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Investigator sites log: SilverTooth

Run 1: 2026-10-04 (first run; there was no earlier sites.md). Time cap 10 min. Web time used: about 5 min 10 s in Chrome (Google, Scholar, Patents, site pages), plus three WebFetch calls. WebFetch was used only where Chrome failed: i-logic.com was denied by the extension's site permission, and the UCR FAQ needed exact text that Chrome's find tool did not return. Reading the saved PDFs afterwards did not count toward the time.

Files saved to research/files/: two PDFs fetched by WebFetch from i-logic.com (the 1976 Applied Optics paper and the 1983 Standing wave sensor). Other documents found were only viewed or listed; downloads are left for the owner to approve (see "Not reached").

Inventor: Ernest Wilbur "Bud" Silvertooth (1916-2000), optical engineer (Caltech B.S.; Paramount; 1941 Academy technical award; Pasadena 1970s-80s; Olga/Orcas Island, WA from about 1986).

Site URL First checked Last checked Queries tried Result Recheck? Notes
Conspiracy of Light (Doug Marett) http://www.conspiracyoflight.com/Silvertooth/Silvertooth.html 2026-10-04 2026-10-04 via Google Marett "Replication of the Silvertooth Experiment" positive yes 2011-12 replication: confirms a 12 h sidereally aligned signal of about the right size; finds offset, wrong sign, local-time match; attributes it to temperature-driven HeNe beam pointing. Companion papers not read.
spirit-science.fr https://spirit-science.fr/ArchivesScientifiques/1989Silvertooth.pdf 2026-10-04 2026-10-04 Google Silvertooth "Motion through the ether" spirit-science.fr positive yes Inventor's EWW May 1989 article: GE Syracuse sensors, Delta within +/-5% over several years, Leo alignment, reading list. Viewed only, not saved.
i-logic.com/relativity https://i-logic.com/relativity/ 2026-10-04 2026-10-04 directory listing; Silvertooth3.pdf, Silvertooth5.pdf positive yes Chrome: extension permission denied, so WebFetch used. Saved 1976 AO paper (origin of eq. 10; earlier NULL two-laser test; U. Arizona experiment) and 1983 sensor paper. Silvertooth1/2.jpg and Silvertooth4.pdf (Newburgh 1977) not read.
Natural Philosophy Wiki https://wiki.naturalphilosophy.org/index.php?search=Silvertooth 2026-10-04 2026-10-04 search Silvertooth; pages Wilbur_Silvertooth, Position Error..., A New Michelson-Morley Experiment, Sherwin analysis, Marinov/Wesley repetitions, Preliminary Analysis, Whitney-Marinov discussion positive yes Biography; 1990 GPS paper; 1992 Whitney paper; Marinov 1987 repetition (386 +/- 38 km/s); Wesley 1987 (378 +/- 8 km/s, RA 11 h); Sherwin 1989 AC-coupling critique. 47 hits; about 12 read.
Google Scholar https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=author%3A%22EW+Silvertooth%22 2026-10-04 2026-10-04 author:"EW Silvertooth" partial yes Page 1 read (publication list 1942-1989). Page 2 blocked (CAPTCHA, "unusual traffic").
Optica Publishing Group https://opg.optica.org/search.cfm?q=Silvertooth 2026-10-04 2026-10-04 search Silvertooth; abstract pages josa-62-11-1330, ao-15-5-1100 positive yes 10 papers incl. JOSA 1972 "Isotropy of C", AO 1976, Grøn 1977 comment and Silvertooth reply. Full texts paywalled; abstracts "not available".
Google Patents https://patents.google.com/?inventor=Silvertooth 2026-10-04 2026-10-04 inventor:Silvertooth before:priority:20000101; inventor:(Ernest W Silvertooth) partial yes Only US3527526A (catoptric imaging, 1965/1970; DE, GB family). No ether or sensor patent found. Try name variants and pre-1950 OCR.
Forbes (Koberlein 2018) https://www.forbes.com/sites/briankoberlein/2018/04/06/the-tale-of-a-1986-experiment-that-proved-einstein-wrong/ 2026-10-04 2026-10-04 via Google first query positive no Secondary popular account. Accepts the observation, rejects the interpretation (relies on Marett); describes the Nature item as a one-column letter.
arXiv https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0608223 2026-10-04 2026-10-04 via Google first query positive no Navia et al. 2006: related one-way laser anisotropy claim aligned with the CMB direction; cites Silvertooth.
UCR/DESY SR FAQ (Roberts & Schleif) https://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SR/experiments.html 2026-10-04 2026-10-04 find Silvertooth positive no Lists the 1972 JOSA Silvertooth one-way test as a NULL consistent with SR; lists 1983/86/92 under "apparently not consistent".
Google web (general, historical) https://www.google.com 2026-10-04 2026-10-04 see Keywords (15 queries) partial yes Found TETET-99 book (1999, ISBN 978-0968308547); Academy award records; WW Nov 1986 and Nov 1989 at worldradiohistory; Newburgh (RADC) 1977 comment; Marinov letter of 1 Nov 1986. No obituary.
DTIC (via Google) https://discover.dtic.mil 2026-10-04 2026-10-04 site:dtic.mil Silvertooth negative yes No indexed match. Direct DTIC search not yet done: the RADC/DARPA sponsorship has no report trail so far (see Absence of evidence).
atogt.com (Academy Awards DB) https://www.atogt.com/askoscar/ 2026-10-04 2026-10-04 Google Silvertooth Paramount "relay condenser" Academy award 1941 OR 1942 positive no Confirms the 1941 Class III technical award.
Yumpu (Marinov, Thorny Way of Truth) https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/36582458/the-thorny-way-of-truth-free-energy-community 2026-10-04 2026-10-04 page load blocked yes No document text extractable (chat widget only). Use the rexresearch PDF instead.
rexresearch (SST PDF; Marinov library) https://w.rexresearch1.com/Books/SilvertoothExperimentalDetectionEther.pdf ; https://rexresearch.com/MarinovLibrary/thorny_waytruth7.pdf - - - not reached (time limit) yes Check whether the SST PDF is an original scan (would settle the deep read's retyping errors); read Marinov's 1986-87 correspondence with Silvertooth.
worldradiohistory.com (Wireless World scans) https://www.worldradiohistory.com - - site:worldradiohistory.com Silvertooth (results listed only) not reached (time limit) yes Read WW 1986-11 (report on Nature letter), 1988-02 p.126 (Essen), 1988-06 p.542 (Silvertooth letter), 1989-11 (replies), 1978-10 p.44 (Essen).
Nature / ADS https://www.nature.com/articles/322590b0 ; https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1986Natur.322..590S - - - not reached (time limit) yes The 1986 letter text (ADS may have a scan). Check whether it answers Aspden.
Physics Essays / Galilean Electrodynamics / SST publisher sites; Google - - - not reached (time limit) yes Sherwin 1989; Nanning 1988; Whitney & Silvertooth 1992; Silvertooth 1990 GPS; Wesley 1987; Aspden 1987; Marinov 1987.
University of Arizona (OSC report; Jacobs CV) https://optics.arizona.edu ; UA repository - - - not reached (time limit) yes "Third-Quarter FY75 Applied Optics Research Report", OSC (May 1975): the E-W two-oscillator ether experiment. Jacobs CV PDF.

