(1888PressRelease)
August 13, 2007 - In a press release announcing the silent auction of a "historic" invisibility experiment photograph, the possibility of a challenge to the public perception of last year's claim by Duke University of having the first demonstration of a working invisibility cloak was raised. The press release located at
http://www.sanepr.com/Silent-Auction-of-Histo... does not mention a direct challenge to the Duke claim, but attributes the statement regarding an invisibility cloak to the media. However, careful research conducted by United Press Internet News confirms that the true source of the statement is a press release dated Thursday, October 19th, 2006 from the Duke University Office of News and Communications http://dukenews.duke.edu/2006/10/cloakdemo.htm .
In that press release, although it gives the impression that a demonstration has been made of "invisibility", it clearly reveals in the opening paragraph that the achievement only effects microwaves. Later, more than 20 paragraphs down, it admits that the so-called "invisibility cloak" not only does not effect light in the optical range but that the researchers have no idea how to do so.
The silent auction of the invisible Santa Maria would then threaten any claim that Duke has to having "an invisibility cloak" first of any kind, since the photograph is a color reproduction of an invisibility experiment conducted in 1994 that was printed in an article in the July 1994 issue of Purpose Magazine. The experiment, photograph and article are all by researcher and now R&D engineer, Marshall Barnes who has lectured about his research in that area many times, most recently at the 2007 MarCon science fiction convention. The photograph shows a full scale replica of the Santa Maria in its dock looking like a ghost ship or mirage - nearly 90% invisible. In fact, much of its hull is completely invisible, with only a faint outline showing; while the water, the sky and things on the horizon line seem clearly visible through it. Quite an effective type of cloaking, since if the ship were armed, the place where the cannon would be is 100% invisible.
