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Emil L. Scharf

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Emil L. Scharf
Born 3 August 1854(1854-08-03) [1]
Herbolzheim, Emmendingen, Grand Duchy of Baden, German Confederation
Died 7 March 1928 (73) [2]
Washington, D.C.
Burial Lakeview Cemetery, Hamilton, Virginia
Religion Catholic
Workplace(s) Catholic News Agency
Affiliations National Anti-Food Trust League; Common Sense Anti-Saloon Alliance
Spouse(s) Mary Louisa White (m. 1891)

Emil Ludwig Scharf (August 3, 1854 - March 7, 1928) was a German-born Catholic journalist and publisher who reported in 1904 that he had discovered an electric force that produces negative gravity (anti-gravity).

Background

So far as has been ascertained, Scharf was born in the Duchy of Baden in 1854 to a Catholic family, the son of Theodor Scharf and Tesafina (Berta) Binz, his father described as a botanist and professor at the Université de Metz.[3] In 1872, then seventeen years old, he is recorded as having emigrated from Europe to the United States, at which time he listed his profession as farmer;[4] in his obituary, Scharf is credited with assisting his father in introducing German education to Elsaß-Lothringen, and studying music under Henri Herbst in Paris,[5] while his tombstone accredits him as having received a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Paris.[2] Whatever his academic background, by the 1880s, he was working as a piano tuner and tutor to students of violin, piano, and languages.[6] In 1891, Scharf married Mary Louisa White at Hamilton, Virginia, and sometime thereafter taught languages to students of the Catholic University in Washington, D.C.

Just past the turn of the century, in 1904, Professor Scharf claimed he had discovered a method of producing negative gravity, which he detailed in an illustrated two-page story for the Washington Times, seeking to secure funding for further experiments. This curious story was, it seems, never publicly mentioned again, even as Scharf became more active in Washington politics, launching a Catholic News Agency and taking up journalism, particularly through his Catholic News Bulletin, in support of sundry causes, including the National Anti-Food Trust League (dedicated to combating rising food costs),[7][8] the Common Sense Anti-Saloon Alliance (dedicated to making American drinking establishments more European),[9] and the Roman Catholic Mission Society schools.

In 1911, Scharf was accused of attempting to solicit payments in exchange for delivering Catholic votes and denounced by Ben Johnson, a Democrat congressman from Kentucky,[10] subsequently finding himself repudiated by the Catholic University and expelled from the Knights of Columbus.[11][12] Despite of all the negative publicity, which continued to follow him for the remainder of his career,[13][14] Scharf continued contributing to various newspapers and publishing the Catholic News Bulletin into the 1920s.

E. L. Scharf passed suddenly in March 1928, presumably carrying his secret anti-gravity research with him to the grave.

Scharf Current & Negative Gravity

Selected Bibliography

  • Scharf, Emil L. (1908), The Metafysics and Psychology of Baseball: An Investigation and Analysis of the Causes, Both Fysical and Psychological, that Produce the Various Fenomena of the Game, R.A. White Publishing Co.  — written in Simplified Spelling

Resources

References

  1. ↑ "Deutschland Geburten und Taufen, 1558-1898," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VH4W-PXV : 11 February 2018), Ludwig Emil Scharf, 07 Aug 1854; citing ; FHL microfilm 996,393.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QK1Z-2GW3 : 15 December 2015), Emil Luwwig Scharf, 1928; Burial, Hamilton, Loudoun, Virginia, United States of America, Lakeview Cemetery; citing record ID 23351640, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.
  3. ↑ https://archive.org/details/somevirginiafami00mcil/page/n339
  4. ↑ "United States Germans to America Index, 1850-1897," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KDWC-66S : 27 December 2014), Emil Scharf, 23 Jan 1872; citing Germans to America Passenger Data file, 1850-1897, Ship Hermann, departed from Bremen, arrived in New York, New York, New York, United States, NAID identifier 1746067, National Archives at College Park, Maryland.
  5. ↑ "DR. EMIL L. SCHARF, 73, EDUCATOR, DIES", Evening Star (Washington, D.C.): 2, 8 Mar. 1928, 23351640_1518648263.jpg 
  6. ↑ "SPRING TUNING.", Alexandria Gazette 90 (66), 18 March 1889, https://virginiachronicle.com/cgi-bin/virginia?a=d&d=AG18890318.1.3 
  7. ↑ "LEAGUE TO BOYCOTT TRUSTS", New York Times, 16 Jan. 1910, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1910/01/16/105073261.pdf 
  8. ↑ U.S. Congressional Comm. D.C., Subcommittee on Investigation of Food Storage and Prices (1910), "Statement of Mr. Emil L. Scharf of Washington, D.C., President of the National Anti-Food Trust League", Report of Hearings on H.R. 16925: To Regulate the Storage of Food Products in the District of Columbia, Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, p. 92-95, https://books.google.com/books?id=9wgwAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA92 
  9. ↑ "NEW ALLIANCE SPREADS - Society Formed to Modify Saloons - Plans Nation-wide Campaign", Washington Post: 13, 16 Nov. 1914, https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/28950016/ 
  10. ↑ "DR. SCHARF DENOUNCED IN CONGRESS. Representative Johnson, a Knight of Columbus, Says That He Falsely Pretended to Be Able to Deliver the "Catholic Vote."", Catholic Northwest Progress 14 (25), 24 March 1911, https://washingtondigitalnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=CATHNWP19110324.2.51 
  11. ↑ "EXPEL DR. SCHARF", New York Times, 16 Oct. 1911, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1911/10/16/104839523.pdf 
  12. ↑ "Petition of Dr. E. L. Scharf for reinstatement into the Knights of Columbus denied", Sacred Heart Review 47 (10): 3, 24 Feb. 1912, https://newspapers.bc.edu/cgi-bin/imageserver.pl?oid=BOSTONSH19120224-01&getpdf=true 
  13. ↑ https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86069180/1913-04-05/ed-1/seq-1.pdf
  14. ↑ https://books.google.com/books?id=QYtUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA413
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