A crop picture which appeared close to Winchester Science Centre on May 25, 2017 resembles the “rotating magnetic field” of an AC induction motor, and points in the general direction of that science centre, as if to say: “Please teach your children more about electromagnetism!”  

A crop picture which appeared near Winchester Science Centre on May 25, 2017 is not exceptionally visually impressive, because it was drawn delicately within a field of immature, green barley. Yet it appeared in almost the same field location as another crop picture on June 6, 2014 which said “NO MORE WAR” in Morse code (see www.youtube.com). A somewhat related image, showing “squares” rather than “circles”, appeared near Sparticles Wood on August 3, 2016 (see Sparticleswood 2016).  

This new crop picture resembles Nicola Tesla’s patent drawing of an “AC induction motor”  

What might this new crop picture near Gipsy Lane in 2017 be trying to tell us? It seems to resemble the schematic representation of a “rotating magnetic field” within an AC induction motor. That device was first patented by Nicola Tesla in 1888:  

Four small circles around the outside could be its “wire connectors” like in Tesla’s drawing. Four big arcs of standing crop or flattened crop, along each of seven concentric “rings”, going into or out of the centre, could represent “four electromagnetic coils” as in Tesla’s drawing (coloured there red or blue).  

As we proceed from one concentric “ring” to another in this crop picture, first both “blue” (or standing crop) coils seem to be “active”, then both “red” (or flattened crop) coils, then both “blue” (or standing crop) coils, and so on in alternation. Tesla suggested that the magnetic field as generated by those four coils in his device could “rotate” around the centre, so as to drive an internal rotor.  

If this hypothesis is correct, then in order to understand more about the new crop picture as it was drawn, we may need to explain about “electromagnetic motors” and how they work. 

How does an ordinary DC motor work? 

In the movie below, we can see how a DC (direct current) motor works:  

A DC motor may include two curved, stationary or “stator” magnets outside. As a central rotor turns in the middle, the stationary magnetic fields from those two outer magnets will cause new electrical currents to flow through four wire coils, which are attached to four arms of a central “rotor”. Each of these wire coils will experience a continuously-changing North or South magnetic field from the outer stator magnets, because they keep changing their distance from those magnets, as the rotor turns. This is the most basic rule of electromagnetic current induction, known as Lenz’s Law (see Lenz Law). 

DC motors are equipped with a “commutator” and “brushes”, because the electric currents (so induced) by a fast relative motion between wire coils on the rotor, and two stationary magnets along the outside, would otherwise reverse during a 360^o cycle of rotation (see Magnetic).  

Nicola Tesla saw the technical limitations of a DC motor, so he decided to invent something better  

When Nicola Tesla was first shown a DC motor of the late 19^th century, by his physics teacher at school, he saw that it was sparking badly, due to the need for a “commutator” and “brushes”. These two parts cause friction, or even wear out after lots of use! Tesla thought there had to be a better way, and eventually invented the “AC motor” as a solution to these problems.  

We would like to quote here from Tesla’s autobiography, Part III, “Discovery of a Rotating Magnetic Field” (see inventions):  

“It was in the second year of my studies that we received a Gramme dynamo from Paris, having the horseshoe form of a laminated field magnet, and a wire-wound armature with a commutator. It was connected up, and various effects of the currents were shown. While Professor Poeschl was making demonstrations, running the machine as a motor, the brushes gave trouble, sparking badly, and I observed that it might be possible to operate a motor without these appliances? But he declared that it could not be done, and did me the honour of delivering a lecture on the subject, at the conclusion of which he remarked: ‘Mr. Tesla may accomplish great things, but he certainly never will do this. It would be equivalent to converting a steadily pulling force, like that of gravity, into a rotary effort. It is a perpetual motion scheme, an impossible idea.’ But instinct is something which transcends knowledge.”  

How does an AC induction motor work?  

Now let us see how an AC induction motor works, as invented by Nicola Tesla in 1888. It does not use “brushes” or  a “commutator ”. Tesla’s first “AC induction motor” included four long coils around the outside, which are changeable electromagnets rather than permanent magnets. An alternating AC power supply is then wired up, so that it activates in succession first two “blue” coils”, then two “red” coils, then two “blue” coils, and so on in an alternating fashion:  

An internal rotor from this device turns in response to those ever-changing or “rotating” magnetic fields, because of repulsive magnetic forces induced according to Lenz’s Law (see www.youtube.com). The interested reader can learn more here (see induction-motors):

“For an AC motor, there is a ring of electromagnets arranged around the outside, which produce a rotating magnetic field. Inside there will be some freely-rotating part that can conduct electricity. Unlike for a DC motor, where you send power to an inner rotor, for an AC motor you send power to its outer coils. Those coils are then energized in pairs, and in temporal sequence, so as to produce a magnetic field which rotates around the outside. This rotating magnetic field causes an internal rotor to spin in the same direction at almost the same speed.”

