Astronaut's Magnetic Boots
Early in the space program NASA let a contract to Westinghouse for
the development of magnetic boots so astronauts could walk on the
outside of spacecraft. Employees, Raymond J. Radus and William G.
Evans, invented and patented
magnetic boots that employed permanent magnets and
a "flux transfer" coil which allowed the magnetic flux to switch
between two paths--one path included the spacecraft skin the other
path included a magnetic shunt. These boots allowed the astronaut
to walk almost normally on the outside of the spacecraft.
The boots NASA supplies to the astronauts today do not allow the
astronaut to walk normally (i.e.
alternately picking up one foot and swinging it forward; then the
other foot). Instead the astronaut must scoot his/her foot along the
spacecraft without picking up a foot. This requires considerably more
effort than normal walking.
Tom Bearden published an
article
about the Westinghouse/Radus boots on his website. The principle of
flux switching can also be used to build an OU magnetic engine;
which is likely the reason NASA changed to a conventional permanent
magnet boot.
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Raymond J. Radus and William G. Evans, "Apparatus Responsive
to Direct Quantities," U.S. Patent No. 2,892,155, June 23, 1959