Keywords tried

  • "Silvertooth" "experimental detection of the ether"
  • Marett "Replication of the Silvertooth Experiment"
  • site:rexresearch1.com OR site:rexresearch.com Silvertooth
  • inventor:Silvertooth before:priority:20000101 (Google Patents)
  • inventor:(Ernest W Silvertooth) (Google Patents)
  • author:"EW Silvertooth" (Google Scholar, page 1; page 2 CAPTCHA)
  • Silvertooth "Motion through the ether" spirit-science.fr
  • site:dtic.mil Silvertooth
  • Silvertooth "Rome Air Development Center" OR RADC "standing wave" OR ether OR interferometer
  • Silvertooth (Natural Philosophy Wiki internal search); Optica internal search "Silvertooth"
  • Silvertooth "Special relativity" Nature 322 590 1986
  • "Silvertooth" Orcas Island OR Olga obituary 2000 physicist OR optics
  • "Silvertooth effect" TETET
  • Silvertooth Paramount "relay condenser" Academy award 1941 OR 1942
  • Aspden "Silvertooth" site:aspden.org
  • Marinov "Silvertooth" repetition OR "coupled mirrors" Speculations 1987
  • yumpu "thorny way of truth" "letter to Silvertooth"
  • site:cellularcosmology.org Silvertooth
  • "Silvertooth" "standing wave" contract OR report RADC OR DARPA OR "Air Force" 1984 OR 1985 OR 1986
  • site:worldradiohistory.com Silvertooth

