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Letter: Mutual attraction

Published 26 February 2000

From Dave Saltrese

In the article on “unlimited” energy
(22 January, p 32), the description of
the Casimir effect is very similar to Oliver Heaviside’s statement in
Electromagnetic Theory (vol 1, appendix B), which was published around
1900. Heaviside believed in the ether (zero-point energy). He writes: “Thus two
bodies which appear to attract are pushed together. The case of two large
parallel material planes exhibits this in a marked manner, for e [the
intensity of the force] is very small between them, and relatively large on
their further sides.”

To find further clues on how to extract energy from the vacuum, it could be
worthwhile revisiting the works of Heaviside.

Brechfa, Carmarthenshire

Issue no. 2227 published 26 February 2000

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