SilverTooth: central claims
Single source: one 5-page paper by Ernest W. Silvertooth, "Experimental detection of the ether" (received May 1986), text fully readable (modern retyping, not a scan). No source gap, but the project rests on this one paper: no raw data, error bars, run counts, dates or location are given in it, and the sponsor reports (Rome Air Development Center, DARPA) are not in the folder. [read]
Related work by the inventor exists outside the folder (found by the Investigator): 1972 JOSA "Isotropy of C" (recorded as a null by Roberts & Schleif [web], not read), 1976 Applied Optics 15, 1100 (a two-laser null; saved in research/files), 1989 Electronics & Wireless World (claimed repeatability within +/-5%), and 1992 Physics Essays (Whitney & Silvertooth, nodal-spacing claim). The 1976 paper says frequency changes; the 1986 paper says it cannot. Journal of the 1986 paper: Speculations in Science and Technology 10(1) 3-11 [web, via Investigator].
- Michelson-Morley-type experiments cannot detect an ether because, with frequency fixed, a direction-dependent light speed appears as a direction-dependent wavelength and the round-trip count is unchanged; the null result needs neither isotropic c nor Lorentz contraction. [read: p.1-2]
- Using the Sagnac shift on a straight segment in "pure translation", the one-way wavelengths are lambda/(1 +/- v/c) (exact by construction from eq. 3; only eq. 4 is first order in v/c), though the one-way speed itself remains unmeasurable. [read: p.2]
- The one-way wavelength can be measured with a slide-mounted two-beam standing-wave interferometer: v/c = lambda/(2 Delta), where Delta is the slide travel for a 180 degree phase reversal. [read: p.3-4]
- Experiment: east-west travel with Leo on the horizon gives Delta = 0.25 mm, so v = 378 km/s at 0.63 um; no effect north-south or with Leo 6 or 18 hours away; this agrees with Muller's U2 cosmic-background result. One reported value, no errors or runs stated. [read: p.4]
- The same effect (velocity-dependent wavelength count altering Doppler frequency, with an extra L*vbar/c^2 redshift term) is said to explain the accelerating universe, anomalous quasar redshifts and GPS errors; no derivation or numbers given. [read: p.4]