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THE METAL-BENDERS” by JOHN B. HASTED

Softening and hardening
At a very early stage in metal-bending investigations I posed the following questions. Is the phenomenon to be described as metal-bending, temporary metal-softening, or both? Is the bending due to the operation of ‘paranormal forces’, or is the metal changed in such a way that its yield point is temporarily decreased, so that relatively minor forces – gravitational, internal stress relaxation or human – would then be sufficient to deform it?

The second alternative, a temporary decrease in yield point, seems to be most likely. If the yield point remained normal, then moments of the order of several Newton-metres in magnitude would be necessary to bring about many of the bends. Assuming that such large forces could be paranormally produced, we must ask why they are always so well balanced that the metal specimen never flies across the room when it deforms and why the hand that holds it experiences no force? And why, when one suspends the specimen from its electrical connections, does it swing only slightly, if at all, as it bends?

The answers must lie in the internal origin of the forces. The metal specimen behaves as a sort of automaton, which is instigated to deform itself.
If the yield point is temporarily decreased, then any residual internal stress will be able to relax. In an early experiment I offered Belinda H. twin pieces of brass pinned together; one was annealed to remove residual stress, the other not; it was the latter which bent slightly, without the application of force; apparently, in this instance, a role could be played by residual internal stress.

Let us consider the properties of the metal after a paranormal bend, particularly its hardness, which is related to the yield strength. When a metal specimen is deformed normally, the atoms in the crystal lattice move over each other and rearrange themselves in such a way that the resulting metal is harder than before in the region of the deformation. This is known as work-hardening. Eventually this increase in hardness, being accompanied by an increase in yield strength, causes the deformation to cease, even though the applied force has not ceased.

When the normal deformation has ceased, we may measure the hardness and demonstrate that it has increased. This was also the case in the early measurements on paranormal bends which Dr Desvaux made for me (chapter 3). On the whole these data are similar to what would have been obtained from measurements on normally bent specimens. A copper single crystal was bent under good observation and the data are displayed in Figure 3.1. Although the bend was almost certainly paranormal, there was some hardening at the bend.

The only material whose hardness was found by Dr Desvaux not to have increased was the triple eutectic alloy of 54% Bi, 26% Sn, 20% Cd. This is a brittle material, but since it has a low melting-point, deformation by creep is possible. Although the times taken for some paranormal bends on this material have been incredibly short (see chapter 3), any structural changes are probably similar to those occurring in normal deformation by creep; and in these changes there is virtually no work-hardening. We found no evidence of permanent softening, but at least in this case there was no permanent hardening. In chapter l3 some further evidence for quasi-viscous creep is described.