Alfred Matthew Hubbard

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Alfred Matthew Hubbard (July 24, 1901–August 31, 1982) was an early proponent for the drug LSD during the 1950s. He is reputed to have been the "Johnny Appleseed of LSD" and the first person to emphasize LSD's potential as a visionary or transcendental drug.^[1] According to Todd Brendan Fahey, Hubbard introduced more than 6,000 people to LSD, including scientists, politicians, intelligence officials, diplomats, and church figures.^[2]

Career

In 1920, Hubbard was publicized in West coast newspapers as having developed a free energy motor.^[3] In 1929 he received a patent for a radioactive spark plug device "Internal Combustion Engine Spark Plug", from the United States Patent Office, number 1,723,422,^[4][5] which was manufactured sparingly by at least one U.S. company. It used an electrode doped with Polonium 210, a radioactive isotope with a half-life of 138 days. The supposed "ionizing effect"^[4][6] of Polonium 210 upon the combustion gases in the spark gap was purported to "improve engine efficiency".

According to some accounts, Hubbard worked at various times for the Canadian Special Services, the United States Justice Department, the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and the Office of Strategic Services.^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Lee, Martin A.; Shlain, Bruce. Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond. pp. 44–45. 
2. ^ Who Was Alfred M. Hubbard? by Todd Fahey
3. ^ "Hubbard Coil Runs Boat On Portage Bay Ten Knots An Hour; Auto Test Next". Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, Washington). July 29, 1920.  text as found here [1]. A Popular Science article in the July 1928 issue referenced Hubbard's device as an example of a perpetual motion hoax. (Free, E.E., "The Truth About Fuelless Motors", p. 25)
4. ^ ^{a b} http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/consumer%20products/sparkplugs.htm
5. ^ US 1723422 
6. ^ US 1723422 

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External links

• The Memory Hole, Documents on Al Hubbard The "Johnny Appleseed of LSD"
• Erowid, Al Hubbard Vault
• Far Gone Books, The Original Captain Trips
• Scientists on Acid, the story behind The Changing Images of Man