11/30/2025
What We Have Discovered
The Saint John Mystery Guild proposes a pilot study into a newly recognized heating phenomenon observed in heritage stone and masonry buildings. Our research suggests that under certain conditions:
Ungrounded metallic roofs can accumulate atmospheric charge.
This creates a vertical electrostatic field through the structure.
Porous stone and masonry respond to this field through a process known as electrostriction, subtly increasing their temperature in measurable ways.
'Dielectric heating' is a known physical effect, just never previously applied to architecture, or at macro scale.
We believe historic structures (churches, towers, silos, and pre-1900 masonry buildings) may have unintentionally or deliberately utilized this effect, providing lower-level baseline heating that has not been studied in modern building science.
Scientific Brief: