Severskys Ionocraft: A 1964 magic carpet of the future

The magic carpet, called the Ionocraft, flies on pure electricity. It depends specifically on the fundamental principle of electricity that electric current always flows from negative to positive, and it uses two basic pieces of equipment to take advantage of this principle tall metal spikes that are installed above an open wiremesh grid. High negative voltage is shot from the spikes toward the positively charged wire grid, just like negative and positive poles on an ordinary battery. As the negative charge leaves the spike arms, it peppers the surrounding air like buckshot, putting a negative charge on some of the air particles. Such negatively charged air particles are called ions, and these are attracted downward by the positively charged grid. In their mad rush from the ion emitter to the main grid, the ions bump into neutral air moleculesair particles without electric charge. The terrific wallop in these collisions hurls a mass of neutral air downward along with ions. When they reach