Preface

Undoubtedly everyone at some time or another has experienced and endured the temporary loss of electrical power. Usually, it’s the result of a storm or equipment failure which is normally repaired within a few hours or in most cases a few days.

For many of us the few hours or on extremely rare occasions the few days without power is an inconvenience, especially considering that almost all of the critical services we rely on to keep us safe and secure have independent back up power sources and supplies which automatically kick in when the primary power source fails.

But what would happen if the power loss was not only temporary and was caused not by a fixable mechanical or transmissions breakdown, but by the loss of earth’s entire magnetic field? Not only does that render the production of electricity impossible but it also makes useless all fossil fuel engines and motors. This means that along with the loss of all the various appliances, communications devices, and backup power sources but there is no mechanically powered transportation systems that are operational.

While you may think that this scenario is impossible you might just be wrong. Scientists tell us that the earth’s magnetic field fluctuates and at times decreases substantially in strength. Studies have shown that the magnetic field was twice as strong in Roman times that it is today and it continues to weaken to this very day.

But that aside this is not the real basis of the story however. “Magnotics” envisions a time in the immediate future when a little known and little understood random change in the earth’s magnetic field known as “Geomagnetic Reversal” also known as “polar reversal” or “pole shift” takes place. This is a change that has occurred repeatedly over thousands of years, in which the position of the magnetic north and the magnetic south reverse directions or in effect interchange. their polarity

Scientist know pretty much when and how many times this has occurred since the formation of the earth but I’m not sure they know just exactly the why and how it happens, when it will again occur in the future or how long it takes, to complete this changeover.

The supposition in this story is that before this flip occurs, there is a neutral period which may last for centuries in which there is no magnetic force at all and conversely a world plunged back a couple hundred years in time where self-sufficiency was the way of life.