claim 5).
• Saxl's pendulum (claim 1): published in Nature, 11 July 1964, p.136, "An Electrically Charged Torque Pendulum"; follow-up Saxl & Allen, IRI Report #702 (eclipse gravity measurements) [web: citations in Valone 2012, AIAA]. Primary texts not yet read.
• Davidson 1989 on Searl: Davidson relays the Barrett Report from this book, then proposes that Searl's effect came from specially treated magnets in a roller arrangement (the later "magnet-roller" SEG). He also suggests the small 1949-50 EMF may be ordinary induction in the Earth's field [web: archive.org]. This is a second-hand alternative account of claim 3.

3. Closely related work

• W.J. Hooper / Electrodynamic Gravity, Inc. (Sarasota FL): the motional-electric-field ("B × V") theory of gravity. Patents US 3,610,971 (5 Oct 1971) and US 3,656,013 (filed 1968, issued 11 Apr 1972), both assigned to Electrodynamic Gravity Inc. Hooper died 14 Feb 1971 [web: Google Patents; Scribd snippet]. Bergier (1978) links Rho Sigma's 1972 book to the founding of this company, which conflicts with the dates (see 4).
• O.C. Hilgenberg 1931, Über Gravitation, Tromben und Wellen in bewegten Medien (Berlin, self-published, 78 pp.) exists and is held by the Met Office Library and in WorldCat. It is the "sink-flow ether" gravity source Roos invokes (book p.82). Hilgenberg is otherwise known for the expanding-earth hypothesis (1933) [web].
• Schappeller: The Physics of the Primary State of Matter (1942/1955) is on archive.org (the "Davson" title in Barret's bibliography). It is the theory behind the book's ether-flow direction (claim 3 mechanism). Not yet read.
• Modern test, by others: Hathaway & Williams 2021 (Physics 3(2):160): no weight change for 1 kg conductors at 10 V-200 kV, both polarities, within 2 g [web: arXiv:2103.00700]. It tests the static-charge version of claim 1, not Brown's asymmetric capacitor or Saxl's period effect.

4. Historical record

• Pseudonym and career: Schaffranke, b. 31 Jul 1921, d. 22 Apr 1994 (Young Harris GA; another account says Hayesville NC, burial Stone Mountain GA). Peenemünde with von Braun; brought to the US after the war; NASA Huntsville propulsion consultant; later Boeing (Davidson) [web: naturalphilosophy wiki citing Manning & Garbon 2008; Davidson 1989; Bergier 1978]. These are all advocacy or popular sources so far; no official personnel record has been found yet. To decide: Paperclip lists (NARA), Marshall Space Flight Center staff directories, obituaries (1994), Find a Grave.
• Bergier vs the dates (an anomaly to analyse): Bergier says the 1972 Rho Sigma report "led to the creation" of Electrodynamic Gravity Inc. But the company was assignee on a patent filed in April 1968, and Hooper died in Feb 1971. Possible explanations: Bergier's conflation; an earlier Rho Sigma text; or the company continuing after Hooper. Florida corporate records would decide it.
• Searl 1982-83 raid and prosecution (book p.108): no independent record found this run. The British Newspaper Archive was blocked. A snippet points to the Reading newspapers for the sentence. Searl's own book lists his publicity until 1983 (Life Magazine, Thames TV). Unresolved; this is the next target.
• Arthur Cain ("published testimony", p.82) and Jan P. Roos / Association for Pushing Gravity Research (p.81): searched in English and German. The only hits are this book and works that copy it (Davidson; Stevens' UFO Contact from Reticulum). Outside the book the record is silent. It would be expected to continue if Cain's testimony was "published" and Roos's association was active. Candidate explanations: a private or very small association; a translated or garbled source (a German press item?); or a mis-rendered name. The candidate records are Texas nonprofit registrations (Roos) and 1970s German/UK popular-science press (Cain).
• Seike / Gravity Research Institute: founded 1973 in Uwajima, magazine 『宇宙艇』 1973-1998, closed on his death in 2009 [web: ja.wikipedia; departure-ruins.com]. The book's von Braun-Seike meeting has no independent record yet (search 清家新一 フォン・ブラウン negative).