Chapter 60: Back to London

Tamara made the call and the person she wanted to speak to answered her call.

“Dr Carter here.”

“Hi there, Dr Carter, my name’s Tamara Alexandre and I’ve begun a collaboration with Dr Sean Pomeroy’s group in Physics on correlated electron systems,” she began when the person she was told to contact got on the phone. “Dr Pomeroy said you might be able to help me with some high-speed photography.”

“Hello, Dr Alexandre...”

She chuckled. “Not doctor yet, but soon, I hope. I just began my doctoral work at Johns Hopkins and their APL.”

“Ah ... Alexandre ... by any chance, are you that young Draper Prize recipient from last year?”

“That’s me. My research is extending that work but I find myself in need of a camera that can capture frames in excess of 80,000 fps and I need a resolution of around 1280 x 800. The APL has a Phantom TMX 7510 that I’m using but I need a faster one. I heard about your department’s 70 Tfps apparatus; that’s way more than I need but I thought perhaps you know of something not so complex and that led me to call you.”

“I’m pleased to meet you, even if it’s by phone, Miss Alexandre...”

“Just Tamara, please.”

“Sure. Congrats on the Draper Award; that was outstanding work.”

“Thanks.”

“Dr Pomeroy was right to refer you to us; we’ve developed a portable advanced optical detector and can theoretically capture images at about 200,000 fps, but you do know that the limits of data capture and storage apply at such a speed, don’t you?”

“Sure; I faced that problem with acquiring the data from my high-resolution MRI coils. We have to compress the data; it comes in so quickly for each scan, so the scan is very similar to a video for data capture. We have a team at the APL working on lossless data compression. Some of their work isn’t classified.”

“Oh, that’s right—you’re the person behind those innovations too,” Carter said. “Say, we currently don’t have the resources to work on improving data handling above the 200,000 fps rate, but ... tell me, Tamara, are those data algorithms you’ve developed classified themselves? Because they may be useful for our video research.”

“Well, DARPA is funding that work but the MRI piece was a side project and doesn’t use anything classified.”

“All right, how about this? Ordinarily we rent out the use of those ultra-cameras which we’ve developed, but if we can work out a collaboration arrangement, possibly you could license your data algorithm in exchange for the free use of the cameras in your project.”

“I don’t see why not,” Tamara said. “I think it would need to be a non-exclusive, limited and non-transferable license, since we’re using those algorithms commercially.”

“Understood. Okay, email me the details of your planned camera use and get me what your folks want for a licensing agreement and I’ll get things started.”

“Sure, and thanks.”

“It was a pleasure talking to you, Tamara. When I get your project info, I’ll be happy to advise you on the best ways to use the cameras. We have two we could lend to you to use. I hope to speak to you soon.”

“Bye.”

Tamara found Emma in her office and told her about that conversation.

“So they rent those cameras for about $2000 per day, Emma. I think that the data algorithms are APL property since their employees worked on them. The APL will be licensing the MRI coils for manufacture the way they did for the unit where you did the magnet development. And the data-handling algorithms have commercial value too.”

“That’s correct, Tamara. You’re really thinking like an entrepreneur, aren’t you.”

“Sure. That’s ‘cause you and the patent attorneys keep pounding this stuff into my head.”

“That’s ace. So get me the outline you plan to send to Carter and I’ll check with the APL administration for the licensing part of the deal. Now, about the work on the coil-force data. How far have you gotten?”

“Up to the point where very accurate timing measurements are needed. That’s what the cameras are for. Our cameras are too slow; they have about a twelve microsecond response. The Caltech cameras can get to five microseconds and down to 600 picoseconds if we sacrifice a little image resolution. That will allow calculating target inertia effects which will allow seeing how the field strength develops. We still can’t figure out how that coil force field propagates. And I want to run an idea past you about that problem.”

“Oh? This should be good,” Emma chuckled.

“Now stop that!” Tamara complained and Emma just grinned back at her. “So if the coil force is to have commercial possibilities, we need to see how it scales up, right? We need to map the field of force, especially looking for edge effects. We saw a huge scale-up problem with the accumulator and also when we increased the size of the small coils.”

“Correct; go on.”

“My idea is not to just build a larger super-coil; I did some calcs on the geometry of an array of super-coils arranged so that the direction of the projected force is aimed at an area in the center of the coil arrangement. We would orient the coil array horizontally so that the target ‘object’ would be the surface that the coil is resting on. But since we don’t know anything about peripheral effects, like air displacement or lateral forces when a large area is exposed to the energized coils, the experiment should be done in an isolated area.”

“How big a coil array are you visualizing?”

“About a half-meter diameter, with a mass of 100 kilograms supported by it. My calcs show that the half-meter coil, drawing one ampere of current, has the ability to produce roughly 12,080 joules plus or minus 6 percent, and raising the 100 kg by one meter in a second will take 9,800 joules.”

“Did you account for inertia of the moving parts?”

