Railroad signalman
Interests: Gravity
UPI March 1979
FAIRFIELD (UPI) -- A retired railroad signalman and self-taught physicist says Sir Isaac Newton drew the wrong conclusion when the apple of destiny plopped on his head almost 300 years ago.
Walter Wright, 60, says he isn't arguing that gravity doesn't exist, only that it works in reverse from the way Newton thought - by 'pushing' objects apart rather than 'pulling them together.
'Gravity isn't a pulling force,' Wright says. 'If bodies in space were attracted to one another, they'd always be colliding. But that doesn't happen.' (Walter calls this the bunch-of-grapes theory since if Gravity truly attracted, then all masses would clump together into one giant cluster of grapes.)
Wright's basic idea -- which he says is borne out by his experiments and calculations -- is that gravity doesn't emanate from the earth's core, it comes from the sun.
He argues that the sun, because it is a huge mass in a constant state of combustion, emits forces which push or 'squeeze' objects toward the earth -- like Newton's apple.
If the 40-year veteran of Southern Pacific railroad yards is correct, of course, his ideas would put him in a class with Copernicus, Darwin and Einstein. And after all, Einstein was only a postal clerk when he wrote his General Theory of Relativity.
Wright's gray-shingled home in this small Northern California town overflows with black boxes housing small magnets that spin, twist and roll and, he says, demonstrate the illogic of Newton's ideas.
He uses galaxies passing through each other in deep space as an illustration of his ideas. The stars usually don't collide because they REPEL or PUSH EACH OTHER APART, he said.
Wright's views are understandably unpopular with some physicists, although he says one mathematician who attended a demonstration of his theories told him his ideas were just as valid as most accepted theories of physics.
'Other scientists tell me they don't believe me, but they can't disprove my theories,' Wright said.
Physics Professor Eugene D. Commins at the University of California, who knew Einstein personally, called the notion of push-gravity 'totally false. I say that without qualification.' He said where Newtonian physics doesn't explain gravitational forces, Einstein's General Relativity theory does.
Wright is unfazed, particularly since his novel ideas have made him a sort of guru to what he calls his 'following' of teenage science students, sci-fi fans and even some physical scientists he calls 'unbrainwashed' by Newtonian physics.
He said the New York-based Carlton Press plans to publish his book, 'Gravity is a Push,'in the next two months. In the book, Wright claims, he succeeds where Einstein failed - in developing a unified field theory.
"W.C. Wright has recently completed a video tape explaining how his Push-Gravity Tide Model demonstrates the Earth's 14 tides and operates under its own mutual repelling energies. This video has received very flattering comments, such as: Excellent, A-Plus, Outstanding, Terrific, Etc.
"For several years Wright has had a physics major at Yale University receiving his Push-Gravity material. In the student's own words - "I really tried to have you as a guest speaker, but my profs were adamant." That has been the kind of negative attitude shown by the scientific community for over 25 years. If you buy his Push-Gravity Tides video you will see what, in his opinion, they have been trying to hide. View the tape, then you be the judge." - New Energy News, V4, N4 (Aug 1996), p. 12.
