Eighty-two-year-old Hollis M. Richardson likens himself to Galileo and Christopher Columbus, who were scorned when they put forth theories that contradicted the accepted beliefs of their day. For the past 32 years, Richardson, a 1931 electrical engineering graduate of Georgia Tech, has tried, unsuccessfully, to get scientists to at least consider his "Macroatomic Theory of the Universe."
"They all ignore me because it's so different," said Richardson, who devotes nearly all his free time trying to advance his theory.
The Morris Plains, NJ., resident believes the Earth and other large planets are actually giant atoms, and the solar system, a giant molecule. The Earth, he said, is negatively charged--not neutral--because pressure in the Earth's center squeezes electrons outward.
Richardson claims his theory explains and correlates more than 32 phenomena of the Earth and atmosphere, such as tornadoes, volcanoes, earthquakes and the Van Allen radiation belts.
The retired electrical engineer has been unable to get his theory published in scientific journals, so last year, he spent $8,500 and had it published in a book titled "What Makes the Earth Tick?"
Of the 3,500 copies printed, Richardson estimates 40 copies sold and another 200 were given away.
The Morris County Library, the Morris Plains Library, and the Joint Free Library of Morristown and Morris Township have copies of the book, Richardson said, but "they put it in the science-fiction section.'
In his strong, animated voice, Richardson recounted how he arrived at his theory and why he has devoted himself to proving it, a story he has told countless times.
While unemployed in 1939, Richardson read in an electronics textbook that heat applied to one end of an electrical conductor would cause electrons--negatively charged particles--to flow toward the cool end.
"All of a sudden it hit me like a flash of lightning: If heat could do that, pressure could do that," he said in his twangy, Georgia accent.
At that time, he was told that pressure in the Earth's center isn't great enough to break down atoms, which he accepted.
Twenty years later, however, the idea returned to him while reading about the Earth's phenomena such as ionosphere and thunderstorms.
Applying his theory, "those mysteries began to fit together like a big jigsaw puzzle," he said.
Since then, he has written articles and given speeches trying to get his theory accepted. But his articles have been rejected by science journals, and the theory has never been reviewed by scientists.
He contends that scientists are afraid "to stick their necks out. This makes it tough for innovators."
But Paul Boyer, a geology professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University, said some science journals do consider unorthodox theories if they are at all plausible.
Boyer has never reviewed Richardson's theory.
Even novel theories--including Charles Darwin's theory of evolution--are based on prior theories, said Boyer, who was editor of the New Jersey Academy of Science Bulletin.
New theories "seldom contradict theories that came before, but build on them," Boyer said.
Journal editors generally send articles to reviewers, who critique them and recommend whether they should he published, Boyer explained.
Despite the repeated rejection, Richardson continues to seek review of his theory and make presentations to community groups.
"I'll continue until I die, because it's something I believe in," he said.
This article originally appeared in the Parsippany, N.J., Daily Record and is reprinted with permission.
"I started studying geophysics based on a new fundamental assumption that the free electrons on the Earth's surface were squeezed out of the Earth's core by gravitational pressure. If that is true, then they are absolutely free, since they are shielded from their counterpart protons in the core by the conductive crust and mantle of the Earth. According to this theory, some of the free electrons leaked into the atmosphere through solar ionization of the upper atmosphere, and formed the numerous stratified layers of free electrons in the ionosphere. As the vacuum of space surrounding the earth has a magnetic field as well as the electric field caused by the free electrons in the ionosphere, it is actually a giant particle accelerator or atom smasher. Solar flares energized some of the free electrons in the upper ionosphere and injected them into orbit around the Earth to form the Van Allen radiation belts. Thus, the Earth would appear to be a giant atom--it has a positive core, a negative atmosphere and hefts of electrons in orbit around it.
"This basic assumption, that electrons are emitted from the center of the Earth by gravitational pressure, would explain and perfectly correlate more than 20 major geophysical phenomena, including the inner and outer cores of the earth, the internal heat, the internal magnetic field, the crustal cracks, earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain-building, the Earth's negative surface charge, the ionosphere, thunderstorm electricity, lightning, tornadoes, the radiation belts, the external magnetic field, the Earth's eddy currents, the ionospheric eddy currents, the auroras, airglow, cosmic rays, gravitation, kilometric (radio frequency) radiation, and magnetic storms.
"In addition, this simple theory seems to give us a completely new outlook on the whole universe."