◆ SpookStack

Approved For Release 2003 (PA LPT ERT ARDP 96-00788R001300020001-6 ST-CS-01-169-72 July 1972 PART X ELECTROMAGNETIC EFFECTS 1. (U) Over a span of years which exceeds that of a century, numerous researches and observations have been conducted and published on the physiological and psychological effects of elec- tric fields. As Davis (293) has stated in his exhaustive review of the subject, not much of substance has derived from all the attention which has been paid to the physiological effects on living organisms of placing them in environments which have been changed by manipulating one or more electromagnetic parameters. Somewhat more in the way of positive findings has been published as they relate to the psychological effects. There appears to be more literature from Soviet sources than from Western sources concerning the effects of electromagnetic fields on the central nervous system. 2. (U) A question was raised concerning the possible hazard to personnel working with a device which generated very high field density electromagnetic pulses. Of particular concern was the possibility that people working on an object which was to be sub- jected to the pulse might themselves receive the energy by virtue of a premature triggering or some other mischance. The generator created an electromagnetic field in the form of a pulse which had a duration of 3 x 1079 sec, at a voltage of 1.0 megavolt. In essence, a Van de Graaf generator was used to charge a bank of high capacity condensers. The condensers were discharged into a load consisting of an array of aerial wires so that a high potential difference was caused to exist between them and a grounded metal mesh plate beneath. With the breakdown of the air dielec- tric an intense pulsed field was created. On one occasion when the generator was being tested after its erection, a bird flew under the aerial wires just as it was pulsed. The bird fell from the sky and flopped about in a rather disorganized way for a minute or so. It then appeared to regroup all those things which birds must have in order to fly, and flew off about its avian business apparently none the worse for the experience. This inci- dent was unsettling to those working with the generator, so a search was made in the literature for something germane which would indicate whether or not a hazard to operating personnel existed. This literature search was reported by Hirsch et al (294). According to Hirsch, not very much was found except for a paper by Salvingnac et al (1967) which related to the psychomotor disturbances in air crews*when their airplanes were struck by lightning. The density of the electromagnetic fields to which these people were exposed 107 CONFIDENTTAL (This page is UNCLASSIFIED) Approved For Release 2003/09/10 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001300020001-6