Editing Gravity Research Foundation (section)

== History ==
[[File:Gravity Research Foundation pamphlet.jpg|thumb|right|A pamphlet issued by the foundation, date uncertain.]]
[[Thomas Edison]] apparently suggested the creation of the Gravity Research Foundation to Babson,<ref>Valone, T. (Ed.) (2001, January). ''Electrogravitics Systems: Reports on a New Propulsion Methodology'' [p. 4]. Washington, DC: Integrity Research Institute.</ref> who established it in several scattered buildings in the small town of New Boston, New Hampshire.<ref name="Mooallem">Mooallem, J. (2007, October). A curious attraction. ''Harper's Magazine'', '''315'''(1889), pp. 84-91.</ref> Babson said he chose that location because he thought it was far enough from big cities to survive a nuclear war. Babson wanted to put up a sign declaring New Boston to be the safest place in North America if [[World War III]] came, but town fathers toned it down to say merely that New Boston was a safe place.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=LW1D1dat2VkC&dq=babson+new+boston+safe+world+war+III&pg=PA113 New Boston Historical Society history of New Boston, page 113]</ref>

In an essay titled ''Gravity – Our Enemy Number One'', Babson indicated that his wish to overcome gravity dated from the childhood drowning of his sister. "She was unable to fight gravity, which came up and seized her like a dragon and brought her to the bottom", he wrote.<ref>See Appendix Intro. 3: Gravity – Our Enemy Number One. In Harry Collins (2004). ''Gravity's Shadow: The Search for Gravitational Waves''. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press. {{ISBN|978-0-226-11378-4}}</ref>

The foundation held occasional conferences that drew such people as [[Clarence Birdseye]] of frozen-food fame and [[Igor Sikorsky]], inventor of the helicopter.<ref name="Kaiser">Kaiser, D. (2000). Chapter 10 – Roger Babson and the Rediscovery of General Relativity. ''Making Theory: Producing Physics and Physicists in Postwar America'' [PhD Dissertation]. Harvard University, pp. 567-594.</ref> Sometimes, attendees sat in chairs with their feet higher than their heads, to counterbalance gravity.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.newbostonnh.gov/Pages/NewBostonNH_About/MoreGrav |title=Article on town website |access-date=2011-10-03 |archive-date=2012-04-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425015636/http://www.newbostonnh.gov/Pages/NewBostonNH_About/MoreGrav |url-status=dead }}</ref> Most of the foundation's work, however, involved sponsoring essays by researchers on gravity-related topics.<ref>"Trouble with Gravity, The" (1950, January, 2). ''Time'', '''55''', p. 54.</ref> It had only a couple of employees in New Boston.

The physical Gravity Research Foundation disappeared some time after Babson's death in 1967. Its only remnant in New Boston is a granite slab in a [[traffic island]] that celebrates the foundation's "active research for [[Anti-gravity|antigravity]] and a partial gravity insulator". The building that held the foundation's meetings has long held a restaurant, and for a time had a bar called Gravity Tavern, since renamed.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.unionleader.com/article/20120810/NEWS02/708109945%26source%3DRSS |title=Union-Leader Moly Stark name returns |access-date=2012-10-08 |archive-date=2016-03-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303233628/http://www.unionleader.com/article/20120810/NEWS02/708109945%26source%3DRSS |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The essay award lives on, offering prizes of up to $4,000. As of 2020, it is still administered out of [[Wellesley, Massachusetts]], by George Rideout, Jr., son of the foundation's original director.

Over time, the foundation shed its [[Crank (person)|crankish]] air, turning its attention from trying to block gravity to trying to understand it. The annual essay prize has drawn respected researchers, including physicist [[Stephen Hawking]], who won in 1971, mathematician/author [[Roger Penrose]] (Nobel Prize in Physics, 2020), who won in 1975, and astrophysicist and Nobel laureate [[George Smoot]], who won in 1993. Other notable award winners include [[Jacob Bekenstein]], [[Sidney Coleman]], [[Bryce DeWitt]], [[Julian Schwinger]] (Nobel Prize in Physics, 1965), [[Martin Lewis Perl|Martin Perl]] (Nobel Prize in Physics, 1995), [[Demetrios Christodoulou]], [[Dennis Sciama]], [[Gerard 't Hooft]] (Nobel Prize in Physics, 1999), [[Arthur E. Fischer]], [[Jerrold E. Marsden]], [[Robert Wald]], [[John Archibald Wheeler]] and [[Frank Wilczek]] (Nobel Prize in Physics, 2004).<ref>[http://www.gravityresearchfoundation.org/winners_name.html#s GRF Award Winning Essays] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121228174605/http://www.gravityresearchfoundation.org/winners_name.html |date=2012-12-28 }}</ref>