Levitating temple statues of antiquity

reply to post by GezinhoKiko


Yes they had more than one child.

Anyway I managed to get a copy of the history of all things magic, the alleged qoute from Pliny provided in the OP is found on page 35 under the chapter Ancient Use of the Magnet. The authors however do not give reference to any source they are using, only, and i qoute "Pliny relates...."

Not entirely sure how valid that is.

So to be honest I will just assume they are making it up.

reply to post by Murad


Hey Murad

The Pliny link is here in the thread

Link to the answer in the thread

reply to post by Hanslune


Cheers man

Nothing like what is qouted by the OP though. Doesnt seem to mention Timocharis anywhere.

reply to post by Murad


That translation uses 'Timochares'

reply to post by Hanslune


Aye I searched for that as well mate, with no luck, nearest character I could come up with was Timocharis, contempary of Euclid apparently, cant be him.

But still Pliny talks briefly on Egyptian monuments and magnets in Book XXXVI , however I cant seem to find where he suggests there were floating temples made from magnets. He does discuss magnets at some length however, discussing different sorts, where they are to be found, certain applications colours and all that, but nothing about temples.

He talks off Marble, Granite, Onyx even wood and what wonders have been constructed by them, going so far as to say the grandest of all architectural marvels known would infact be one of Nero's Palaces, which is strange when there is talk of floating temples made from magnets.

Should also note his section on glass is pretty cool, especialy concerning how the Indians make it with crystal.

Originally posted by Murad
reply to post by Hanslune

 

however I cant seem to find where he suggests there were floating temples made from magnets.

edit on 13-11-2012 by Murad because: (no reason given)

No I cant remember where I said that there were floating temples made from magnets either!, by any chance do you wear thick lense glasses like goggles, maybe you might want to give those goggles a polish with your favorite brand of goggle wax!

Originally posted by LUXUS

On a similar note at a small secluded Temple in Bhutan (Chumphu nye monastery) there is a statue which is levitating just a few millimeters off the ground.

edit on 13-11-2012 by LUXUS because: (no reason given)

I see reports of this but I don't see a picture of it.

The accounts I read say that worshipers are led to a shrine, the doors are opened after a few minutes, the monk says "see? the statue is levitating" and proves it by sliding a piece of paper money under the foot."

Now... making things levitate is a very old magical trick. What I would love to know is: has any magician or skeptic examined this?

reply to post by LUXUS


It would seem to me that the magnets, no matter how great in volume, would eventually loose their magnetism through the effort of lifting such a statue. Perhaps the statue was hollow? That would greatly lengthen the useful life of the load-stone.

Is it possible thru illusion to make objects appear to float? Like with water for instance...

I think everyone including the Op and possibly the source itself is missing the greater point of this ancient knowledge.

Sure we can make objects levitate with magnets. We have child toys that do this. But why would this guy want to do this at all? Did he want a fancy decoration or did he want a miracle like event to use to control the masses through religion?

Seems to me the latter is most plausible and is the bigger story here. If this actually worked and was completed, I wonder what history would record about the religion that's different from what we know today. I bet the whole structure of the society would have changed over the years from such a tool.

reply to post by Byrd

The accounts I read say that worshipers are led to a shrine, the doors are opened after a few minutes, the monk says "see? the statue is levitating" and proves it by sliding a piece of paper money under the foot."

That account has all the elements of perspective illusion. The viewers are controlled by being "led" to a point where they "view" a pre-set illusion.

Like David Blane. Here he controls their viewpoint by first grouping them together and then turning away from them.

The iron magnets would definitely loose their power after a while. Seems like to me that they need to hook those iron plates up to some electricity and see what happens when they remagnetize those iron plates. I'll bet we would all see something very interesting happen.

Originally posted by Byrd

I see reports of this but I don't see a picture of it.

The accounts I read say that worshipers are led to a shrine, the doors are opened after a few minutes, the monk says "see? the statue is levitating" and proves it by sliding a piece of paper money under the foot."

Now... making things levitate is a very old magical trick. What I would love to know is: has any magician or skeptic examined this?

