Did we know that Townsend consulted Cayce in 1930?
I did not know that! However, I am skeptical of this information given the source. Here is what I believe to be the source, since that Google search link doesn't bring it up. It's this very argumentative and frankly bizarre document called "Tesla's Rebirth", copyright 2009 by Alexander R Putney.
http://www.human-resonance.org/Tesla%27s_Rebirth.pdf
Scanning this document for "Townsend Brown" gives the following quotes:
p87
Readings obtained by Thomas Townsend Brown for the Tesla Gravity Motor were also hidden by splitting them off into various designations, as were readings obtained by several members of the Delaney family:
Thomas T. Brown – 195, 470, 4665
p106
Tesla would go on to develop his Gravity Motor with design schematics and engineering details worked out by Thomas Townsend Brown through dozens of Cayce readings dedicated to the subject (Readings 195-51–69, 4665-1–13, 4666-5)
p114
After stating their interest in raising a child together, Cayce also offered a detailed set of lifestyle and dietary recommendations for Lillie and Nikola to facilitate the best chance for a nominal pregnancy and successful childbirth. However, significantly stressful conditions surrounded the couple during this same time period pertaining to the complex inventive process being undertaken by Nikola Tesla and Thomas Townsend Brown in development and prototyping of the Tesla Gravity Motor with Edgar Cayce, from 1927 to 1930. While Thomas Townsend Brown requested dozens of readings from Cayce for aid in designing and testing the Gravity Motor based on Tesla's many decades of advanced research into the physics of acoustic resonance and HHO plasma generation (Readings 195-51–69, 4665-1–13, 4666-5), Tesla was well occupied with the needs of his pregnant partner Lillie Delaney.
"HHO plasma" bugs me. I'm not sure it's a thing. Mixed hydrogen and oxygen at a 2:1 ratio (what the "water fuel" sub-subculture of the "free energy" subculture call HHO) is extremely explosive, will go Very Boom at the slightest electrical spark or heat, or even possibly friction or hard knocks, so trying to make plasma out of it... well that would be a very foolish thing to do in my opinion. I don't think Townsend Brown was foolish. And trying to mix mercury into that... that's super poisonous and extra nonsense. Mercury arc rectifiers were a thing in high voltage engineering, yes. With the mercury plasma safely inside a sealed glass vacuum tube. Add exploding gas to that? No thank you. This feels like weird cargo cult reverse engineering of post-1970s antigravity urban myths to me. (Which are obsessed with mercury for reasons that escape me.)
p118
The first fully functional embodiment of Tesla's flying machine was developed in 1930-1936, as seen in leaked archival photographs of the first Nazi prototype, fitted on its underbelly with three double-drum Tesla gravity motors (above), originally designed and constructed in 1927-1930 with the aid of Edgar Cayce and Thomas Townsend Brown (Readings 195-51–69, 4665-1–13, 4666-5). Due to the extreme temperatures generated by friction and HHO plasma that forms within each pair of offset rotating drum units comprising the antigravitic motors, a liquid mercury/oil mixture was used instead of ball bearings. This special fluid combination eliminated air in each of the tubular ducts enclosing the central axle, as specified by Cayce during a trance reading for mechanical engineer –and covert OSS agent– Thomas Townsend Brown on November 23, 1930 (Reading 195-67):
Q: What liquid will balance best with mercury in ducts as the relieving factor?
A: Oil –castor oil... Better for the gravity in same and the resistive forces are better balanced.
Q: [By] adding mercury and other fluid to ducts all air is eliminated...
Sigh. The ol' Nazi UFO myth rears its head. I also don't think Townsend was really into "rotating drums". Was Tesla into acoustic resonance? Well he did famously build a resonance machine, yes, so okay.
Okay so yes mercury as conductive low-friction bearings, that IS a thing Townsend Brown (or a team working under his direction) did do. We see that mentioned in the 1957-ish Projet Montgolfier documents. And that mercury bearing was at the bottom of a tub full of oil (for insulation). Terrifies me, but yes the Montgolfier people did at one point use mercury and oil, so, hmm.
The rest of the document seems weird, accuses the WW2 OSS of being pro-Nazi (not really a thing IMO) and I think Putney has possibly interpolated the name Townsend Brown into the readings rather than actually seeing it there. But, this is definitely a document to add to the pile.
Townsend Brown consulting Cayce would be fascinating if proven. He would have been 25 in 1930. Possible? Perhaps - I'd need to check his timeline though to see what he was doing. It does seem on-brand for Townsend, who seems to have known his way around the US esoteric underground equally as well as the military science underground. If Townsend did ever work directly with Tesla that might explain why his name became so deeply linked with Tesla in the minds of the 1970s Psychotronics hippies. Or, possibly and perhaps more likely, this is all being made up and read backwards into Cayce readings by someone who THINKS that Townsend SHOULD HAVE hung out with Tesla.
Worth investigating, although reading this document will do damage to one's sanity points, as the tabletop roleplaying kids would say.
I would love to get hold of the Cayce readings in question, but I think you have to pay quite a bit of money to get access to the Cayce reading library.
Regards, Nate