s a new
combination of older, perhaps seemingly impractical
knowledge. Every scientific theory, every device, is the
offspring from a large and varied family tree of many
scientific ancestors, each of whom in his day was a
remarkable personage.

Thus it is, with the principles of mechanical invisibility.
I deal here with the famous X-flyers. The operation of the
plane itself is immaterial; its motors; its wing-spread
surfaces; its aerial controls. I am concerned only with the
scientific principles underlying its power of invisibility.

Three scientific factors are involved: First, the process
known as de-electroniration; second, the theories of color
absorption; third, the material, inevitable deflection
(bending) of light rays when passing through a magnetic
field.

I take each of the three in order. The forerunners of
de-electroniration were the Martel effects--the experiments
of Charles Martel, in Paris, in 1937. A new electric
current, of a different character--now called the
oscillating current as distinct from the alternating and
direct--was developed. Metallic plates were
electro-magnetized to produce an enveloping magnetic field
of somewhat a different character from any field formerly
known.

Dr. Norton Grenfell followed this in 1946 by using the
Martel oscillating current to obtain a reverse effect. A
similar disturbance of electrode balance. But not a
surcharge. An exhaustion. An anti-electrical state, instead
of a state of magnetism. A metallic mass so treated--and
with a constant flow of oscillating current holding its
subnormal electronic balance--was then said to be
de-electronired.

Scientific "discoveries" are largely made by the trial and
error system. The scientist takes what he finds. Generally
he does not know, at first, what it means. Martell took his
oscillating current and "discovered" the Martel Magnetic
Levitation, whereby gravity was lessened, and then
completely nullified. Grenfell, with his de-electroniration,
increased the power of gravity. The two were combined by
Grenfell and his associates--and the secret of
interplanetary flight was at hand.

But there was a host of other workers not interested in
space flyers; they probed in other directions. It was found
t