Not yet tried (next run): "Wilbur Silvertooth" obituary Bellingham Herald / Islands' Sounder (Orcas) 2000; "Bud Silvertooth"; Silvertooth Caltech alumni / Terman "Genetic Studies of Genius"; Silvertooth "Aerospace Corporation"; DTIC direct search "standing wave sensor" and "one-way wavelength"; "Gordon Orme" RADC; "John Strong" Silvertooth; Newburgh RADC 1977 full text; Grøn 1977; Phipps Silvertooth (Thomas E. Phipps Jr.); Sherwin full text; Whitney "Silvertooth" Galilean Electrodynamics; TETET-99 / UNIAM / Lahoz / Angel Garcia; Marett "Single Laser One-Way Speed of Light"; De Witte 1991 Brussels; Múnera; Spavieri one-way wavelength; "Silvertooth experiment" in German (Silvertooth-Experiment Äther) and Italian (Bartocci, Selleri); Google Books for SST vol. 10 contents.

Leads for review

1. The inventor's own work

  • 1976 Applied Optics 15(5) 1100-1102, "Electromagnetic radiation, relativity, and anomalous red-shifts" (saved: research/files/Silvertooth-1976-AppliedOptics-15-1100-anomalous-redshifts.pdf) [web: i-logic.com/relativity/Silvertooth3.pdf]. Bears on claims 1, 2, 5 and 4:
  • The same Sagnac-segment argument (L·v/(cλ), independent of r; "pure translation") published 10 years before the 1986 paper, with the explicit hypotheses "(4) Absolute velocity can be measured".
  • It derives the extra Doppler term of 1986 eq. (10): ν_o = (ν_s/γ)(1 ± v_r/c)(1 ± L·v̇_r/c²), where v̇_r is the radial acceleration, with the quasar-in-rotating-galaxy example v̇_r = dω². The "v̄" in the 1986 retyping is very probably v̇. The term is then dimensionless, which answers the deep read's units question. The Mathematician should confirm this.
  • Reports an earlier experiment with a NULL result: two free-running lasers, two 500 Å photocathodes 50 cm apart, a granite block on an air bearing. 79 cycles were expected for Δv/c = 1e-4, and "No phase shift was observed". He read this as phase invariance, and the wavelength change as a result of frequency and velocity changes. Pertinent to claim 4 whatever the verdict.
  • Cites Simon Newcomb's 1881 letter to Michelson (National Archives RG78) as stating the same wavelength-compensation principle as claim 1.
  • Says an E-W two-oscillator ether experiment was "under way at the University of Arizona Optical Sciences Center" (OSC FY75 report).
  • 1989 Electronics & Wireless World 95:437-438, "Motion through the ether" [web: spirit-science.fr PDF]. Bears on claims 3 and 4. Inventor's statements: Δ values "have all ranged within ±5% of the cited value" over "several years" in "a variety of configurations". Sensor: 50 nm photocathode, S/N about 20,000:1, three sensors made by GE Syracuse from image-orthicon parts. The maximum came with the detector axis pointed at Leo, and there was no phase change 6 h before and after. λ1 and λ2 are written as λ(1 ± v/c), labels swapped relative to 1986 eq. 5.
  • 1983 Applied Optics 22(9) 1274, Silvertooth & Jacobs (Univ. Arizona OSC), "Standing wave sensor" (saved). The D1 detector of the 1986 paper; effective thickness < λ/100.
  • 1972 JOSA 62(11) 1330, "Isotropy of C": a one-way test with frequency-doubling crystals that mainstream FAQ authors (Roberts & Schleif) record as a NULL result consistent with SR [web: math.ucr.edu]. Not yet read. Bears on claim 4 and on the development of claim 1.
  • 1990 Galilean Electrodynamics 1(6) 80-83, "Position Error in Satellite Navigation Systems": the numerical working of the GPS part of claim 5 (Sagnac contribution) [web: naturalphilosophy wiki abstract].
  • 1992 Physics Essays 5(1) 82-89, Whitney & Silvertooth, "A New Michelson-Morley Experiment": a standing-wave nodal spacing inside one Michelson arm that departs from λ/2; fitted c(θ) = c/[1+(v0/c)cos θ], v0 about 378 km/s [web: wiki abstract]. Marett says the 1992 paper found the Sagnac effect irrelevant to the result.
  • 1986 Nature 322:590 letter "Special relativity" (doi 10.1038/322590b0); 1977 AO reply to Grøn; 1988 EWW letter p.542. Not read.
  • Patent: only US3527526A (optics, 1970); none on the ether apparatus [web: Google Patents].