“Yep. Everything attached to the coil would have to be well secured and the coil assembly would need to be enclosed in something so that when it moves up, it can’t fly away. The current to the coil would need a one-second auto-cutoff too and damping resistors to kill any induced current in the circuit.”

“You said ‘isolated area.’ What do you intend by that?”

“Maintaining a five-hundred-foot area open around the coil should be fine,” Tamara said. “The enclosure it’s inside of could be made of any non-magnetic material but the walls should have strain or pressure gages located at intervals, including the roof. And remote visual monitoring should be done with standard slo-mo video cameras, the 480 fps versions we have should work just fine. There should be three cameras, 120 degrees apart in a circle. And several ionizing radiation detectors too, just in case. We had no hint of any kind of radiation in previous tests but scaling up may open a portal to more than just the coil force repulsion when it lifts that mass off the ground.”

“Hmm, more science fiction, Tamara. Sounds like you’re visualizing anti-gravity.”

Tamara laughed. “Not really; it’s just mag-lev without the mag. It’s somewhat equivalent to a ground-effect vehicle, actually. I think that the coil force repels most normal matter and my coils seem to focus it centrally, so it appears that the forces produced by the assembly should remain directional. I hope. That’s what this macro test should show.”

“So we already know that the coil force seems to be relatively safe around people,” Emma said. “Remember, I told you that James accidently walked in front of an energized coil and he said that all he felt was tingling and a push away.”

“Oh right, I remember how angry you were then when you learned how careless he was,” Tamara said. “Hey, we should get him to try a human version of the frog-levitation trick. Remember that Dutch experiment? They used a 16 tesla magnet to make the frog float. That’s ‘cause the water in cells of organisms is very weakly diamagnetic so the frog’s tissues were repelled by the magnet. I saw the video of that very confused frog floating in the air over the magnet. So funny.”

“Yes. Well. I don’t favor deliberately stupid acts,” Emma told her. “If this invention goes commercial and people begin to think it’s antigravity, I have visions of some plonker trying to be Superman and jump off something.”

“Ugh, yeah. The field drops off so quickly, by the time the ground is close enough for the field to repel the generator, he’d be going so fast that he’d be squashed by the inertia caused by the field’s stopping him. Yuck.”

“Well then, my dear, leave me your calcs and the sketches I see that you’ve made. Let me go over them and I’ll check with the APL on whether your plans look feasible. We’ll also need to figure the costs and a budget. I reckon you’re planning on using some more of your Draper money for this experiment?”

“That’s right; that’s what I planned. This is on my dime.”

“Huh, it’s so funny,” Emma reflected. “That’s just what I did when I began my own research. I funded it myself. Okay, get outta here, girl. Go play with more of those data numbers; perhaps they’ll suggest a new Theory of Everything to you,” Emma grinned.

During the next several days, events involving the loan of the high-speed cameras moved surprisingly quickly, given that attorneys were involved. The licensing agreement for the data algorithm was ready within the week and Tamara had sent her plans for using the cameras to Dr Carter. The APL attorneys had contacted the Caltech attorneys directly and soon the details were finished and the agreements had been signed.

Transporting the cameras, which were fairly large, was the next challenge, since all of the previous rentals of the units were within California, mostly in the LA area, where they could be transported by truck. But Carter had an idea; JPL, the Jet Propulsion Lab, a NASA division, was run by Caltech, and NASA employed their own aircraft to fly weekly shuttle trips between JPL and the NASA Goddard headquarters in Greenbelt, Maryland. The flights used Joint Base Andrews for the D.C. terminus, which was only 25 miles distant from the APL. The cameras were sent out on a NASA flight and an APL vehicle was at the airfield when the flight arrived. Soon the cameras were installed at Emma’s coil force testing lab and the engineers and techs had begun collecting the coil-force data using the setups that Tamara had designed, to measure, in exquisite detail, the precise timing of the activation of the coil force.

The very-large-scale experimental setup which Tamara had proposed took longer to get approval. The APL administration wanted to be very sure that the proposed experiment would not pose a hazard to people and facilities in the area. The APL did have an open area on its grounds which could potentially be used, and after Tamara provided reams of calculations showing the maximum range of any forces using the most stringent of assumptions that the APL’s engineers could devise, she got her approval.

Beginning of September

Right after Labor Day though, Tamara and Barbara finalized their arrangements to go to the Volleyball Superbowl, and this year they drove up on the Thursday before the team competitions began. Again, Peter and Terence accompanied them and they stayed in their teammates’ RV and camper. During the opening ceremonies on Friday evening, their team was recognized as the second-place finishers in the “B” division from the last year. But this year, playing other “A” level teams was a whole different world for them, totally unlike the games the previous year had been. The matches were very close, and by the quarter-final round, Tamara’s team was in third place.

