Editing Mercury-based technology (section)

=== ''Samarangana Sutradhara'' ===
The idea may come from ''Samarangana Sutradhara'', an 11th-century Indian treatise on architecture.  Chapter 31 of the book discusses machinery and automata, discussing their operation in terms of the four elements and aether, but suggesting that mercury may be an element in its own right.<ref name="Cardiff">{{cite journal |last1=Salvini |first1=Mattia |title=The Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra |journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society |date=January 2012 |volume=22 |issue=1 |doi=10.1017/S135618631100085X |url=https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/1344377/The-Samaranganasutradhara-by-Mattia-Salvina,-Mahidol-University.pdf |access-date=25 October 2023}}</ref> The author says he has personally seen most of the devices he describes in use, but does not specify which ones. The list includes two wooden aircraft, referred to as "vimanas": a "light" one shaped like a huge bird and a "heavy" one shaped like a temple.<ref name="Baroda">{{cite book |last1=King Bhojadeva of Dhar (attrib.) |editor1-last=Sastri |editor1-first=T. Ganapati|title=Samarangana Sutradhara |date=1927 |publisher=Baroda Central Library |location=Baroda |page=introduction |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.345259/page/n5/mode/2up |access-date=25 October 2023}}</ref>  Both types contain a fire chamber which heats a container of mercury, somehow causing the aircraft to rise from the ground.

    “Strong and durable must the body of the Vimana be made, like a great flying bird of light material. Inside one must put the mercury engine with its iron heating apparatus underneath. By means of the power latent in the mercury which sets the driving whirlwind in motion, a man sitting inside may travel a great distance in the sky.”
    “Similarly by using the prescribed processes one can build a vimana as large as the temple of the God-in-motion. Four strong mercury containers must be built into the interior structure. When these have been heated by controlled fire from iron containers, the vimana develops thunder-power through the mercury. And at once it becomes like a pearl in the sky.”<ref name="AdamskiLeslie">{{cite book|title=Flying Saucers Have Landed|last1=Leslie|first1=Desmond|last2=Adamski|first2=George|year=1953}}</ref>

However, the description is purposely left incomplete for ethical reasons:

    The construction of the machines has not been explained
    For the sake of secrecy, and not due to lack of knowledge.
    In that respect, that should be known as the reason—
    They are not fruitful when disclosed<ref name="Cardiff" />

This was discussed in [[George Adamski]] and [[Desmond Leslie]]'s 1953 book ''Flying Saucers Have Landed''.  They suggested that this might be the means of propulsion of UFOs.<ref name="AdamskiLeslie" />

The term 'mercury vortex engine' may first have been used by Professor Dileep Kumar Kanjilal in a book called ''Vimāna in Ancient India'' (1985), a study of references to flying machines in ancient Hindu literature and legends.<ref>https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vimana-ancient-india-dileep-kumar-4691566692</ref>

Leslie and Adamski's idea was taken up by [[Bill Clendenon]].  After extensive research he believed that he had discovered how the mercury vortex engine worked, and in ''Mercury: UFO Messenger of the Gods'' (1991) he discussed his design, his numerous sightings of UFOs, and the strange interactions he had had (after revealing his theory) with Adamski, other UFO researchers, and [[Men In Black]] who he believed to have been [[alien]]s.

[[David Hatcher Childress]] discusses the mercury vortex engine in, for instance, ''Technology of the Gods'' (2000) and ''Atlantis and the Power System of the Gods'' (2002).<ref>https://illuminanet.tripod.com/id4.html</ref><ref>Childress, David Hatcher.  ''Technology of the Gods'' (2000).  Pages 171-177.  https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/esp_autor_hatcherchildress.htm#Books-Treaties</ref>