2. Supporting information by others

  • Doug Marett (2012) replication [web: conspiracyoflight.com]. Reproduced a 12-hour diurnal signal aligned with the sidereal Leo directions, giving about the CMB velocity after normalisation. Found a non-zero offset, large day-to-day scatter, the opposite sign to Silvertooth's prediction, the same pattern in local time, and a correlation with room temperature and laser lock voltage. Conclusion: a temperature-driven HeNe beam-angle artefact ("a very elaborate thermometer"). Claims 3-4. Keep both halves: the observation reproduced; the replicator's attribution to temperature.
  • Stefan Marinov (1987), "A Simplified Repetition of Silvertooth's Measurement": different arrangement, January 1987, v = 386 ± 38 km/s, declination −22 ± 6 degrees, RA 12.5 ± 0.5 h [web: wiki abstract]. Claim 4. Marinov is himself a claimant of absolute-motion detection (interested party in the result).
  • Paul Wesley (1987): "378 ± 8 km/s ... right ascension α = 11 ± 2 h" [web: wiki abstract]. This supplies an uncertainty and direction absent from the 1986 paper. Source of the data to be checked.
  • Harold Aspden (1987, SST, "A Note on the Silvertooth Experiment"); B. A. Nanning (1988, Physics Essays 1(4) 272, preliminary analysis); Wilczynski (1991); Whitney-Marinov discussion (Deutsche Physik 1993). Not read.
  • Critiques, kept with the support: Chalmers W. Sherwin (1989, Physics Essays 2(2) 125) and T. E. Phipps argue that AC coupling to the oscilloscope makes nodes look like "inverse phase", and that a λ/4 twist over about 500λ of travel could fake the effect. R. G. Newburgh (RADC, AO 1977) and Ø. Grøn (AO 1977) commented on the 1976 paper.
  • Navia et al. 2006 (arXiv astro-ph/0608223): laser-diffraction one-way anisotropy aligned with the CMB velocity; reports a = −0.4106 ± 0.0225 against the SR value −0.5 [web].
  • Marinov's coupled-mirrors and toothed-wheel experiments; De Witte (1991); Múnera; Spavieri; Cahill; De Haan; and claimed "agreement with Miller's result" as a common thread (per the Roberts & Schleif FAQ) [web].
  • Conventionality of one-way speed: Winnie (1970), Tyapkin (1973). Marett and Forbes cite these against the one-way wavelength measurement (claims 1 and 3).
  • "The Silvertooth effect: TETET-99" (S. Silvertooth, D. G. Lahoz, Angel Garcia; Toronto, UNIAM, 1999; ISBN 978-0968308547; 211 pp.) [web: publications.gc.ca list, findbookprices]. Content and authorship unknown.

4. Historical record

  • Biography (naturalphilosophy wiki, no sources on page): born 27 Nov 1916 Portland; Caltech B.S.; Paramount; Air Force "think tank" associated with Aerospace Corp. (classified work, per the wiki); died 24 Sep 2000, Bellingham WA.
  • 1941 Academy Scientific or Technical Award (Class III) with the Paramount Studio Engineering Department, for a relay condenser system [web: atogt.com, cinemasight, Wikipedia].
  • Addresses: 974 Flintridge Ave, Pasadena (1975-1983); Star Route Box 166, Olga, WA (1986) [read 1986; web 1976/1983 papers].
  • Collaborators and patrons: S. F. Jacobs and Robert Shannon (U. Arizona OSC); John Strong (U. Massachusetts); Gordon Orme; GE Tube Department, Syracuse.
  • Absence of evidence (RADC/DARPA sponsorship): the 1986 statement of partial RADC and DARPA sponsorship has no report trail found (DTIC via Google: nothing). An RADC physicist (Newburgh) commented critically in 1977. Explanations to weigh: informal or in-kind support with no report; reports not indexed (DTIC direct search pending); restricted distribution; overstated sponsorship. Records to target: DTIC direct, RADC/AFRL Rome history office, DARPA archives, FOIA, U. Arizona OSC FY75 report.
  • Wireless World Nov 1986 coverage of the Nature letter, and the Nov 1989 replies (worldradiohistory.com), document how the claim was received in an engineering magazine.

Top leads for Step 2

  1. (Priority 1) The 1976 Applied Optics paper (saved): the derivation of eq. (10) with v̇ as acceleration, and the earlier two-laser NULL experiment.
  2. (Priority 2) Marett's 2012 replication: the signal was reproduced, and the replicator traced it to temperature and laser pointing, with a sign reversal. Alongside: Marinov 1987 (386 ± 38 km/s) and Wesley 1987 (378 ± 8 km/s).
  3. (Priority 4) The RADC/DARPA sponsorship with no report trail, plus the U. Arizona OSC FY75 report, the next records to search.