The image of a “rotating magnetic field” from that AC induction motor seems similar to what was drawn in crops  

Near Winchester Science Centre on May 25, 2017, we saw what might be the schematic diagram of an “AC induction motor”, drawn delicately in young barley. This crop picture shows four small circles around the outside (which could be “wire connectors”), along with seven concentric “rings” on the inside, each of which has been divided into four sections or “long coils” of standing crop, then flattened crop, then standing crop, and finally flattened crop again:  

As we proceed from its outermost “large ring” to its innermost “small ring”, each circular section of “four coils” switches or alternates between standing crop and flattened crop, almost as if in “temporal sequence”. The detailed images which we can see there, drawn in crops, look like other images shown in the explanatory movie for an “AC induction motor”.  

Why would the crop artists show us such a thing? Well, what could be more important to our modern society than the concept of a “rotating magnetic field”, as first developed by Nicola Tesla in 1888? Without it, we would still be living in a primitive fashion indeed, with no universal electrical system, no airplanes, no computers or anything else which most of us take for granted today.  

Another crop picture was drawn in almost the same field location near Winchester Science Centre, three years earlier in 2014 

Interestingly enough, there was another crop picture drawn near Winchester Science Centre in almost the same field location on June 6, 2014. That crop picture showed an Archimedean spiral of four turns, along with a coded message in Morse code of “NO MORE WAR”:  

The appearance of this crop picture coincided with remembrance ceremonies for the “D-Day invasion of Europe”, 70 years earlier on June 6, 1944. 

Combining the two field images drawn near Winchester Science Centre in 2014 or 2017 

Perhaps those crop artists are asking us to combine the images from both crop pictures in 2014 or 2017, in order to find a more complete message? When we construct a new diagram which combines both the crop picture drawn on May 25, 2017, and another crop picture drawn in almost the same field location on June 6, 2014, we can see the suggestion of pulsed, clockwise rotation for our “AC motor”:  

The process of switching in Morse code between “dots” and “dashes” (short or long electrical pulses) seems similar to the process of switching between “red” and “blue” electromagnetic coils for an AC induction motor. Their 2014 crop picture showed 22 dots or dashes in total, while their 2017 crop picture shows 7 x 4 = 28 curved arcs or “coils”.  

Several other crop pictures in 2017, for example at Waden Hill on April 22, Oliver’s Castle on April 24, or Willoughby Hedge on May 4, only revealed a definite symbolic meaning, once combined with nearby (or overlapping) crop pictures from previous years.  

Where was this 2017 crop picture drawn relative to important landscape features nearby?  

A “long thin line” within the new crop picture does not point toward Winchester Science Centre itself, but rather towards a Holiday Inn on the right, where families may stay if they wish to visit the Science Centre with their children: 

There will be an educational exhibit called “High Voltage” available there from May 26 to June 5, 2017 (see summer-half-term-high-voltage).  

When we study the landscape near this crop picture on a broader scale using Google Earth (at latitude 51.056^o N, longitude 1.265^o W), we can see that it was drawn close to a thick line of trees which looks like a “bar magnet” as viewed from above. That “bar magnet” in the landscape points towards the Science Centre along its long axis (see Space science centre videos).  

One of the buildings at that Science Centre, close to where the crop picture points, looks like a “bar magnet inside of a wire coil” when viewed from above (at latitude 51.060^o N, longitude 1.264^o W).  

Just above that “bar magnet” in the landscape, we can see a large “T” shape made from two crossing rows of trees (at latitude 51.053^o N, longitude 1.267^o W, South facing “up”). It would be pleasant to think that this large “T” shape might suggest the name of Nicola “Tesla”, in the context of what was just drawn.  

Red Collie (Dr. Horace R. Drew) 

P.S. Many thanks to Matthew Williams or Hugh Newman for excellent aerial drone photographs of the new crop picture near Winchester Science Centre (see www.youtube.com or www.youtube.com) and Marvin Naylor for a ground video (see www.youtube.com).