Both Tamara and Barbara had made numerous important plays and when they were at the net, Tamara’s spikes were deadly, sometimes forcing four defenders to cover her—which left large open areas undefended for when Tamara faked a kill, allowing a teammate to make the shot. But it was Dawn’s skills and experience that really kept them in the games. She was an expert setter and also a defensive specialist who had good offensive and serving skills, rounding out a complete player. Her setting skills gave their team two superior setters and this allowed the team to run offensive plays which were difficult to anticipate. Dawn’s defensive skills were what kept them in the games though, because the opposing teams all had very powerful offenses.

The tournament ended with Tamara’s team in fourth place, but Dawn was fairly pleased with that result. There had been ten “A” women’s teams entered and the members of those other teams had played together for years; while their own team was an inexperienced newcomer to “A” level competition. In fact, as she pointed out to her team members, their scores were very close to the top team when they played them, only losing by the scores 26-28, 25-22, and 27-29. And the worst score that they had in losing any game was 21-25. The men’s team was third again this year in the men’s “B” competition. Both teams vowed to meet during the winter and spring to work out. But this trip was over now and it was back to work.

Mid-October

During the following six weeks, Tamara concentrated on the scaled-up coil apparatus. She had a non-ferrous test frame built to contain a polypropylene disk which would hold the coil assembly and its payload, and the frame’s supports were sunk several feet into the ground using large concrete footings. Then a small pole-barn structure, consisting of aluminum support members and fiberglass corrugated panels, was built around the frame. The panels were fitted with pressure sensors and strain sensors; these were placed to monitor any direct effect of a force on the structure’s walls and roof. The most difficult job was building the coil assembly itself and Tamara worked on that project with her engineer, Betty Miskin, and John Wolbers, one of Emma’s mechanical engineers.

London, U.K.: middle of October

In mid-October, Tamara took a break to travel to London with Peter, Barbara and their parents. Emma had given them permission to stay at her Lambeth flat, and Kevin and Denise were to join them so that they could travel together to St James’ Palace, where the gallantry awards were to be presented. Kevin and Denise would be staying with Kevin’s long-time friend Janet Hadad, CEO of the Coris Foundation, and her husband Elliot, who lived in Beckenham. Kevin wanted to meet with Amelia and Janet to discuss some of the foundation work Amelia had been doing.

For the day of the awards, Emma had recruited Sir George to be the group’s guide and protocol advisor. The award presentation would be nothing like the formal investiture ceremony that had taken place during the summer. Instead, this was a mostly informal affair, attended only by the awardees’ families and several Crown officials. Since Kevin had no remaining family and Denise’s mother couldn’t come, Janet and Elliot Hadad attended as Kevin’s and Denise’s family representatives.

The Duke of Gloucester welcomed everyone and told them that the queen would be there momentarily; then he gave the awardees their instructions and as he was finishing, the queen entered the room.

The queen was gracious and effusive in her comments about the heroism of the five young adults as she presented Kevin, Denise, and Peter with their heroism awards. Then she looked over to where Tamara was standing.

“And here is Miss Tamara Alexandre,” the queen said, looking at her and smiling. “We are delighted to see you again; please approach us now, my dear.”

Tamara shot a look at Sir George but he just flicked his eyes from her to the queen. She walked over and curtseyed, briefly touching the queen’s hand as she extended it.

“Ah. Miss Tamara. We were most pleased when we heard that you planned to be here with your friends to receive our recognition of honor. We only recently heard more than just a hint about your own role in your friends’ heroism, my dear. As of last week, our police investigators had finally deduced, from the evidence collected from that unfortunate affair and from questioning the miscreants, that you played a substantial role in helping to subdue those criminals, allowing their capture. You alerted the others of the threat and then ensured that Dame Emma reached safety. We saw the video of your marvelous explanation about the magic of science and engineering and our police officials have come to believe that it was your own magic, using some kind of secret device, which disarmed those criminals. It could have been done in no other way. Is this not true, my dear?”

Tamara blinked at the queen’s intensity and made an instant decision. “It is true, Your Highness. I have been working on a device to allow wireless power transmission and from that research, I developed an application of it which has the effect of producing an ultra-radio signal which can heat metals at a distance. It’s very experimental, delicate, and temperamental, but fortunately it worked when I needed it to.”

“Ah, this is precisely what our investigators have deduced. We assume that you do not plan to make such a device commercially available?”

“No Ma’am. I am under contract with our Defense Department for applications related to that kind of electromagnetic effect, but when or if such devices do become available, I am sure that my country’s allies will be given access to such technology.”

The queen nodded and smiled. “This is just the answer we were told to expect. Indeed, Miss Tamara, your impressive inventions and service to our nation were well worthy of our conferring knighthood on you. But your own heroism in that unfortunate event demands our recognition of that fact, as well. Accordingly, we hereby officially recognize the gallantry of your actions in that affair and present you with The Queen’s Commendation for Bravery.”

Tamara was speechless but merely nodded as an official brought a presentation case to the queen who opened it and handed it to Tamara, as she took Tamara’s hand.