Norman Lorimer Dean (nonfiction)
Norman Lorimer Dean (12 September 1902–22 December 1972) was an inventor who designed the Dean drive, which he promoted as a reactionless drive.
Dean's claims generated notoriety because, if true, such a device would have had enormous applications, completely changing human transport, engineering, space travel and more. Dean made several controlled private demonstrations of a number of different devices, however no working models were ever demonstrated publicly or subjected to independent analysis and Dean never presented any rigorous theoretical basis for their operation.
Analysts conclude that the motion seen in Dean's device demonstrations was likely reliant on asymmetrical frictional resistance between the device and the surface on which the device was set, resulting in the device moving in one direction when in operation, driven by the vibrations of the apparatus.
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Fiction cross-reference
Nonfiction cross-reference
External links
- Dean drive @ Wikipedia
- Norman Lorimer Dean @ Family Search