If it is anything like a few temples I have been to you are not permitted to take a camera inside. Also a hands on examination may not be that easy when dealing with an object that is considered sacred to others. Some would say if your not a monk/priest that you are not fit to even touch such an object...I would love to see myself but Bhutan is just a little outside my way...you never know though, might find myself there one day if destiny decrees it!

Originally posted by Benchkey
reply to post by LUXUS

 

It would seem to me that the magnets, no matter how great in volume, would eventually loose their magnetism through the effort of lifting such a statue. Perhaps the statue was hollow? That would greatly lengthen the useful life of the load-stone.

I believe the statue must have been hollow, most statues are hollow anyway (metallic ones) as it reduces the volume of metal the metalworker has to use.

Loadstone is not particularly strong when compared with modern magnets, they would have to use a massive magnet at the apex of the building and its geometry would be an important factor (to concentrate the flux lines).
I was actually searching for a chunk of loadstone online but can only find small bits. Is a 52 ton loadstone feasible or is it more feasible that they filled a container with 52 tons of magnetite sand?

Originally posted by RussianScientists
The iron magnets would definitely loose their power after a while. Seems like to me that they need to hook those iron plates up to some electricity and see what happens when they remagnetize those iron plates. I'll bet we would all see something very interesting happen.

If they used a huge container of magnetite sand as the main magnet they could periodically refresh the sand and thus the object would remain floating within the air.

Originally posted by RussianScientists
The iron magnets would definitely loose their power after a while.

Natural magnets are far too weak to even consider that they may have been used for this purpose.

Lodestones are the strongest of natural magnets. You'd be lucky to pick up a paperclip with any lodestone placed more that three or four inches above it.

Fail.

Harte

Originally posted by soficrow
reply to post by LUXUS

 

Thanks.

...Seems to me it should be relatively simple to pull this off - don't know why some might question it.

Lodestone is a particularly crappy magnet. Also, there's no stability in suspending something in a static magnetic field. It'll just keep going until it hits the magnet. You can use active position control with an electromagnet setup, which they would not have had, or you can tether the object, like those "floating" picture cubes. But you couldn't get something to free-float like that. If you could suspend it with lodestone anyway.

Also, lodestone is not found in huge blocks - it's generally believed to be produced by lightning striking near a magnetite deposit, magnetizing small amounts of the mineral in the immediate vicinity of the strike.

reply to post by LUXUS

No I cant remember where I said that there were floating temples made from magnets either!,

Here is a qoute from your opening post

It seems amazing but nevertheless true that in antiquity there were temples erected and constructed in such a way that by the use of magnetism the deity of those places was made to levitate in free air.

There is also the matter of the Thread Title

Levitating temple statues of antiquity

Anyway my point is man I would maybe take the time to research your sources a little better in the future. Because the ones you are relying seem to be fabrications, as far as I can tell anyway [please refer to my earlier posts concerning Pliny].

Originally posted by Harte

Originally posted by RussianScientists
The iron magnets would definitely loose their power after a while.

Natural magnets are far too weak to even consider that they may have been used for this purpose.

Lodestones are the strongest of natural magnets. You'd be lucky to pick up a paperclip with any lodestone placed more that three or four inches above it.

Fail.

Harte

Wrong! you need to understand that you can intensify the flux of any magnet by reducing its cross section. For example if you have a magnet with a diameter of 3 meters and you reduce its diameter at one end by a factor of 8 you intensify its flux by a factor of 8 also. 52 tons of magnetite with the correct geometry would produce a very powerful magnetic field!

Originally posted by Harte

Originally posted by RussianScientists
The iron magnets would definitely loose their power after a while.

Natural magnets are far too weak to even consider that they may have been used for this purpose.
Lodestones are the strongest of natural magnets. You'd be lucky to pick up a paperclip with any lodestone placed more that three or four inches above it.
Fail de Harte

Like I said, lets hook the iron sheets up to electricity and remagnetize them, maybe something will happen. After all, anyone that knows anything about Edward Leedskalnin knows that he was able to lift 30 ton stones all by himself with horse shoe magnets; and his stones weren't made of iron.

Harte, I guess your whole "theory" fails.