Rocket PoweR, InteRstellaR tRavel and eteRnal lIfe

home town Daniel Hungerford was known as a
“dreamer of dreams in the world of science [Traeumer
von Traeumen in der Welt der Wissenschaft.]” The journal
said the brothers had worked five years on their car.
And that they intended to power airplanes with rockets,
but when glider pilot Jack Omera, who was to fly a
rocket-powered airplane, died in an accident, the brothers
abandoned their plans. 196 A decade later Daniel
Hungerford observed that the writer of the Stern story,
Yevon [sic] Spiegelberg, who had come to New York to
do her research, had said the article was to be printed in
book form. Although the Hungerfords thought they
“were entitled to a copy –we never got the book”.
Hungerford thinking of rockets in 1964 said, “Every
time one of those things goes overhead, I think we had
a responsibility. . . .We started to make the rocket popular
. . . and that was our contribution to rocket science.”
197 But Frank H. Winter, a research historian at the
National Air and Space Museum, wrote to the author in
1979 that in his “own extensive researches on rocketry
of the 1920’s and 30’s. . . .I have not come across the
name of Hungerford.” Nor did he find that name in the
published Goddard papers. Winter added, however,
that many letters to Goddard were omitted.
Furthermore, in the course of interviews for his Prelude
to the Age of Space: The Rocket Societies 1924–1940, Winter
noted “the rocket pioneer Roberson Youngquist recalled
that one of his initial influences in rocketry and its
potential was a rocket car he had seen at a state fair in
the 20’s and 30’s.” 198
ELECTRO-MAGNETIC SPACE DRIVE
While the handbill promoting Daniel Hungerford’s candidacy
to the state assembly in 1948 mentioned among
his accomplishments the “rotating electromagnetic
field”, the Corning Leader for November 25, 1957, reported
that the Hungerfords had “more or less lost interest”
in their electro-magnetic space drive model until news
of the Russian Sputnik satellite. Now they were ‘gearing
up’ again to continue their experiments. 199 The Leader
said that Russian successes with satellites had renewed
the Hungerfords’ interest in space travel.
“Just prior to World war II we discovered an invention
my brother and I had developed had certain
features which might be employed for national
defense,” he [Daniel Hungerford] said today. “So
we filed that phase with the War Department and
dropped further research – until now. And of
course that phase cannot be revealed even now.
“With the advent of the Russian satellites we have
decided to bring our invention into the open, and
perhaps add to man’s great venture into outer
space. We believe the machine could be used even
to bring both Sputniks back to earth by peaceful
means.”
He said he had also experimented with the use of
acoustics to break up rings of iron filings with
repeated success.
Mr. Hungerford declared that in his opinion a rocket
could take off from earth, hover or speed on its
way, through a thorough knowledge of electromagnetic
force in the universe.
He said the electromagnetic field of the earth is well
known, and is confident it can be used effectively
all the way to the outermost areas of the galaxy of
which the earth is a very small bit.
The machine he and his brother built proves that
theory, he declared. 200
A portion of an undated Hungerford letter in the
1960s describes the construction of the electro-magnetic
space drive model and, apparently, Hungerford’s
power of mental telepathy to control it. “If the combined
mental Power of all the People of the Earth could
be centered on the great Rings of Saturn could be
smashed – just as the Children of Israel smashed the
wall a [sic] Jericho – See Bible Story.”
Steven Sekella related in 2008 that such a model was
on the rear seat of the 1935 Pontiac automobile when
Hungerford ceased driving it in 1964 or 1965. 201 As
Sekella recalls the model it consisted of a wooden box
with a bell jar on top. Inside the jar was a coil of wire in
ball shape. There were two black knobs on the box and
an external battery. Hungerford could control a ring
around the coil, making the ring go forward and backward.
202
A non-bylined story in the Elmira Star-Gazette for
December 28, 1965 quoted Hungerford about the problem
of a rocket using liquid fuel for travel to the moon.
“With us the fallacy of the rocket is the great amount
of fuel it takes. It took us a gallon of regular gasoline to
go two miles.” Instead, the Hungerfords reportedly
devised a “theory of propulsion on electromagnetic
drive” based on Hungerford’s idea that a “moving
charge of electricity had weight. Therefore, it has inertia.”
An atomic “engine” would produce the current
needed. “We gave up the idea of electromagnetic drive
30 years ago because we were getting into deep water”
But then he showed the reporter a letter from the
National Air and Space Agency “welcoming a more
detailed description of his electromagnetic drive theory.”
Hungerford wrote to Marvin in 1964:
Our idea of space travel is quite different – from
that of the – Rocket People. We soon learned the fallacies
of Rocket drives and turned our attention to
50 Daniel and Floyd Hungerford: Rocket Power, Interstellar Travel and Eternal Life, by Geofrey N. Stein