Thesta Distatica

A real-world perpetual motion machine

Critics sometimes challenge supporters of perpetual motion to come up with a single working stand-alone machine. One excellent example — the best known to me — is the Thesta Distatica, also known as the "Testatika." Major features of this machine are the contra-rotating rotors with metallic segments, similar to the traditional Wimshurst machine, indicating that it works at least partly on electrostatic principles.

Fig 1.  Three kilowatt Thesta Distatica

Thesta Distatica: History

The first Thesta Distatica was built in 1978 by members of the Methernitha community, a small Christian community living in the Emmenthal valley of the Swiss Alps. This small device had a single rotating wheel about four inches diameter and could produce a few hundred watts of continuous electrical power.

Larger machines were built in subsequent years; the largest having two contra-rotating wheels about eighteen inches diameter, producing 3000 watts.

Between 1982 and 1985 Methernitha were quite happy to show their machines to the outside world. The reaction was predictable — orthodox scientists shunned them, but a few maverick scientists and engineers did take a close look, concluding that the Thesta Distatica was a genuine stand-alone free energy machine.

This eventually provoked a certain amount of official interest, for example from the Soviet Academy of Science, the French Ministry of Defense, and NASA.  NASA offered Methernitha a very large, but undisclosed sum of money for the machine's operating principle, but this was refused. [Ref 1].  (Was NASA really interested in disclosing free energy secrets to the world? Did they really have to go cap in hand to Methernitha to find a viable free energy device? If so, that implies a very adverse assessment of their own technical competence).

Non-disclosure

Methernitha have consistently refused to disclose the operating principle of their machines, claiming that in the present world it would be put to evil use, and in 1986 they began generally to discourage outside inspections. However, in 1989 they did give permission for a high-profile visit from the famous Russian physicist Andrei Sakharov, who unfortunately died just before the visit could take place. Also, in the early 1990s the principal inventor Paul Baumann publicised the so-called Linden Experiment, which he claimed was an important part of the technology. This involves setting up inductive-capacitive resonant oscillations in the 80 to 140 MHz range in a coil wound over a horseshoe-shaped core. A stack consisting of multiple layers of copper, plexiglass, and aluminium is inserted between the legs of the core. Components meeting this description can be seen in the center foreground in Figure 1. Witnesses claim that a voltage of about 700 volts is measured across the stack; something which orthodox science does not predict.

Methernitha have now significantly reduced their contact with the outside world. Their entire website at http://www.methernitha.com has been pared down to almost nothing, essentially saying only "In our community in Linden, for organizational reasons we can only receive those persons who have contacted us and for whom visitation arrangements have been made. Thank you for your understanding!" Moreover, they have used robots.txt to prevent archiving sites like archive.org from crawling or displaying earlier versions of their website.

Videos

The original Methernitha video of the Thesta Distatica has been posted in 15 parts on YouTube starting at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od79uhhVRIs. The last several parts show a discussion (in German) with their chief engineer Luzi Cathomen in his workshop. Near the end of part 9 they explain why they won't release the technology into the world as it currently is.

Third Reich research?

There are still "a considerable number of mysteries" about the research that produced the Thesta Distatica. [Ref 2]. At least one writer, who has extensively investigated German research efforts during the Third Reich, has suggested that it is a direct result of secret research during that era. [Ref 3]. Even from a cosmetic point of view, some of its components, such as the horseshoe-shaped magnetic cores or the thermionic rectifying diode, look more like 1930s or 1940s technology, rather than technology of the late 1970s.

On a deeper level, supporters of National Socialism have claimed that it was evident from Methernitha's video and website that their general approach to obtaining information from Nature, including their great respect for its wisdom, was identical to the National Socialist viewpoint. [Ref 4]. Furthermore, Methernitha have said that the Thesta Distatica's operating principle "contains the secret of the secrets," which at least hints at the fundamentally different "other" science and technology sometimes encountered in Third Reich lore. (I shall not give any references or further discussion of this highly esoteric topic, which is beyond the scope of this present blog).

Fig 2. Methernitha Chief Engineer Luzi Cathomen with 30 kilowatt Thesta Distatica under construction

Eyewitnesses:— "it is genuine"

As far as is known, no outsiders have gained sufficient understanding of the Thesta Distatica to be able to replicate it. And there are reports that Methernitha themselves had difficulty getting their largest machine, the 30,000 watt "Elephant" to work properly. (Figure 2). But there is no doubt in the minds of dozens of competent technically-qualified observers that the smaller machines, including the 3000 watt one, operate as genuine stand-alone Free Energy generators. For example, several machines were demonstrated in July 1999 to a group of about thirty technicians, engineers and scientists. Members of the group were allowed to pick up and closely examine the smaller machines while still in operation.

References

1. Keith Tutt, The Search For Free Energy, Simon & Schuster, 2001, p100. Tutt devotes Chapter 5 and Appendix 5 of his book to the Thesta Distatica.
2. Tutt, ibid, p93.
3. Henry Stevens, Hitler’s Flying Saucers, Adventures Unlimited Press, 2003, p171. Henry Stevens heads the German Research Project, which researches and disseminates technological information from the Third Reich. He is one of the growing number of writers courageous enough to give due credit to the remarkable achievements of National Socialist scientists and engineers. He alludes to the hypocrisy of the victorious Allies in plundering their technology (and even the scientists and engineers themselves) while simultaneously manifesting an hysterical hatred of anything and everything to do with National Socialism. His comment on this (p266) is: "If they were to admit one good 'Nazi' idea, the question might arise as to if there is another good idea ... "
4. Methernitha's website, formerly at http://www.methernitha.com/mether_2/Free_energie/free_energie.html used to say, inter alia "Any technology Man invents should serve him in short as well as in long terms, and this condition is not fulfilled as soon as it opposes nature in any way."